Heat-free for upper grades: Lower Saxony reacts to extreme heat!

Heat-free for upper grades: Lower Saxony reacts to extreme heat!

In Lower Saxony, school education is now made more flexible in extreme temperatures. This was announced by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Culture on June 30, 2025. In order to take into account the increasing frequency of heat waves in the summer, it was decided that upper secondary schools and vocational schools can now also grant heat-free periods. Previously, this was only possible for primary schools and lower secondary schools. From now on, the decision to grant heat-free time lies in the hands of school management, who must take local conditions into account in order to ensure the physical well-being of their students and teachers. “The health of everyone involved has the highest priority,” emphasizes Education Minister Julia Willie Hamburg (Greens) in her statement on the new regulations.

It is important to know that there are no fixed minimum or maximum temperatures. Instead, school management decides whether the temperatures in the classrooms are still appropriate for normal lessons. This means more room for maneuver for schools suffering from rising temperatures. The advance decree was passed on to schools on June 27, 2025, so that the new regulations can come into force immediately. Even if no specific temperature limit is specified, schools must first take measures to cool down their rooms before heat-free is considered, reports oskurier.de.

Regulations for vocational schools and distance learning

The new regulations in Lower Saxony also give vocational schools the opportunity to grant heat-free holidays. However, for these schools there will first be a hearing to discuss the best course of action. Public vocational schools are already allowed to apply the new regulations voluntarily, so that they can react quickly to the extreme weather conditions. In courses that lead to a vocational qualification, students have the opportunity to continue lessons in high heat as distance learning or self-organized learning, as rpi-loccum.de reports.

In several schools, such as the “Gymnasium in der Wüste” in Osnabrück and the Viktoria-Luise-Gymnasium in Hameln, the school management has already reacted. On Monday, classes were canceled after the sixth hour and on Tuesday even after the fourth hour due to the high temperatures. Emergency care has been set up to simultaneously meet the needs of the students. These first steps show that the schools are already reacting to the new regulations and that the students are being supported in this quiet need, as ndr.de reports.

The Lower Saxony State Student Council welcomes the inclusion of the upper grades in the heat-free regulation. Many students had previously called for a revision of the existing heat-free concept, as lessons often continued in high temperatures in the upper grades. However, critics point out that heat protection is still inadequate in many cities; Osnabrück is planning further measures to better protect against heat.

Apart from the new regulations, it will be exciting to see how schools in Lower Saxony deal with the heat in the summer and what measures are taken to ensure the well-being of the students.