Does my daughter need a toilet pass?

It is just a guess though, isnt it. Because that does happen because staff in schools often do not have time away from the students and also do not have adequate access to toilets. Ive known staff have to go home to change. This is the issue that needs addressing, not just giving a handful of students a pass. The buildings are no longer fit for purpose. And this has been created through persistent underfunding. And bad design by people who do not work in schools.

Yes, but if the same happened to a girl in my class, I would also come up with a solution for her.

I work in a nice school. You only need a handful of students and they cause thousands of pounds of damage. Doors smashed, toilets smashed, faeces smeared everywhere or put in the soap dispenser, vapes flushed down the toilet, fights, intimidation. We struggle to afford glue sticks and repairing student caused damage is crippling. You also have dozens of students who use the toilet as an excuse to get out of lesson and then disappear for 20 minutes. That's a third of their learning time.

We do things slightly differently in that toilets are locked between lessons and open during. Students with a pass can use the toilets at any time and if they have a real need, their pass is for one of 3 accessible, locked toilets used only by that group (they have a key). Other use in lesson time is via a pass held by the teacher and we log every use. Seems draconian yes but it helped us to know who was causing the damage and who was lesson avoiding. I use my discretion when allowing students to use the toilet during lessons. Ask quietly or politely, nearly always a yes. Whisper "watch this, I'm going for a vape" to your mate and then yell "Miss I need a huge shit" across my classroom? Probably, no.

So she does have a medical condition. That should be enough for a toilet pass.

Oh my god, I did the same! In my case, a whole pile of exercise books had to go in the bin as well!

I've done the puking in a bin bag lining a bin in your stock cupboard whilst suffering morning sickness. Not a chance I'd get near a toilet 🤣

I stayed on the pill to regulate my periods as long as humanly possible to avoid the leak situation

Agree. Presumably you have contact with pastoral support or SEND team about her difficulties? They’ll be the people who can get her a toilet pass, if appropriate. If you ask at the office, you’ll likely be told no.

If you mean have I had to call and wait for emergency cover and then leave my class with a huge bloody stain on the back of my skirt, then yes, that has happened to me a couple of times.

Maybe not but I'd bet my ass if they started their period randomly in class and it was leaking through their clothes so that people could see they'd find a way to leave class and sort themselves out without having to humiliate themselves in front of all their peers. Just a guess.

If it's anxiety caused by busy spaces do they have an accessible toilet?

If they do and it's radar key operated then you can get her one from council with whatever paperwork you have about her anxiety.

If it's not radar key locked then ask the school for access to it due to anxiety.

No student should be going from 7am until 4pm (roughly) with no food or drink due to fear.

There are two cubicles in the women's staff toilets between two floors. You can spend the whole of break time queuing. I had to quit the queue the other day because the bell went and I had to rush upstairs to teach. Not great.

@SuePreemly - this, exactly.

The teachers don't have chance, they have to wait (and queue at break time for the 2 female loos for 50 odd staff)

In my last school which was by every measure a nice one, there was £100,000 of damage caused to the toilets a year.

That's 5 TAs, or two/three teachers salaries spent on dealing with smashed sinks, toilets, doors, tiles etc. We had a kid trying to set one set ON FIRE.

At that point the loos were all locked and the only set left open during lessons now are about 10 feet from the headteacher and deputy headteacher's offices. We are lucky they exist, so kids can be allowed out of lessons to go.

It's a hideous situation which is totally understandable from both sides.

Talk to the senco and get a toilet pass.

I'm not scrimping on school funding?
I think you have the wrong poster.
I'd double school funding in a heartbeat.

Schools need more funding. You cannot say children need to be priorities and then scrimp on school funding. we now are back to having temporary classrooms as has been the lack of longterm funding.

Teachers have separate toilets. They do not use the toilets designated for students. Yes teachers can't just leave the class unless an emergency, but the teachers toilets are not locked.

Not just the locks.
We provided free sanpro, but found that girls unwrapped them, stuck them on the walls and put dozens down the toilets to block them. They block sinks with toilet rolls and empty the paper towels onto the floor.

Do you think teachers can leave their classes to go to the toilet when they feel like it? Some days they wont even get a morning break due to duty, so wont have access to toilets from 8.25 until lunch. Yesterday lunch each time i tried to go to the one toilet (which is also unisex 😩) in our block it was occupied. I didnt get to go until the end of the day.

My DD had a pass for similar reasons and the school were perfectly helpful - although she rarely used it
Her school had insufficient toilets for the numbers of students which was made worse by students also vandalising locks which then meant those toilets weren't used

We don’t gave to ask permission to use them, but we also never go during lessons either. Sometimes teacher provision is patchy too (spoken as a perimenopausal woman with major periods flooding issues).

As for “where is the money going to come from” - if schools don’t have enough money to provide toilet facilities for the people who attend there, they need more funding, plain and simple. Toilet facilities are not a luxury.

I'm very sympathetic to this. In all honesty I generally let children go in lessons if they seem genuine, but it's a huge problem. If I let one go, 8 others want to, then there's confrontation. Vaping, bullying and vandalism are massive problems and schools are huge and there aren't enough staff to supervise. I supervise a girls' toilet at break at you have to get them in and out. A solution would be brilliant.

Yes Harrumph teachers generally have separate toilets at schools, and they don't have to ask permission to use them.

The locking toilets thing is dreadful - my DD had a toilet pass as she's got kidney reflux but just told me she never used it because the toilets are locked and she spends ages finding an open toilet ... teachers should have a key if they lock the loo - fucking insane that it affects children so badly

Bet the teachers don't have to ask permission to use the loo and then get denied.

Ours were locked too and you needed special permission to go during lesson. My friends daughter started her period during class and the teacher wouldn't let her go to the loo, it then leaked through her clothes. She had to secretly text her mum who then phoned the school to get her out of the lesson! Ridiculous. On one hand at school they wax on about them acting like young adults and on the other they treat them like animals.