School visit, smelly toilets

[myroxybackpack]

DD will have to move school (unavoidable).

I've been to visit two possibilities.

1. fairly uninspiring. Recent inspection not great, particularly for children with additional needs. Everything was fine, just a bit... dull.

2. lovely staff, couldn't do enough to help me (even the receptionist!) I went to visit the P1 class. There was such a lovely atmosphere and very child friendly. DD would have a ball there.

But as I was walking down the corridor in number 2), the toilets stunk. It was really, really unpleasant.

AIBU to be put off?!

What time of day was it?

Half past 2.

in my experience, all school toilets reek by the end of the school day, no matter how good the school is. I wouldn't base my decision on this at all

Yuk but maybe it was a plumbing problem (ie temporary)

That wouldn't bother me then. Think how many children have used them, think how many have missed (especially if it was boys toilets!) there is bound to be a bit of a smell.

If they stink at 9am then I would be less than amused

No wonder so many children don't like going!

(maybe that is the plan? )

Ugh, it was horrible. I did love the school though.

school loos will always smell, just like public loos do

Half past 2 many school toilets will be vile. Children appear to lose the ability to flush anything ever in school. The housekeepers will usually do what they can but 300 kids go to the loo in a day producing who knows how many turds and urine, most of it unflushed.

But I agree at 9am it should be better, I did rule out an otherwise nice school that was very filthy and the classrooms stank of the toilet stench at 9am.

I've worked in 4 schools and the toilets reeked in all of them, it's no reflection on the quality of teaching I can assure you of that.

Another school with wiffy toilets here, otherwise really good.

They've introduced a pre-lunch clean and it has helped a bit.

The germs....

I work in a school where an 'experimental' material for constructing drains was used when the school was built 50 years ago ... and the school has since doubled in size without being able to rebuild the drainage system ...

The experimental material was...less than successful .... and the problem is compounded by the additional 200 children + associated adults...

Fantastic school. Occasionally very whiffy indeed.

I once arrived at our local soft play at 9am on a weekday morning just as it was opening and the staff had arrived 2 minutes before me. we were allowed straight in. DD needed the loo. They were vile. Each of the 3 loos were full of pee and poo which had been sat there since closing time at 4pm the previous afternoon and it stank to high heaven. Not only that but the carpets had not even been vacced and there were half used jugs of squash and sticky puddles on all the tables. It was rank and we never went back.

I teach at an outstanding school - a river runs along side it and exacerbates plumbing probs. Awful toilets, brilliant school!

My school's loos don't stink and they're very close to my room. At a previous school the boys' loos did always stink of pee. I think it might have been a drainage issue but it was a problem for years and ought to have been fixed.

PHANTO that's grim. I have a passionate hatred of soft plays.

The toilets are only one symptom of the shocking state of repair many schools are in, good and bad ones.

The year one and two toilets at DS2&3's school stink. They are as cleaned often. The staff regularly go in flush them and wipe the seats etc but they reek of piss.
None of the other toilets in the school smell so I assume it's something that is unavoidable with those particular ones.

My ds goes to a fantastic oversubscribed school ( his older sister now in secondary got in by appeal so we are part of the problem!) too many kids not enough toilets no money to improve. They are swiffy by afternoon but all the staff are lovely and the school receptionist is the most wonderful woman, magics up lost pe kits, cuddles away minor injuries, is loved by children from y3 to y6. Got more flowers than class teachers on y6 leavers day. If the school you visited as anyone who is as near as marvellous as this woman send your child there. Its people ( including non teaching staff ) that makes schools great not toilets.

*has anyone who is anywhere near as marvellous as this woman

The toilets stink at my dc's school in the afternoon. Great school though so I wouldn't let it put me off.

I work in a school and our toilets absolutely reek. The cleaners are brilliant it's really not them being not cleaned enough it's an old school and the pipes underneath are old. There's nothing that can be done they just reek sometimes.

When I was in primary school the boys' toilets always stank.

The smell might not be misuse, but still worth asking about. It's not a reflection on the quality of teaching, but I'd want to know the reason why.

I'm a teacher, and when checking out a school for DD in the past have always asked, been allowed into the lavatories to check their condition. I looked for damage and misuse by students. Always worth asking if the the lavatories are open during lessons. Damage and closed toilets are signs of poor discipline.

What is the dilemma here? Are you really thinking of not sending your child to a school with "lovely staff" and "lovely atmosphere" where she would "have a ball" because the toilets smell?