To buy sanpro and leave them in the classroom

[HighwayDragon1]

I buy pads (just tesco value ones) and leave them in my classroom, in case any of them are caught short, I buy about one pack a month. The girls know where they are if they need them.

DP thinks it's weird, that the parents should buy them and it's not my responsibility. Now its not, but sometimes you just come on and school must be the worst place for it to happen.

It's not weird is it? How would you feel if your daughters teacher gave her a pad? Is it a line I've crossed? I'm questioning it now.

This is secondary school.

[Kryptonite]

I came onto the thread thinking it was a weird thing to do and should be something the parents do, but some of the subsequent replies have made me change my mind and think it's a lovely thing to provide.
Nothing worse than being caught short, and my mind never computed parents who couldn't be bothered to provide as it wasn't deemed important.

[madwomanbackintheattic]

I run girl guiding units - we always have sanpro available in the first aid kits. I also took an extra pack with me when I took ten girls overseas for 14 days. Within two days of being away, sure enough, one girl confessed she had just come on and not brought any with her (despite being very clear with their kit list!) two others asked me as well at various points. Three girls out of ten within two weeks lol. I'd say it was a requirement that any adult working or volunteering with teen girls would have sanpro available...

[FrancieC23]

I think you are lovely. It imst be comforting for the girls to know they can quietly sort themselves out in an emergency.
Don't think it's weird at all. How

I do recognise as dd is a teacher also that there are a lot of you lovely teachers quietly dipping into your own pockets to support the children in your care. Maybe this is more what your partner is getting at, maybe not the money just the principal. I know my mum cannot get her head around dd spending on extras for her pupils.

[FrancieC23]

Random in above post sorry!

[Bellyrub1980]

I think it's perfectly fine and you are doing your bit to help normalise a perfectly natural bodily function.

[fatowl]

Girlguiding leader and secondary school teacher here.

Absolutely the right thing to do.
At Guide camps and residentials we put a box of pads and different types of tampons in the toilets so girls don''t need to ask. The First Aider will keep an eye on anything running out and replenish.

As a note- one of our Guides (about 13) came to one of the leaders and told her that she didn't think the word Tampon should be in a Girlguiding publication (I think it is on a sample camp kit list) - that stuck me as really sad that even now girls feel it should be hidden.

Our school has them available but girls have to ask, which I don't think is ideal. OP you've prompted me to get some to keep in my drawer in case I ever find a girl in a bind.

[MidniteScribbler]

Can I just add here that our school doesn't provide tissues, hand sanitiser, sanpro or any other consumables like that (hair ties!). They come out of my own pocket. Any parent who thinks to throw a one in their trolley a couple of times a year it is always gratefully received.

[RB68]

drunk conversation with a much younger girl - her father was a drug addict (still is), single parent, she matter of factly told us that she used to love it when she went to peoples houses (friends) and there was a basket in the bathroom - and she used to steal tampons etc. She never had cash till she was old enough to work (and even then he would steal off her to hit) and then it was spent on food first.

It made me incredibly sad that in this day and age a young girl 12 to 14 was put in this position. Utter neglect. It is very kind of you and a form of charity and caring that is sadly missing in this world alot of the time.

[Wagglebees]

It's a brilliant and very thoughtful thing to do. For all the reasons already given. You're the kind of teacher that is always remembered.

[DramaQueenofHighCs]

It's great! I'm a TA and put SENCO has a supply in her room and we also have a small supply in our TA room for when her room is not accessible. It can really mean a lot to the students to know these things are avaliable! (We are also other end of school from first aid etc so quite handy in that respect.)
I also know many other teachers have a few 'in stock' just in case too!

[Wagglebees]

I read the thread more thoroughly and I'm really choked up by some of the replies from posters who had to make do with tissues and had no help from parents. No-one should have to deal with that let alone a child at a very confusing and vulnerable time in their lives.

to all of you who went through that. x

[Hulababy]

Dds primary had them available in the office which the staff new about and would help girls out if they needed them.

Dd tells me that they are also available via her school nurse.

If not available in those areas then it's good that you, as the teacher, is helping the girls out.

[VeganCow]

you are being kind. Don't leave them in the toilet! keep doing what you're doing - I wish teachers at my school had done this, would have saved many an embarrassment for us.

[liquidrevolution]

Its lovely of you to do this. I wish you were my teacher when I was at school. I was made to store mine in my bag and we weren't allowed to have our bags in the playground at breaks so I had to ask permission to get my bag and then permission to take it back after. There was no disposal facilities for used towels and the boys and girls loos were only loosely separated. I also had to change for PE in the classroom with the boys and I wore a bra for my whole final year. I was the only girl with bra and periods in the whole school so the teasing and comments were horrible. The nurse had towels in her room which was locked and she could never be found and they were giant maternity type pads which could be seen as I was only tiny

For this reason alone I hated school and PE. It took me years to get over my embarrassment and shyness because of this.

[WelliesAndPyjamas]

Lovely thing to do, keep doing it. It's a tricky and embarassing time in a girl's life, and sometimes parents are the last place to go to ask about this sort of thing! I remember it well. I am a long way off for my dd but hope that the clear availability of sanitary protection from an early age, i.e. no hiding away or being embarrassed of it in the home, will make it something normal and accessible. I certainly am conscious of making sure my sons don't think it is anything weird!

[Myredcardigan]

liquid
I wish I could say that doesn't happen these days but unfortunately some Y5/6 teachers I have come across view simply refuse to see this through the eyes of a shy embarrassed young girl.
I was involved in an initiative where, because I'd had a glowing Ofsted report I was asked to visit a few other schools, observe certain teachers and discuss where I thought they were going wrong. Anyway, most were perfectly good teachers, one was excellent and I pinched (with permission) the lesson she used to use myself. A couple had just given up and now hated the job but one... She was awful; no interest in the children, looked down on them due to where they lived, had already decided they'd amount to nothing and (relevant bit coming up) seemed to take pleasure in humiliating them. Forced these poor Y6 children to change together, commented on their appearance etc. it was hideous and made me ashamed that she was a teacher. Her actual lesson content wasn't that bad but her arrogant attitude to those children still makes me shudder. The irony was that I mentioned it in the confidential meeting with the HT and their SIO afterwards and they weren't really interested in anything other than the quality of her lesson plans. I hope she's long since retired.

Ofsted take note: imvho, children learn better under an incompetent kind teacher than they ever will under an expect cruel one.

[Myredcardigan]

expert

[tickory2]

Someone mentioned above about all the bits and pieces teachers purchase out of their own money for their classrooms. I remember when I was training, one of the lecturers said that buying our own ohp pens for example and other consumables etc was par for the course in teaching.
There should be money available in school budgets for teachers to be able to have consumables like this in their classroom.
I remember the embarrassment of even telling my mum I needed more and hated it when she sent me down the chemists to get my own 'Kotex Sylphs'. I don't know why she didn't just buy them with the weekly shop. But it was definitely not discussed much back then (late 70s). I remember coming on and not having anything and having to stuff my knickers with cotton wool and toilet paper!
Neither did I take much note of dates and would forget that I might be due on, so I would have been one of those girl guides who didn't think to pack any!

[LuluJakey1]

Sanpro, hair bobbles, pens, pencils, rulers, paper hankies, wet wipes, carrier bags, notebooks, dinner money, teaching resources. Teachers spend a fortune of their own money.

DH took a trip to France and spent £70+ of our money on prizes for a presentation evening at the end so every child got something to say what they had done well. They were little things but the school would not pay.

[Andro]

Caring thing to do and not crossing a line (unless it's the line to lovely teacher status). Matron and house mistress's used to keep easily accessible spares at school, as well as spares in the toilets (the ones you used during school time, not in the boarding area). Being a boarding school though, lots of girls had their first periods there - matron was very good at normalising basic bodily functions!

[ExitPursuedByABear]

Yay. A unanimous thread.

I think you sound like a lovely person.