Primary school toilets look like this

[SwordToFlamethrower]

My daughter is 9. God forbid she is one of the girls who start their period young. Not sure how girls age 9 to 11 at primary school are meant to manage their first ever periods with no privacy or dignity when they have to wash their blood soaked hands. The toilet area is open plan too, so anyone walking by can see right in. I took these photos on my way to a "meet the teacher" meeting today. I don't know if the school have checked the law on single sex toilets when they implemented this. I don't even know where to begin. I've been asked to leave it because it's not worth having a row with the school, seeing as they're underfunded as it is. AIBU to say "tough!" What should I do?

@zzzzz Completely off topic but I wonder what happens to the soap suds if the grey water is used to flush the toilet? Had a slight disaster here with bubbles in the toilet - who knew how much they could froth up?

Cardiganandcuppa - not looking to give you my approval - so not quite sure where that came from - and I didn’t say it negated your argument, I said it didn’t help your argument, which is different. I can see how it could have come across as mocking in places - and let me reiterate, I have never mocked or anything of the like, I haven’t even commented on that - but I think it was more a case of extreme, and not overly common for 10 year olds (note I did not say never, or even uncommon), examples being used. I agree the wording could’ve been better from some posters. I won’t apologise for calling you out on the aggressive tone - and I am trying very hard to be polite here - because it was unnecessary and you took it to the insulting stage.

I remember well the silent wait for all the other girls to leave the loo so I could sneak out and wash the blood off my hands. No, not dripping everywhere as people seem to think, but once blood is on the hands particularly round the nails there is no amount of dry tissue that will remove it. Remove the wet, yes, no drips, but definitely dried blood from age 9. As others have said, it's the wiping with rubbish 1/2 ply loo roll that gets you, not so much the changing a towel. Although I was so heavy from age 9 onwards I did have to use both tampon and towel and change constantly, I don't know if anyone has been heavy and had to use non-applicator tampons as that's all they could get their hands on, you definitely got messy. I had to buy all my own san-pro right from the start and only had access to a local cornershop. Another issue is bags, people keep mentioning wet wipes etc but at primary school for me the only saving grace was the pegs were right outside the juniors toilets so I could grab it when no one was around and sneak it in. No way I could have done that in a mixed loo. The shame was overwhealming as at that age we had had no education on it yet, my only knowledge came from the 4 or 5 words my said in explanation and whispers and gossip from other uninformed girls. I think many on this thread are putting themselves, their adult, experienced, self in this situation and not seeing it from the point of view of a scared 8 or 9 year old with a rapidly changing body for whom a small drop of blood on clothing or the rustle of changing a pad could lead to so much bullying. And for those suggesting enough blood to end up on hands is a cause for medical concern, not necessarily it could literally be slipped loo roll while wiping or an accidental clot, and at that age you are incredibly dependent in your parents for medical things so even if you realised it was abnormally heavy if you don't have supportive parents, there is no help. There is also no way of knowing you are abnormally heavy without experience and if you are the only child menstruating you have no one to discuss it with and compare. It was only later on I realised how heavy mine were and started to seek help.

(sorry for immense paragraph)

At my children's primary school girls were encouraged to use a self contained toilet which was separate to the the other pupils' toilets (and they have separate sex toilets there). This toilet is the only one with a sanitary bin in it because the toilets are shared between infants and juniors so it's to stop younger children playing around. There weren't that many girls that started. My daughter was the first and that was in yr 6. The set up that they had worked really well.

Wouldn't it make more sense to just use some of that open space to make the cubicles themselves larger and put the basins in there? I have come across this design a few times now here in Oz where there are no sex assigned toilets just closed cubicles with everything in them. I thought it made more sense than having a big shared open space and meant that there was less of a wait.

Has the OP stated what age group these toilets are for? In my school, infants ( reception -year 2) side of school, the toilets where exactly like this. In the juniors side (year 3-year 6) we had separate boys and girls toilets. Girls toilets had sanitary bins in there too. This was 20+ year ago

I don't think they would be suitable for any age group in primary tbh. Yr r and 1 I would worry about the kids locking themselves in. And the older ones well it's not comfortable set up to deal with periods. Would definately result in kids getting utis from holding on all day and as for having to ask the teacher to use there's just to change a bad because no one thought of the girls when designing trendy some toilets well.... But it's only girls I guess. Sooner they realise what a problem they are and stop going to school the better..saves the money on the bins

I’m loving these comments!! 😝. But this toilet is ridiculous. Kids are going to avoid going to pee and it will create a safety issue.

@clary 😂😂😂😂😂 lady Macbeth.

On a serious note I've never had blood soaked hands.

Let me just shock and amaze you all with the medical diagnosis I was given for my very heavy, messy and painful periods... "Heavy Periods". HTH.

Precocious puberty is apparently younger than 8. I think for containment of sound and smell a door to the corridor is needed. Plus germs, i mean who is to say the lunch hall/hall isnt right outside. Diarrhoea is quite common with periods too. It is also incredibly sad that there is so much bullying (especially secondary) that this is necessary.

Ugh I hate mixed sex toilets. I also hate the pink and blue doors FFS fucking stupid backward arse school. If if they are going to have unisex toilets then they need to be floor to ceiling and have basins internal to the cubicle.

I think my slighty heavier period is probably pcos. It's the length that is not annoying though up to 10 days. The only solution seems to be the pill but that can affect your body permanently. Also if you go stdaight to the pill you wouldnt know if they were irregular so even less likely to realise you had pcos. And hence sudden infertility at 30+, when you could have chosen to ttc earlier

So despite all of the women who’ve explained that they experience this and how difficult it is, people are still taking the piss? Wonderful. What a charming bunch. Maybe you should imagine yourself or your daughter actually having to deal with this shit.

Whilst I think the op is being a bit dramatic. The noise from unwrapping a sanitary towel would make it obvious. I have had blood on my hands enough to make washing easier than wiping. But in a public place you have to wipe it off no matter how much there is as you’ve got to touch the handles, flusher and taps. Not ideal but school toilets rarely are, mine had the gaps at the top people would lean over, that made periods stressful!

I would have loved toilets like this as a child, with them not being an enclosed space. We had so much awful bullying that went on in there. I remwber hearing a bullys voice when I was in the loo and hid there for the whole lunch break. They used to hang out in there, it was terrifying.

But the issue of suitable toilets in school isn't just about periods, especially at primary school. All needs have to be taken into consideration. Wrt having a self contained cubicle - I go to a hospital where the toilets in the out patients department. They are self contained in that the toilet and wash basin are in the same room and open straight out onto the main corridor, literally people are sitting directly outside the door. The same at my local health centre. So the issue of lack of privacy or spread of germs, smells etc doesn't seem to be a problem within the health service therefore why is it within schools? I go to my local pub and they have segregated sex toilets but the cubicles are solid floor to ceiling and you cannot hear anything from the other cubicles or from the hand basin area.

If there are sanitary bins in some of the cubicles, this still sounds better than those super loud sanitary disposal units we used to have in the 90s. You know the ones where you had to carry your used Sanpro out to a communal chute next to the sinks, chuck it in then it made a loud noise not dissimilar to a handdryer. That was always worse than the quiet rustle of a sanitary towel wrapper being changed!

I often have blood soaked hands, at the beginning of my period when I'm wiping and then changing a tampon. My period is so unbelievably heavy I have to take medication to ease the amount of blood. So yes, the girl could end up with blood soaked hands.

I agree with you OP. I started a thread on this a while back as this type of layout is in the plans for the new primary school nearby that's just started being built

They are self contained in that the toilet and wash basin are in the same room and open straight out onto the main corridor, literally people are sitting directly outside the door. The same at my local health centre. So the issue of lack of privacy or spread of germs, smells etc doesn't seem to be a problem within the health service therefore why is it within schools? They are individual rooms aren’t they though, like any other room on a corridor (at least in the hospitals I’ve been to). And they have basins inside. And you’re an adult.