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?

I think that it is inappropriate and I would complain. The girls will stop shitting at school too, and it’s just horrible, why can’t they have their own toilets?

They look lovely but how long will they stay like that? The treatment the kids give the toilets at our school is disgusting and girls are just as bad as boys. I teach year 6 and don't let them go to the toilet as they just mess around vandalise the loos.

The law is being adhered to as the toilet facilities at separate (cubicles). The law allows for communal washing facilities. The open plan nature of the toilets is an anti bullying measure I have seen in many newer schools - solves the problem of toilets being placed where pupils can be cornered by bullies unobserved. I wouldn't have an issue with this.

They look lovely! My dd's toilets are broken and dirty. They are single sex but she doesn't want to use them as they are not clean and the locks are broken. I know which I'd prefer!

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. I was answering the arguments that the toilets would smell, that pupils would be put off using the toilet because other pupils might hear them or that opening directly onto a corridor allows for germs to spread as a PP said. I think people arguing for toilets to be within a separate area block are missing the point that the privacy offered doesn't mean that all girls are happy to use them. From my experience, my daughter and her friends experience and from talking to school staff there are lots of problems with the traditional style toilets meaning that lots of students simply won't use them. Schools have resorted to locking the toilets during lessons because students hide out in them or go in there and vandalise them, create problems etc. By issuing a key they try to keep track of who is in there but this method also causes problems. Architects designing toilets can't just design for females having periods who want separate toilets- they aren't the only students using school toilets. There will be girls having periods who refuse to use the traditional toilets. There will be other students who just want clean toilets free from vandalism and bullying. It's about balancing all needs

I find the lack of theory of mine in some MNers very odd. "I've never had blood soaked hands! those toilets are fine" And you totally ignore the women saying they have had blood on their hands because you didn't?

Since blood soaked hands is a very rare issue it could be easily solved by having one separate toilet with wash basin available for girls or boys who might need more privacy (for a variety of different reasons) . I don't think having a separate girls toilet sink area would solve the issue AT ALL anyway. Despite the prevailing opinion by an angry minority on MN girls can be just as if not more cruel than boys to other girls starting periods (or having tummy trouble or any other sensitive issue).

I don't think it's nice to take the piss out of people who have a genuine issue with this but I think the reason people do it is because unisex toilets is one of those hot topics on MN where people tend to become overly dramatic. If a girl in primary has blood soaked hands a load of other little girls the vast majority of whom won't have started their periods or if they have will probably not have encountered blood soaked hands won't be more understanding than a lot of boys.

It's important to point out that many, if not all schools, now realise the importance of giving students a voice in decisions about their school (I know of at least one school where students are involved in the interviewing of head and SLT) and OFSTED look to see how students are included in school decisions. ERIC, the bowel and bladder charity, recommend involving students in the design of toilets. So, where schools have changed toilets to this style it is pretty certain that students were consulted and their opinions sought. It would be quite easy to ask the relevant school about this process - were students involved, what were their thoughts etc.

OP do you even know of girls are expected to use these toilets when on their period? Our school allows girls to use the staff toilets in that situation as there's a sanitary bin there - I don't know if this is actually ok though to have adults sharing with children - but that is what they do! There's only one cubicle in that particular staff loo so maybe that's why. OP your posts read as quite over-dramatic, do you have hang ups about periods?

According to this, 91% of girls worry about going to school when having their periods. 35,000 girls miss school because of it. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/girls-period-bullying-shaming-yougov-research-bodyform-school-a8552926.html

Girls who start their periods in primary are generally allowed to use the teachers' toilets imo. They certainly should be, if there are no sanitary bins in the children's ones

I'm mo d concerned about children getting locked in with full length doors... seriously my ds school toilets are from, many children refuse to use them and hold it all day or don't drink enough during the schools day. The toilets you show are clean , maintained and offer privacy. Nothing to get worked up about.

We didn't have separate sex toilets until Juniors. Infants shared washroom but with separate cubicles (with gaps in).

Can I just say how the hell have we got to a place where we don’t just have girls toilets and boys toilets that are seperate and enclosed?? The system was fine and did not need fixing. If byllying is an issue the school should deal with it through discipline and education and involving parents. It’s a nonsense that we need to restructure every little thing because ooooohhh bullies!! Children who bully should be delt with and told they have to behave like the whole entire rest of the school population. Girls and boys need separationfor reasons of dignity that’s why we have it. I would not accept that in primary and would not accept it in secondary, college uni or employment. It’s absolutely nonsense and a waste of money.

No-one is ignoring women’s experiences. They are questioning the exaggerated use of language from the op. No-one needs to head to the sink with soaked hands of any description. Blood stained may have been accurate for some.
I still maintain if heavily blood stained hands are an issue then hand wipes are as essential in your kit as pads. Or are children not going to be embarrassed about washing their menstrual blood down communal sinks if it’s only other girls there? Even other girls they don’t get on with or who are bullies?

If only bullying were such an easy thing to stamp out. Even in the strictest of schools bullying is still an issue.

And it doesn't stop because you remove a "venue"

It just moves it on somewhere else.

And besides with those doors you just above the kid in the cubicle instead..problem.solved

Meanwhile by the bike racks, behind the tree by the care takes a house, the gap in the hedge, store cupboards.etc

Meanwhile by the bike racks, behind the tree by the care takes a house, the gap in the hedge, store cupboards.etc

This is true. But these areas can be covered by CCTV, can be monitored by staff, store cupboard can be locked. You can't put CCTV in the toilets or keep them locked.

No re designing toilets aren't a magic bullet. But many students have been involved in the design of them and like them. It would be interesting to hear more from them on a thread like this to understand their thoughts.

Actually many are changed without consultation. Take that teen girl who campaigned to get the single sex toilets back in her school that made the papers.

And how many at ages 4-11 woukd really u understand what they were agreeing to. A 4 year old won't know about periods or sexual assult well hopefully not any way.

I think the issue here is that schools need accessible toilets for children who need private facilities. Washing ‘blood soaked hands’ in the communal sinks is going to be embarrassing even if only other girls are there. As are many other issues kids may be facing such incontinence, IBS etc.

I can tell you that these are accessible by the whole school because they are right next to the playgrounds.
Also they are right next door to kids age 7 to 9.

I doubt that many have started their periods at year 5. The girls in my year 6 class who have started their period are allowed to use the female staff toilets at break and lunch, And if anything I find boys are more understanding.

And how does that work 're safeguarding. Cos teachers alone in the loo with a student wouldn't be allowed woukd it?