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 did not enter the toilets, I took the pictures from well outside, in the corridor. Literally no privacy.

I get what you're saying, OP. It's odd, the flack you're receiving, as pp observed.

It's asking for trouble with girls having to use the staff loos surely ? Teachers arebt meant to be alone with a child in a toilet are they?

Fucking ridiculous

I hate toilet cubicles with sinks inside. You always have to hope that the person before you really did wash their hands before touching and opening the lock. I think the design of these toilets looks pretty good in terms of hand hygiene (and bullying, as others have pointed out).

There are a lot of people projecting their own experiences as a child/adult on to the children using these facilities. Maybe I'm being naive, but perhaps girls used to standing next to a boy and washing their hands, because it's their norm, aren't any more embarrassed that the crinkle sound of a sanitary pad being unwrapped might be heard by a boy in the cubicle next to them than a girl? I seem to remember trying pretty hard not to rustle in my girls' school toilets....And maybe boys used to sharing a sink with a girl aren't as shocked by hearing it?

Changing facilities for 2 form entry: we have two form entry but they don’t have PE at the same time! Girls are sent to the peg area outside the classroom - which has a corridor, the nursery, their classroom AND the staff room coming off it!

worra many when they have been built especially like these have. Have you seen how much space is between the cubicles and the sinks

My concern would not be so much about periods but having a poo - mortifying for both boys and girls - I can foresee a lot of constipated kids and tummy troubles because they are just too embarrassed to go at school and save it all day This is also horrible though even in single sex toilets where the cubicles or doors aren't floor to ceiling. At my secondary school we had single sex toilets but I wouldn't use them at all because older girls would throw things under the walls/doors or stand on the toilet next door and look over the top of the cubicle. Individual cubicles, even if unisex, would be much better than that and I still hate using a public toilet without floor to ceiling walks even if they are women only.

No, to meet the standards, the cubicles should contain both the toilet and the basin. These toilets do not meet the School Standards (and are therefore illegal)

I've used very small cubicles that have both sink and dryer.

It's great being able to reach the sink when you are sitting on the loo!

Could you imagine if a child hadn’t shut the toilet door properly and you caught them pulling their underwear up, they could’ve been really traumatised a stranger had photographed them naked! The OP took these from the corridor....so if the door hadn't been closed properly, any passersby would have seen the poor kid struggling in the loos

It's asking for trouble with girls having to use the staff loos surely ? Teachers arebt meant to be alone with a child in a toilet are they?. Yes, what if a member of staff goes to the loo and there is a child there alone?

I'm really starting to feel abnormal now because I always get blood on my finger after putting a tampon in, it dries quite quickly and you can't really wipe it off with tissue- in the same way if you catch a nose bleed in your hand it will be stained red until you wash it? So I get what Op is meaning, that would be embarrassing if boys at that silly age clocked it. BUT more to the point I am actually quite shocked that mixed sex and open planned toilets are the norm in high schools now? If my work did this I'd kick up an absolute fuck. I have such a thing about other people "hearing" my toileting. Can you imagine fumbling about with wrappers and coming out the toilet to see Jonny the school bully standing outside eager to tell his mates that Thomlins "got the painters in". Being a teenager on your periods was horrible, I remember a guy noticed towels in my friends bag and I learned about 100 different ways of saying "Beths on her jams" that week. God I am shuddering at the thought. Sorry for lack of paras my phone won't let me!

It’s still exceptionally strange behaviour to be photographing the toilets op. Our school doesn’t permit you to take photos anywhere on the premises.

Shift those sinks about at least 3 foot forward - problem solved

Jesus nellying Christ

For those questioning the ages in the report, I believe the youngest offender was 10 in Luton, however as children under 10 can't be charged, figures aren't always clear. The NASWUT report linked in the formal report details the youngest victim of a sexual offence was 5 (see point 11 of attached). One of the key issues identified in the report is the normalisation of assualt (second screenshot), which considering most on this thread are more focused on ripping the post apart for being alarmist, rather than put the interests of young children ahead of having their sport is very telling.

Thinking yes anyone with shy bladder syndrome is completely stuffed although hopefully children of that age won't have the condition.

Maybe I'm being naive, but perhaps girls used to standing next to a boy and washing their hands, because it's their norm, aren't any more embarrassed that the crinkle sound of a sanitary pad being unwrapped might be heard by a boy in the cubicle next to them than a girl? I seem to remember trying pretty hard not to rustle in my girls' school toilets....And maybe boys used to sharing a sink with a girl aren't as shocked by hearing it?. With the best will in the world, boys don't ever have periods and so most just don't have that understanding of what it is like to deal with it. There is not much can be done about that, apart from of course ensure that girls have privacy for these things.

Swordtoflamethrower your post of 22:16 is spot on. I'm astonished how little empathy many people are showing for very young girls struggling with the onset of bleeding.

I very much doubt that boys would be as interested as people think. When I was at high school girls were bullied almost exclusively by other girls.

This looks remarkably like my workplace toilets - unisex cubicles though. That’s in a university and for staff and students.

I'm sure the 37 percent of girls sexually harassed at school would disagree porkthe boys would be extremely interested

Literally no privacy. Other than from the lockable doors on the cubicles which reach pretty much to ground level, you mean?

I hate toilet cubicles with sinks inside. You always have to hope that the person before you really did wash their hands before touching and opening the lock. what? In a normal cubicle without a sink, they definitely haven’t washed their hands before touching the lock!