No toilets at sports day.. anyone else find this weird?

[Islalouisa92]

Okay so maybe just me but does anyone else find this odd? Little ones sports day coming up, weather forecast says it’s to be HOT. Sports day lasts approx 2.5 hours. Due to the weather I certainly will be drinking lots and assume everyone else will be. A letter has be sent out to say no parents/siblings etc will be allowed access to the school for toilets. Anyone else find this odd? There is NO public toilets within walking distance either and I don’t want to have to keep hopping in the car to drive ten mins to the nearest supermarket every time my 3 year old needs a wee! 🤔 in my history of attending my children’s sports days I have never ever come across this problem 😂

@NavyBerry i assume you would be happy to finance portaloos for your school then? not exactly cheap. or be happy about all school events including parents being cancelled? because that’s the alternatives.

This is ridiculous!.We are all told to drink plenty, and then hold on for 2.5 hours!.Impossible for small children .As someone else said, take along a potty .I see there are safeguarding issues here. But many places seem to have a reduced number of toilets as well!

@Dottiedodah

Most people can hold it for 2.5 hours as I say my class do. I am sure they will make exceptions.

Can they though? Even if 'most people' can go 2.5 hours (plus travel there and back?) many people can't and they're basically saying they're not welcome at the event.

Maybe if some people had wild wees (shewees for ladies) then the school might realise how unreasonable they're being.

Disability discrimination? Also possibly discrimination on sex as it is going to have a disproportional impact on women whose pelvic floor has been buggered up by pregnancy/ giving birth to little Jonny/Jane

Our school has completed building work to add an outside door onto a toilet block so that it can be accessed from the playground - the other internal corridor door can be locked. So in theory people can use those toilets and not access the school - this works well for summer fair, bonfire night etc. Except for sports day, when they say kids only - adults and younger siblings have to go to the office and get accompanied to the staff toilets which are in the main building. So you are actually in more contact with children as you have to walk past them to get to the loo! I'm sure there's a reason why the sports day kids don't use more internal toilets and the sports day visitors use the outside ones but I can't see what it is.

Travel potty for small children, so that's a complete non-issue.

For adults, yes, you normally can hold for 3 hours but people get ill, women have periods or are in middle of a miscarriage, so it's not ideal.
Maybe a quiet word about people who have an emergency? Most adults won't need them.

Can see why some schools don’t invite parents to sports day. If they can’t give secure access to toilets they can’t have people just wandering around the building, especially if the children are allowed in.
Imagine the threads on here if someone’s child went to the toilet and there was a random parent in there.

So you are actually in more contact with children as you have to walk past them to get to the loo! I'm sure there's a reason why the sports day kids don't use more internal toilets and the sports day visitors use the outside ones but I can't see what it is.

The outside ones sound quicker and easier to allow the children to run in without the need of adults escorting.
Less parents likely need to use them so easier to escort them in. The escorts would be back and forth like yo-yos with the kids, plus they’d probably need two adults to do it.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen any parent or sibling use the toilets at school when at assembly presentation type things. A couple of hours doesn’t seem very long - the children they’re looking after will be allowed to use the toilets. So it only applies to the general public who are choosing to come along & watch.... I’m not sure on this one

First primary school my DC went to - while they didn't advertise the fact the if you went to reception with a young child or desperate for the loo they'd let you use the toilets. The also put proper seats out and did announcements as to what was happening – there was a leaflet as to race order – and a proper welcome and good bye and they sold refreshments.

Next primary school - no refreshments, no seats you have to sit on the grass or stand and no announcements or welcome or it's over announcements. You also couldn't access the school for the toilets. There were wild wees behind tree everyone was using for shade as it was bloody hot and sunny - I think pg women just coped – though some brought their own chairs.

You couldn't have more of a contrast TBH so I don't think there is a normal as such.

I agree with the comments about disabilities etc - my son has T1 & can need to use the loo a lot when having to drink tonnes. But I do think planning for a woman in the middle of a miscarriage on a 2 hour sports day goes somewhat beyond an anticipatory duty!

Parents aren’t allowed to attend our kids’ sports day

The miscarriage might be a bit exaggerated (true story though) but I've seen many adults using the loos at school, even around a 1 hour assembly. I can't be away from a toilet for more than an hour when I have my periods, and I can't be the only one.

I need to go for a wee every 1-2 hours day and night, and no birth injuries, pregnancy, diabetes or other medical reasons apply. It's just the way I am.

With first school is was big and had loads of staff so they still had several people in reception office.

With second I'm not sure the office was even open during sports day and if it was with just one person there - as they tend to have all the staff out and the parents access from a field gate furthest away from school roped off from children and school buildings.

In previous years our school has allowed people to use the toilets because all the children were doing sports day, now the school is bigger and sports day is split into 3/4 sessions they have decided for safe guarding reasons parents can no longer use the toilets. They discussed it with the ptfa and the ptfa raised money for portaloos. They timed it so the school fair and sports days were all in a row to keep the hire costs low.

I can see it from both sides, it's a pain if you need the loo for medical reasons but I think most schools would make exceptions for that. It's a pain for the school to keep and eye on where everyone is.

BarbaraOfSeville.I am exactly the same myself during the day ,and need the loo 1/2 times per night! Adding extra drinks due to hot weather, and we are going to be in bother!(cant be the only ones can we!?)

The safety of the DCs is paramount. Teachers will be far too busy to escort parents to the loos and wait for them.

Schools shouldn’t allow members of the public (parents) to access the school toilets unless they are staffed due to safeguarding. If they leave the toilets open, unstaffed, anyone could wonder in and the school could have major issues.

It will be the logistics of supervising visitors on site to use the toilet, and discouraging a general free-for-all which would be unmanagable.

The chances are most schools will have some parents that you really wouldn't want unsupervised on a school site.

Odd that they've made no provision at all. At ours, kids (the schoolchildren doing the sports day) had to go in one door and use any of the main school toilets, all visitors had to go in the main door and use the adult toilets next to the office. They just had a staff member loitering by the main door to let you in and out as it's a buzz-through door. We're always asked to use only the adult toilets as visitors for safeguarding reasons.

I can't go 2.5 hours without a wee!

I've never really considered but don't suppose we had access either - school is locked down from the outside. I suspect if you were desperate at our school you could ask at reception to use the visitor loo.

Oh my god! I hate all of this "most people can wait" BS! I have suffered with urge incontinence since I was 17 due to a congenital abnormality and I cannot "just hold it in". I also take blood thinners so when I have my period I'm like bleeding to death for a good few days!

I hate this "kids can't pee during lesson time" too. As another poster said earlier, this kind of thing can cause actual irreversible bladder problems later on in life . My 7 year old DD seems to have inherited my bladder condition and her teacher kept letting her wet herself last year until I phoned up and told her it wasn't on.

If you need a wee you need a wee! It's a basic bodily function!

everyone should complain that is crazy you can need a toilet at a moments notice.