AIBU to think that my secondary age child at Harris Academy should not have to be “accompanied” to the toilet by a member of staff.

[Beetrootmashup]

The policy at Harris Beckenham is that any child who wishes to use the toilet/bathroom for any reason, sickness, genuine need i.e. caught out, ( it happens to the best of us adults even.) period management the runs. Must be accompanied to the loo by the assistant principle of their house. The principle must be contacted by the teacher, I don’t know how, taken out of lessons (they teach.) make their way to the class room, before your child has time to be sick/wet themselves/bleed through.
I think it’s crazy. I thought we were teaching children to be independent self sufficient members of society but we can’t trust them to trot of to the bathroom sort themselves out and get back to class in good time? Does your Harris academy have this crazy rule?
So the vote is ;
Should Harris academy Schools insist that any child who needs the toilet or bathroom at any time during a lesson must be accompanied to the bathroom by the assistant principle. Yes or No?

Ooh also that member of staff may be the opposite sex, and the toilets at our school open into a communal area onto a corridor. No privacy what so ever.

Disability discrimination. Some conditions can't wait that long.

Bloody hell! That's shit. No pun intended. Why all the kerfuffle!

It’s just bonkers I’ve never heard the like.

I don’t understand your voting system so I haven’t voted, but no, I would have hated this and I could not accept it for my DC. For older girls in particular, this is a horrible policy.

Toilets opening into the corridor is a thing at secondary though, I think, to prevent bullying/Shilly-shallying.

Wow that’s insane!

That's ridiculous and overly controlling.

I doubt the staff want to accompany teenagers to the toilet all day either, or the constant interruptions to their working day.

What is the reason behind the new policy? Presumably a big problem with kids lying about needing the toilet so that they can do other things?

Reality is, some children pretend they need the toilet in virtually every lesson. Some children arrange to meet their friends in toilets to smoke, deal drugs, fight, have sex. I know a child who was seriously assaulted between lessons when they went to the toilet, another child messaged a friend from class to say “He’s gone to the toilet” and which block, and that child then went to the toilet and battered him.

They are safeguarding the children in their care. It’s not ideal, but we don’t live in an ideal world.

I’ve just had a google and one of the secondary’s near me (as well as the primary around the corner) is a Harris academy, my best friends kids go there and no they don’t have to be accompanied to the toilet every time they need to go.

So just the one your child is at.

Vote with your feet and find a new school for your kids, one that doesn't have a policy you disagree with.

What is their justification for this?

It doesn't sound like a very sustainable one

I'd be interested to know if they've had any specific problems with kids taking toilet breaks (taking too long/messing about/not coming back/vandalism/bullying/going for a fag....)
If there's been an issue and this has been put in place to discourage or stop it - then annoying, possibly overkill but I can see where it came from.

If there's never been an issue to date and this is out of the blue, then unreasonable.

Oh wait, the schools came up on the google search list, but don’t think they actually are. Sorry for the confusion.

Toilets opening into the corridor is a thing at secondary though, I think, to prevent bullying/Shilly-shallying.

And my child will not be (and does not) going to those schools.

OP of course that's ridiculous. But you'll soon get teachers saying our children are not trustworthy. Yet I'm expected to trust adults I do not know to educate and care for my child.

Why is this is place?

It doesn’t sound feasible to me long term but I understand why some schools may feel they need to resort to it. We have had children smoking, blocking toilets, using toilet excuse to simply congregate with friends etc. We now have a staff Member placed outside the toilets!

I think the problem is we should be able to trust secondary age kids to trot off and sort themselves out in good tune but can’t always.

If the policy isn’t the same in all Harris schools then it’s possible it was introduced because they were having a lot of problems.

Vote with your feet and find a new school for your kids, one that doesn't have a policy you disagree with.

Yes because schools are like supermarkets

I’ve heard it’s to stop children on their way to and from the toilet disrupting other lessons and also heard it’s safeguarding. But I’m not sure how much of that is actually true or applicable to the safety of every single child at any time in the school who may need the loo. Also it points to a rather grim cohort of indeed it is a genuine safety worry. Which I don’t think I believe btw.

But you'll soon get teachers saying our children are not trustworthy. Yet I'm expected to trust adults I do not know to educate and care for my child.

Woah wait, no. You choose to trust adults you don’t know to educate and care for your child. You don’t have to. You could home educate or privately educate them in whatever context you like.

But when you choose to place your children in the care of adults, you have the right to expect those children to be cared for as well as those adults can manage, and safeguarded in accordance with statute. This is just them doing that.

Is this due to vaping? There is a big issue in schools re vaping in the toilets (have no idea about Harris Academies but except they’re all the same).
Maybe it’s only particular students they keep an eye on?

Just for clarity, this policy does not appear anywhere on the website. It is practice. It has been challenged I believe by other parents but it still stands.

But I’m not sure how much of that is actually true or applicable to the safety of every single child at any time in the school who may need the loo. Also it points to a rather grim cohort of indeed it is a genuine safety worry. Which I don’t think I believe btw.

Of course it isn’t applicable to every single child. But if you have a policy of teachers using their discretion to say certain children can’t use the toilet during lessons and others can, or certain children need to be accompanied and others don’t, you will have calls from parents of unfairness, discrimination, bullying etc. So they use the same policy for everyone.

Most secondary schools don’t let children go to the bathroom during lessons (unless they have a medical need). This policy just seems like an overly complex way of implementing that rule? (Pupils won’t bother asking to go unless they really need to). How would you feel if your child just wasn’t allowed to go to the toilet at all during lessons? (As the rule has been in three out of four of the secondaries I’ve worked in)

@JustDanceAddict I don’t know about vaping. It’s an open room so sense would say you’d never get away with it but who knows? It’s not particular students. If it was that would be a more sensible and measured approach.