To expect my 11 year old to be able to use the toilet during the school day?

[bendy75]

Is this the norm? My 11 year old started in at secondary school last month and has had two warnings (or stage 2 - Low level disruptions) for asking to use the toilet.

I told him to try and go at break times but he tells me they are locked, confirmed today by staff when I asked, children who have a medical need can apply for a toilet pass but he does not, so has to try and go from 8.00 am until returning home around 3.00pm without using the toilet.

AIBU to be shocked by this?

It’s unreasonable of the school to expect anyone not to use the toilet between 08.00 and 15.00. In addition, if that rule does not also apply to staff, it’s discriminatory.

pretty sure it’s a human right to be able to go to the toilet when you want, within reason….not every 15 minutes, but definitely not every 7 hours.

Post it all over social media, raise it with the education director in your city…make them change that discriminatory decision

@NotQuiteHere you do realise that teachers HAVE been protesting ie striking? The strikes aren't just about pay, they are about years of chronic underfunding of which the toilet situation is just 1 symptom.
But what happens when they strike? The Daily Fail + Tories etc whip up anti-teacher rhetoric and they get abused for sabotaging kids' education!! I really hope you've never criticised teachers striking seeing as this is your attitude.
Teachers are trying to draw the public's attention to what has been going on in schools for over a decade but seemingly it all falls on dead wars until you bring toilets into the equation!

You are right, there is no point of blaming teachers, but many of them refuse to admit that locked toilets are unacceptable. It is difficult to stand for the common cause together with teachers when they set themselves against children and parents.

Part of the problem is that posters see teachers saying this is why its happens i.e answering the question and think that teachers are supporting (in this case) locking toilets.
Most teachers do not want to have toilets locked and none that I know of want to have to do a duty outside of the toilets.
Very few are so tyrannical enough to not let those that need to go to the toilets not go.

There have been plenty of "children should control their bladders" comments from teachers on these threads.

I would be very surprised if this is the case, this sounds like another school bashing comment that has been hyped up out of all proportion. They will be allowed to use the toilets at breaktime when staff are around to supervise. There are many reasons for this and mainly the safety of your child. Children should be encouraged at secondary school to use the toilets at breaktime so that their learning (and others) is also not interrupted. There will of course be pupils with medical needs that will need a pass in lesson time, but they are few and far between. Imagine just one pupil going to the toilet from every class in a secondary school, that is probably over 80 pupils wandering around the school at any one time. They often meet up to waste time/vape/disrupt other classrooms , anything to avoid work. Sadly this causes issues for those pupils who genuinely need to go to the toilet. If anything these threads should be calling out those parents and children who force the need for these types of rules to be there in place in the first place.

Sounds totally inhumane to me!!!

Indeed.

Many newer schools are built with insufficient toilets. Not enough staff toilets either.

Because the secondary schools have probably over 20 times the number of pupils if not more and they collect together and misbehave in the toilets unlike most primary school children.

I remember DS in his first year at secondary school not even knowing where some of the toilets were. We asked a friend with a much older son. I don't know, he said. They're terrible. I never go. Until that moment, she had no idea that he had spent three or four school years holding it in. I think school toilets are, and often have been, sites of bullying, and general nastiness. But not even allowing kids to use them without asking for a key is a bridge too far. I'd be reading the riot act.

Something about this isn't right I mean what sort of " school" doesn't allow students to use their toilet facilities !!! If I were you I'd definitely push to take this to formal complaint level ASAP. Shocking poor school policies , and I'd be interested to confirm why they lock the toilets during break and lunchtimes !!! Shocking and definitely following !

@twelvexii if you read the thread you will see it's been confirmed to the OP by that particular school that the loos are only open at lunchtime. Several hundreds of students can't all use the few loos within that time, specially given that the loos aren't even all opened in good time at lunchtime, so effectively students may as well go to school aware that they likely won't be able to use them. That's the reality in this school.

Mass resignations might be an idea though, to force the government to actually do something about schools and funding and teacher recruitment. When there was nurses strikes in Finland recentlyish, their plan if the strikes didn't work was mass resignations as that would really force the government's hand.

If this is the sad reality , then parents need to start realising that our schools are completely underfunded and in order to keep their children from being harmed this is the lengths schools have had to go to.

@Natsku teachers are already leaving in their droves but the Government don’t seem to care

Toilets locked during lessons is about the only way schools can stop a few malevolent souls putting plugs in the basins, and turning on all the taps, or jamming all the loos with toilet rolls. There are also preorganized vaping/smoking rendezvous arranged by text, and causing mass disruption.
Opening the toilets at break or lunchtime is necessary - but pity the poor coffee-deprived member of staff tasked with policing the toilets then, when most of the cubicles are full, but occupied by those whose feet are deliberately held off the ground. Hell is the Year 10 toilets.

When I was at school, I had to use the loo more than once per day. How is a girl supposed to put in sanpro before she bleeds through her clothes if she starts hr period at 10am but the loos are locked during morning break. Only opening the loos at lunchtime is barbaric and discrimination against girls.

Complain in writing. Get other parents to do the same. And make a complaint to the council's safeguarding people and OFSTED because this is abuse.

If you find they are locked during break times too, I would write to the governors and ask why th school is able to this and it the teachers toilets are also closed for the same length of time? I know kids abuse the open toilet system but there has to be some compromise for them sake of the children wellbeing.

It needs to be a mass organised move - every single union teacher resigning on the same day and highly publicised.

Tell him to put a cork in it! Hahahaha!

Er….you know her son? You know the school? Read the thread!!! Teachers on here saying its the norm. I checked on Google and its also becoming the norm in the USA and parents are furious and demanding change! Basic human rights and I guarantee there is no written rules about locked toilets. Kick up a fuss involve the MP.

I work in a school and toilets are locked during lessons and during transition time (going between classes one after the other). They are opened at breaks for 20 mins and all through lunch time 1hr 10 mins. Students with medical needs and girls who have period issues are allowed to use them if they are excused from class and the teachers are fully aware of individual needs which can vary every week, especially with young girls due to the timing of their periods etc. I’m sure your son is able to use the toilets at break time which is roughly 2 hours into the school day, an hour or so afterwards at dinner and an hour or so after dinner at final break. PE changing rooms also have toilets which are open to use before PE lessons. I’m sure he won’t be made to hold it all day.

Yep, toilets are locked during lessons and some even at break and lunch where I work. Students have to know which ones are open and then they are so busy they can’t get in there. It is wrong but there is so much trouble in school toilets it is unreal. Tell the school you are worried about UTI’s and they will need to give him a toilet pass.

You close the school. Without working loos, it's not fit for use as a school, just as it's not fit for use as a school with the loos locked. Then you sit with popcorn and watch the political fallout.

The govt gets to keep making cuts because you hide the cuts from the public by working around the cuts. Stop working around cuts, let things break in a highly visible way. Don't just close the school, go to the press with why. The alternative is making children ill.