Water bottles in classrooms are a huge disruption. Constant requests to refill them, go outside to drink from them if it’s a lab/computer room (secondary school). Once one’s out there’s a sea of hands to join them as it’s basically a social.
They spill on the desks, pupils squirt them at each other. Even when not drinking from them they chew the top, roll them around, or if it’s a single use bottle they scrunch empty ones as loudly as possible.
Some pupils will down huge amounts of water (or whatever else is in the bottle) then are horrified when, despite you warning them it’s at the teachers discretion to let them out, they can’t immediately go to the loo.
Often, once in the loo, it’s an age before they return as they’re on their mobile phone.
The trend to act as though they’re in a desert is ridiculous. In secondary school you have breaks, lunch & to & from lessons to drink.
I know this thread is about primary school but this is where it starts. Obviously pupils with health conditions that require it should have constant access to water: I worked with 2 in 6 years. As for using the toilet no young child should be sitting desperate to go, they should be allowed.
Ultimately it’s something they need to learn to regulate, just as we try to help them to regulate their language, behaviour, emotions etc.