School toilets

[Sweetheart1990]

School toilets!
Son text me to say he had walked out of lesson after being refused permission to go to the toilet, he had finished all his work. I have always told him to do this if he is desperate but he never actually has before.
He has been put in isolation.
I'm angry as I really believe that students should be allowed to go when they need to and he had completed all tasks so was just say in the classroom anyway.
What does everyone else think?

I know, I just don't understand peoples reaction to this, it's as if a natural bodily function is frowned upon.

Again, people are not robots! Sometimes it just happens with very little notice. Maybe not for you, but it does for others. A poster up thread wet herself in year 7, do you think she chose to do that? Come on now. We should be giving children a bit of grace.

So what would you do? Soil yourself.

Sometimes when you need to go, you need to go. I soiled myself in a shop in central london and had to stay in a hotel as I couldn't travel home like that.

@Auroragirl

Perhaps he needed to poo and didn't need to at break time.

Not a chance they employ someone to monitor hallway and outside toilets

This. The teacher can't walk out of class to go to the toilet either.

I went to a school that allowed children to go to the toilet, so to me this seems bizarre to me that an adult would control a child this way, disgusting.

Yes they do that at the start of the lesson and then when a kid needs reporting as done something the teacher must stop and take time to report it.

It takes time.

The they CPOMS it which is a written record....

So yes they do need a teacher to report it!

I already know the routine which requires a teacher to report it!

Thanks for confirming what I had said! 😜

“Rang” not “ring” … best to remain in lessons while at school, or you might miss important information!

Good for him and for you for telling him to do this and not being angry at him just because the school thinks it's ok. When I was in my 1st year of high school, it was my last lesson of the day (so already had a lesson after lunch and you weren't allowed to nip in to the toilet whilst walking to your next class). The teacher wouldn't let me leave to use the toilet, I was begging him and he kept saying no. I couldn't even sit down I was that desperate, I even ended up crying. It wasn't until about 15 minutes before the end of the lesson/ day that he let me go after the entire class started shouting to let me go. My mum phoned the school when I told her to complain. Not sure what the outcome was as I never needed to ask him again because I wasn't one for needing very often!

This is unlikely … and OP has not suggested he has any medical needs.
You cant give one grace and not the others … have all 30 kids in and out, the lessons are only an hour!!

No you can't go to the toilet has been a source of pupil/teacher agg since I was at school in the seventies.

At the end of the day if you've got to go you've got to go and if you don't you'll wet yourself. It's an old age thing, not present in my teens, but I now have urgency. Particularly affects me driving. I'm OK sat at the wheel but as soon as I stand up I've maybe five minutes or it's leak time.

I should make the decision on such things not them
This attitude by so many parents is the reason why behaviour in schools is so dire. Parents who think they know better and have no respect for the school rules. Parents who tell their children to ignore the rules and then phone the school 3 times and drive down there when they do.

Imagine if every child that felt they wanted the toilet in lesson time just walked out?! There would be more roaming the corridors and being in the toilet then in the classroom. I’m pretty sure if something happened to your child in that time, you’d be straight down the school complaining about it.

Its no wonder there’s a recruitment crisis in teaching.

Isn’t he in senior school? Sounds like your son is playing you for a bit of a fool here … and you’re running about facilitating it.

If you’re so against your son following school rules perhaps you could volunteer to go and sit in the toilets each day. This would stop the meet ups and vandalism that happen and the reason that schools have had to stop pupils using the toilets during lesson times.

Good idea, doesn’t sound like she’s has anything much else to do!

And to add, I have a child who drinks loads and needs the toilets loads. I chose a secondary school where they are allowed to go in lesson time (but not in the first 10 mins or the last 10 mins). The schools that banned it, I didn’t apply to.

You chose the school that bans it, you admit you knew the rules before you accepted the place. And yet you still advise your child to ignore them. Unbelievable!!

I think that kids have very little discipline these days and do what they want. However I draw a line on the toilet issue. I think everyone should be allowed to go when they need to.
Imagine if a workplace restricted toilet use.
I have a tiny bladder and don't have a gallbladder, I have to use the toilet far more than an average person (if you know you know). I cannot imagine someone barred me from using the toilet. And yes I'm a responsible adult etc but still...
When I was at school we were allowed to go when we needed and did we take the piss (no pun intended) sometimes? Yes. But 99% we really really really had to use the toilet. It was not that often that anyone had to go during the lesson anyway, if you were able to wait you did.

Typo

These replies make me wonder if the posters actually have a child in secondary school. Even teachers are in the media about schools, saying they are not fit for purpose, that schools are now failing children.

My children's secondary school are the same. They will not allow children to go to the toilet during lessons. They also have specific toilets to use at break times only. That may mean that the toilet is in a different building so getting there, waiting to use 6 toilets between 60 children and getting back takes up more than their break time.

I have also told my children the same after a very similar situation to you, however my son phoned me during class where the teacher could hear him and told me that they were refusing to let him go and he was going to have an accident. He unfortunately didn't make it to the toilet in time.

This is a school where blazers must be worn regardless of heat, therefore children are drinking more and needing to use the toilet more. Emails are sent home regarding hydration and children should be taking water bottles to school to ensure they are hydrated and helping their brain to concentrate. However they're not allowed to use the toilets, but must drink plenty.

As for adults and work. If I need the toilet, I excuse myself and go! Another adult, regardless of what the meeting was about etc, would not get pissed off because a co worker needed a wee.

Ridiculous, clueless replies. You are not being unreasonable.

The problem is once one goes plenty of others also want to go. Plenty of children unfortunately use going to the toilet as a way of getting out of class. That being said it is a basic human right. However as someone who has worked in schools, teachers have to wait, they don't always get a break either.
In my children's high school if they need the toilet they have to wait for a member of staff on duty to come and collect them and escort them to the toilet. They had terrible trouble with toilets being vandalised and then being out of use.
There isn't an easy answer in short because yes everyone should be able to go when they need to but how are you meant to teach a lesson when half the class is back and forth.

No, I haven’t. And I have IBS. I stand by what I posted, and most people seem to agree with me.

Lots of posters who work in offices on here - you absolutely do have to wait if you're till staff in a shop, on a production line, in some call centres.

Good for him !
You will get lots of people defending the school about this but i am completely on your kids side .
I made it clear to my 3 that if they needed the toilet and were refused permission that they were to politely tell the teacher that they were going to the toilet and to leave the room and go.
It was never needed but they knew they had our support.
I know why school does it but frankly i don't care, the lack of control a school has over troublesome kids isn't my problem to solve.
It is a basic human right to use a toilet , the adults working in a school can use it as and when they need to .
Sometimes we need to go despite going before we got there etc regardless of 'the rules' .

This is a safeguarding issue. Whilst at school, teachers are legally responsible for your child, so they need to know where they are. Schools do not have the resources to staff the toilets throughout the day in lesson times and therefore students should be in class where they are supervised.

Having worked in schools in the past, some students abuse going to the toilets in lesson time, students have been meeting up with friends from other classes, students have been causing damage which can cost thousands of pounds, and in extreme cases students have been assaulted. Obviously this is not all students but schools do not have the time nor resources to facilitate the level of staffing to deal with this. Where students have a medical need, most schools would facilitate a pass so they could use the toilet in lesson time so please don’t think schools are doing this to be petty.