Do you let your students go to the toilet during lessons?

[user1494968883]

My year 7 class seem to be regularly requesting the toilet during lessons. Do you let your secondary students out to the toilet?

Noble sorry I didn't see it.
I would ask for their phone and let them go.
Then, if it was the same child repeatedly, I'd ask them privately if they're ok. It might be that actually, they need a break from the stress of the classroom but don't know how to ask.

Those teachers who refuse to let people go to the toilet, do you have students who leave your lessons for music lessons/sports fixtures/rehearsals?

verbena Asking the kid who wants to go for a smoke/wander to hand over their phone won't stop them.

I usually let kids go to the toilet, btw. But I can easily see situations where saying no is reasonable, where you apparently can't.

Oh, meant to say, the other thing I do is if someone else asks while someone is at the toilet then they have to wait for the first to come back. Maybe I'm fortunate but the biggest disruption to me is last minute sports fixtures. Very disruptive to planning. Won't be changing until the current HoD retires!

A girl asked to go 3 times and you didn't let her? Over a 2 hour period. I'm actually in shock.

Oh god yeah, only one at a time, that goes without saying!

DoctorDonnaNoble
Those teachers who refuse to let people go to the toilet, do you have students who leave your lessons for music lessons/sports fixtures/rehearsals?

Normally those going to music lessons, sporting events have a note giving them permission.

But strangely enough I have also had parents of children who go to these things complain that I have marked them harshly.

I remember in secondary we weren't allowed but I NEEDED too as I had a water infection. It came on that day and I couldn't go to doctors till next day. I asked to go four times and was nearly crying. Still no. Then she kept me behind for asking I explained I thought I had a water infection. She wouldn't let me leave and it resulted in me wetting myself at 15. I ran to the toilets when she finally let me go and rang my mum on my mobile. Fuming was an understatement and she sped to the school and gave me a change of clothes and a peice of her mind!!

And said 'from now on my daughter doesn't even have to fucking ask or out her hand up, she will just walk out with my permission!!' they didn't argue with her. My mum was scary and it was awful of them to refuse when I had told her I thought it was a UTI.

Put *

Like I said earlier I never let them go. She asked straight after lunch, She is a year 11 girl, and knows she should go at break times.

Maybe she just didn't realise she needed a wee? Hey happens to us all.

Ineedagoodusername

Well if that is the case, she would not have been about to wee herself

You are all heart. She asked you 3 times in 2 hour period. I pee a lot have done since I was about 11 and I'm almost 40. Sometimes the urge comes on quickly. Sometimes I have just been but need to go again. No way could I last that long or of I did I would be very uncomfortable.

I allow them to go, if they leave their phone with me and make up the time at break or lunch. Nobody is allowed to go if they argue about those 2 conditions (unless they look completely desperate, and then I follow up the arguing when they come back).

I do find that weaker pupils ask more frequently than brighter ones, not quite sure why, possibly they just feel like they need a break.

Msawesomedragon that seems a bit fairer.

If she had come to me before the lesson and asked I would have let her go, however she waited until 5 minutes in so I refused.

But it was 2 hours!!!!

We record all toilet breaks on the online behaviour management system.

It's reviewed by form tutors weekly, & if it's excessive, tutors raise with parents as a concern.

My dd2 (dc attend my school) is revealed on this as a right chancer .

I have HAD WORDS. She knows she's been taking the proverbial.

Really, this is why we have designated breaks. Asking in a lesson should be a rarity. I allow on basis that it's recorded & queried by pastoral staff, but my expectations are that students wait until the independent work bit of lesson.

I've been teaching for nearly 20 years. No one has ever wet themselves through being asked to wait.

I've had no shortage of medical emergencies occur in lessons - fainting, seizures, once sadly a stroke - but no child has ever suffered as a result of being asked to wait 5 minutes for a wee. Being a bit uncomfortable because you should have used the bathroom at break because, duh, that's what break is intended for, is a lesson learned.

A 5 minute wait fair enough. 30 to 40 mins perhaps fair enough. But 2 hours?

2 hours with no break in teaching is a lot.

My problematic feral y8s have recently been Inherited from a struggling ex colleague who wigged out & left the school.

They can use the toilet at break. I'm also fine with students arriving a few minutes late to my lesson because they've been to the loo between previous lesson & mine - there's a toilet en route. This I can live with!

But today 8 students out of 22 requested to leave class to go to the bathroom - this was OK with my predecessor, who wasn't, I'm sorry to say, doing much teaching...

It's not OK with me. I'm not running a drop in centre, I'm teaching.

Thing is my daughter does have a medical issue and her school does have the green medical cards thing in place. But there is no way on this earth my daughter will have one of those because she does not want anyone knowing she has a weak bladder. She is 14 so at a sensitive age to what people think of her. However this means the teacher does not know about it either.

She was just over an hour into a double lesson. I think the teacher could have used a bit of discretion and common sense, but I haven't told my daughter that. I just told her unfortunately its the rules and good job it doesnt happen too often.

I can see that some pupils would take liberties but I don't think effectively punishing all pupils by totally banning toilet breaks is the answer. Surely treat each case as it comes. If someone is persistantly asking to go then it needs addressing. If someone asks once a year, it most likely means they are desperate.

2 hours worrying if blood is going to show through your skirt? I mean a period can come at any time, just after sitting down for a two hours lesson....for a girl with heavy period this could be a hideous experience and she's unlikely to share her trauma with the teacher and maybe not her parents. How humiliating. No harm, really!??

My view has always been if they ask after a break I will tell them to wait 10 min and ask again if they need to, then I let them go. If not I just let them go, singly. I can't concentrate when I need to go, so I don't think it is fair to expect them. However, unless it is a really warm day, I don't allow the constant drinking of water. Bottles in their bags and they have to request to drink, the crunching of plastic bottles drives me bonkers!