Does my daughter need a toilet pass?

[BeFunnyAmberPlayer]

My daughter who is in year 8 has told me that toilets are locked all day and are only opened at break but they are too busy and she can’t find the time to go. She has stopped eating or drinking at school as she doesn’t want to have to use the toilet but this is really stressing her. She wears 2 pads on her period because she can’t change it at school and I wanted to email the school asking for a toilet pass but she told me I will be denied as she doesn’t have any medical conditions. Do you think she needs one?

the best solution would be to get a group of parents together and apply pressure for better provision.
This. Pressure on the government to have minimum numbers of toilet cubicles, open at break and lunch, per number of pupils.

This locking of toilets is a recent thing, and what use is a toilet pass if the toilets are locked. Most children, knowing the situation, would wait until they were desperate before they asked to go, then would be unable to wait for someone to be found who could unlock the toilet. Would all those parents and teachers condoning this policy feel the same if their child came home having had an accident?

This is just one more reason why I am so pleased my children have left school. Imagine a workplace where the toilets are locked all day, except for half an hour at lunch and 15 minutes in the morning.

Please ask for a toilet pass. I’m a teacher and last year one of my duties was “Year 7 toilets”. In a break time of 15 minutes, there were 240 Year 7’s and only 5 toilets, so probably a max of 15 kids got to use them.
Even with schools with more the queues are massive because kids use the toilet as an excuse to check their phone so are not quick. Also many schools have removed urinals so all buys use cubical as which again slows thins
gs up.
Our school doesn’t have enough toilets so kids can go in lessons which is a nightmare as a teacher as there is a constant stream of kids in and out of the lesson.

This is just one more reason why I am so pleased my children have left school. Imagine a workplace where the toilets are locked all day, except for half an hour at lunch and 15 minutes in the morning.

You mean like teachers’ workplaces?

Can you start to address this? Is it just emerging now?

Request a toilet pass because it sounds like anxiety. I have about 3-4 in each class with a pass. Sometimes just having it reduces anxiety!

Where is the money going to come from to build more toilets? Too much money is already spent on fixing toilet vandalism.

Ours were locked too and you needed special permission to go during lesson. My friends daughter started her period during class and the teacher wouldn't let her go to the loo, it then leaked through her clothes. She had to secretly text her mum who then phoned the school to get her out of the lesson! Ridiculous. On one hand at school they wax on about them acting like young adults and on the other they treat them like animals.

Bet the teachers don't have to ask permission to use the loo and then get denied.

The locking toilets thing is dreadful - my DD had a toilet pass as she's got kidney reflux but just told me she never used it because the toilets are locked and she spends ages finding an open toilet ... teachers should have a key if they lock the loo - fucking insane that it affects children so badly

Yes Harrumph teachers generally have separate toilets at schools, and they don't have to ask permission to use them.

I'm very sympathetic to this. In all honesty I generally let children go in lessons if they seem genuine, but it's a huge problem. If I let one go, 8 others want to, then there's confrontation. Vaping, bullying and vandalism are massive problems and schools are huge and there aren't enough staff to supervise. I supervise a girls' toilet at break at you have to get them in and out. A solution would be brilliant.

We don’t gave to ask permission to use them, but we also never go during lessons either. Sometimes teacher provision is patchy too (spoken as a perimenopausal woman with major periods flooding issues).

As for “where is the money going to come from” - if schools don’t have enough money to provide toilet facilities for the people who attend there, they need more funding, plain and simple. Toilet facilities are not a luxury.

My DD had a pass for similar reasons and the school were perfectly helpful - although she rarely used it
Her school had insufficient toilets for the numbers of students which was made worse by students also vandalising locks which then meant those toilets weren't used

Do you think teachers can leave their classes to go to the toilet when they feel like it? Some days they wont even get a morning break due to duty, so wont have access to toilets from 8.25 until lunch. Yesterday lunch each time i tried to go to the one toilet (which is also unisex 😩) in our block it was occupied. I didnt get to go until the end of the day.

Not just the locks.
We provided free sanpro, but found that girls unwrapped them, stuck them on the walls and put dozens down the toilets to block them. They block sinks with toilet rolls and empty the paper towels onto the floor.

Teachers have separate toilets. They do not use the toilets designated for students. Yes teachers can't just leave the class unless an emergency, but the teachers toilets are not locked.

Schools need more funding. You cannot say children need to be priorities and then scrimp on school funding. we now are back to having temporary classrooms as has been the lack of longterm funding.

I'm not scrimping on school funding?
I think you have the wrong poster.
I'd double school funding in a heartbeat.

The teachers don't have chance, they have to wait (and queue at break time for the 2 female loos for 50 odd staff)

In my last school which was by every measure a nice one, there was £100,000 of damage caused to the toilets a year.

That's 5 TAs, or two/three teachers salaries spent on dealing with smashed sinks, toilets, doors, tiles etc. We had a kid trying to set one set ON FIRE.

At that point the loos were all locked and the only set left open during lessons now are about 10 feet from the headteacher and deputy headteacher's offices. We are lucky they exist, so kids can be allowed out of lessons to go.

It's a hideous situation which is totally understandable from both sides.

Talk to the senco and get a toilet pass.

@SuePreemly - this, exactly.

There are two cubicles in the women's staff toilets between two floors. You can spend the whole of break time queuing. I had to quit the queue the other day because the bell went and I had to rush upstairs to teach. Not great.

If it's anxiety caused by busy spaces do they have an accessible toilet?

If they do and it's radar key operated then you can get her one from council with whatever paperwork you have about her anxiety.

If it's not radar key locked then ask the school for access to it due to anxiety.

No student should be going from 7am until 4pm (roughly) with no food or drink due to fear.

Maybe not but I'd bet my ass if they started their period randomly in class and it was leaking through their clothes so that people could see they'd find a way to leave class and sort themselves out without having to humiliate themselves in front of all their peers. Just a guess.

If you mean have I had to call and wait for emergency cover and then leave my class with a huge bloody stain on the back of my skirt, then yes, that has happened to me a couple of times.