Children using toilets at a venue- was this a safeguarding thing?

[AnotherUdderName]

This is just a 'curious' question. (I'm a retired teacher and a parent.)

I was at a venue recently in the UK- a botanic garden.
There are two lots of loos, male and female. Outside, very airy, open doorway etc at the entrance

I was in the Ladies and a class of kids turned up with their teacher. They looked about Yr 1/2 and possibly a private school as there were only around 12 of them. The boys were using the men's loos.

Their teacher came into the loos to check if anyone was there (I was in a cubicle) and told the children to wait outside until the 'adult' came out. Thankfully I wasn't going to be long!

As I came out she also 'directed' a pair of elderly couples to the accessible loo alongside asking if they'd mind using that one. (Maybe that was just to speed up the pupils' queue.)

I wondered if it was a safeguarding issue that they weren't allowed to use the loos when there was someone else in there.

I find the issue of using public toilets when on a trip with children really awkward.

We often make the boys use the ladies toilets (much to their disgust) I teach KS1.

I also feel awful making people wait whilst a class of 30 kids use the toilets.

Thanks for your input @BG2015

But the question was, why did the teacher want all adults (women) out of the loos before she allowed the children in?

Was this 'safeguarding'?

For context, there were 4 cubicles. I was in one.
The teacher could have started to allow them in without waiting for me to come out.

There's a reasonably big entrance with a wide doorway, windows, and it would be very easy for the teacher to stand outside the cubicles to monitor the kids.

There weren't 30 as I think it was a private school. There were possibly 12 girls waiting and a few boys (who used the gents.) Interestingly I didn't see the teacher (female) check the gents was 'all clear' before they boys used it.
I also wonder if young boys (aged 6, 7) would know how to use urinals.

I'm only interested to know if things have changed because when I was teaching, this didn't happen (albeit with sec aged students.)

Surely the teacher could have just stood in the handwashing area whilst the kids went in the cubicles, I am wondering who the f* she thought she was to stop others using the public facilities.
I had something g similar to this when I had paid for a lunchtime swim straight after a school visit.They were late/ slow getting changed and the teacher told me to wait outside until they had finished.I politely told her where to stick that notion!

I agree @ageratum1

She said to this pair of elderly couples' Would you mind using the accessible loo?' (which was next to the block.)

I can see she wanted to get all the children through fast (I'd heard her shouting earlier saying they were all going to the loo then eat lunch (picnic.)

However, I felt sympathy for the 4 elderly people as perhaps they didn't want to 'queue up' at the accessible loo and wait for each other to finish!

I guess they could have just ignored her and gone into the ladies and men's but they'd have had to wait till all the kids were finished as they were lined up outside.

But more to the point, why did they need every cubicle empty before they started using them?

Part of me wondered if she was 'protecting' the public from having to negotiate a troop of kids coming in and out.

It's really simple. The teacher was ensuring that there weren't any adults in the toilets at the same time as the children to protect the children and the adults. What if a child said "The adult in there was talking to me, the adult in there smiled at me, the adult in there was zipping up their flies when I came out the toilet, the adult had their phone out in the toilet, I heard the adult next door going to the toilet" and so on. All innocent things perhaps, but lots can be misinterpreted nowadays. The teacher did the right thing. It just means that there was no chance of anything being misinterpreted.

That is what I was asking.
I used to teach and occasionally with younger children when they were taken swimming. Obviously nothing like this occurred then as the changing rooms couldn't be cleared of adults.

In this instance it was OTT in my opinion.

The toilets are very open plan and spacious. The teacher would have been able to wait in the wide doorway and see everything going on. There are only 4 cubicles.

Bloody hell- has it got so bad that a woman can't smile at a child in the toilet if they are both washing their hands at the basins?

I don't think she had a 'right' to 'ban' other visitors from using them.

It's certainly got to a stage, where this is mass hysteria about everything, but the teacher was just covering her back and preventing some poor old dear having an allegation thrown at them. 99.9% of the time nothing happens, but the world has changed into a hostile, hysterical place.

Why are you even concerned OP? The teacher could just be following instruction from their HT or EVC if they have one? You’re making it to be more of a big deal than it actually is.

Eastenders finished half an hour ago!

You're very rude.
Does your post answer my question?

I probably comes over here are more concerned than I actually am @good96 .
My first post said I was curious.

If you were sitting on the loo and a teacher came into the Ladies, looked around and told the children to wait until you were out, would you not wonder why?
Especially as they were clearly in a hurry to get all the children in and out of the loo asap.

And there were 3 empty cubicles they could have started using.

As a former teacher, teaching most of my life, and a parent, I've never seen this before.

Okay with you?

The risk of a woman - in full sight of a teacher in the wash basin area- being accused of anything is just beyond madness. (I'm not old or a 'dear', by the way!)

But if the teacher was standing in the communal wash basin area as a chaperone, nobody is going to get accused of anything