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Poor toilets - Comments

This is what people have been telling Bog Standard about school toilets. If you’d like to tell us about yours, go to our feedback form. Or, to find out what pupils are saying, visit the What you told us page in the pupils’ site.

17/06/2009Simon , a/an Service Provider/Parent from Hertfordshire in England, wrote:

I currently work for a company which designs and refurbishes school washrooms. I have visited some shocking school toilets recently and it makes you wonder what priorty the teachers give to the toilets. As a parent I would say that toilets along with kitchens make up the most fundemental number one priorty for a school and should be ahead of learning. After all, if our child is ill due to the poor hygiene of the school toilets.... how can they recieve an education in the first place?

13/09/2007pam sexton, a/an parent from London in England, wrote:

I have complained 5 times to the school before the school holidays, now the children have gone back the toilets are the same. What do I do now?

Bog Standard response:

You need to complain in writing to the Chair of Governors, copied to the head, and also make suggestions of what you think the school can do to improve things. Include a couple of our factsheets too. Involve other parents, the school nurse and contact your LEA. The school council could organise a survey of pupils and present the results to the whole school. Get your child to write to the offices of the Children's Commissioner. If things are really bad, also write to your local MP. See 'What you can do pages' on the adult zone and the pupils' zone of our site for more suggestions and contact details.
Don't give up!

24/05/2007Fiona Torrilla, a/an Parent from West Sussex in England, wrote:

I applaud my childrens' school in encouraging students to drink water throughout the day, during lessons too if they wish. They are allowed to leave lessons for toilet breaks too. However, I feel they fall down hugely in the provision of decent toilets. I haven't seen them all but the few I have seen are dire.

As a result my daughters, in particular, rarely drink their bottle of water in the hope that they will not need the loo whilst at school. They just about make it home and the first port of call is always a mad dash for the toilet. It worries me that they are not drinking anything like enought during school hours. One of my daughters has diabetes and I feel that the lack of drinking is inhibiting her absorbtion of insulin, resulting in higher than acceptable blood sugar readings. Her consultant has verified that this will happen. Even with this knowledge she won't risk going to the school toilets.

Further, when girls are menstruating it is important that they are encouraged to visit the loo regularly, for their personal hygiene. All of this is compromised by the poor provision of clean toilets free from the loitering of older girls, some of whom are sneaking a sly cigarette or just trying to evade being thrown out of the building during lunch breaks.

It's a problem and one which I hope to raise with the Governing Body but I'm not sure how responsive they will be.

24/01/2007Tracie Baker, a/an parent from Warwickshire in England, wrote:

I found your site very interesting and was looking for information as I was concerned when my daughter told me about the new restrictions on toilet breaks at her secondary school. They are now locked due to grafitti issues. Pupils are not allowed to go in lesson times and in a school with over 1000 children she now spends all her break times waiting to go to the toilet. To make matters worse they have to queue at the library, sign for a key, go, then return the key, sign again when its then passed to the next child! She tells me when the toilets are open they are policed by six formers who decide on a whim who can go and who cannot! She is getting really anxious partiularly at the time of her period. I am not sure of waht steps I should take to complain to the school about this policy. Any advice would be gratefully received. I have asked her to keep a diary, although I have not asked the school directly to verify any facts, however, speaking to other children in various years its the same story.

Bog Standard response:

This situation is inhumane and bound to make any pupil anxious. Punishing the whole school for the misdeeds of a few is going to sour teacher/pupil relations and make matters worse. Also sounds like some of the six formers are abusing their powers. Clearly this situation cannot be allowed to continue. I suggest you look at our page What you can do and talk calmly to the school. Print out some factsheets from this website for the headteacher and chair of governors. Print out a page for the school council too as the pupils need to be involved in this issue. Threats and more punishments from staff is not the way to go!

11/12/2006K Wall, a/an Parent from Cardiff in Wales, wrote:

The toilets in my childs school or smelly, there is often no toilet paper and they have to ask the teacher for it. They have to wear a large letter P around their neck when visiting the toilets in lesson time. During lunch time they are not allowed back into the school to use the toilets and are told to use a toilet in the outside cabin. 1 communal toilet based in a 1 class cabbin for around 350 children! What can I do.

Bog Standard response:

Not a healthy or happy situation. Having to ask for toilet paper is sadly fairly prevalent in schools, but here it just sounds like they need to replenish it more often. Wearing a toilet label is a horrible Dickensian practice, but still practiced. The number of toilets available to the children at lunch is of course woefully inadequate and they should have access to the ones inside, even if it means the staff (or pupils) have to take turns supervising.
What can you do? Have a look at the suggestions on the 'What you can do page’ on both the Adults' and Pupils' areas. Also print out the Facilities and Access Guidelines) which address many of the points you raise) and give copies to the school (form teacher, senior management, chair of governors and the School Council).
Bear in mind that a friendly approach, working together and offering solutions (there are lots in our website) will be much more effective than criticism and conflict, and get other parents and pupils involved if you can. It may take time to change attitudes but don't give up, it's much too important!

05/10/2006jo clare, a/an parent,lunch time spervisor, nurse from Buckinghamshire in England, wrote:

Thankyou for your site!! My daughter has just started secondary school and been diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome, ...within a week of each other. Having heard reports of her toilet facilities, and now having seen them for myself I am determined to 'help' to school management to make much needed improvements. your site will be of great help. Do you happen to know if anyone has made use of the local news papers to highlight the problems of school toilets in general? thanks.

Bog Standard response:

We wrote and advised to try a friendly and co-operative approach first. By all means use the local papers if all else fails, but try and do this anonymously in case it gets nasty!

26/01/2006neil fitton, a/an parent from Staffordshire in England, wrote:

We find the level of hygiene appalling in the school toilets,my son just got a bacterial infection which quite probably came from the disgusting state of the toilets he has to use at school we have to send them by law, but that shouldn't mean they have filthy amenities. What happened to human rights? i wouldn't let a dog use those black horrible toilets and the nursery ones have leaks and very rarely have soap, they had one bar with mould on so I'm not counting that as useable. I'm so angry, the tiles stink and hold the smell. They also need an easy clean floor.

25/10/2005Caroline Statham, a/an Parent from Hampshire in England, wrote:

I once went into the toilets at Fort Hill Community School in Basingstoke, Hampshire where my daughter was at the pre-school. Someone had been sick all over one of the loos. This was unfortunate, but perhaps more significant was that there was no soap, next to no loo paper, one seat was missing, part of a chain for the flush on one loo, plus the floor was filthy. My son said that some of the children were made to feel physically sick themselves because of the general state of the toilets. I now do not want to send my son there when he reaches secondary school age. When I confronted them about it, they said liquid soap dispensers get torn off the wall, plus soap bars are thrown into the bin. To me, this is just a general indication of the lack of basic discipline which was identified at the school in the Offsted. I contacted the local Health and Safety Inspectorate but nothing was done. I gather there are other schools in Basingstoke with similar problems. I am in despair as to how to get anyone in authority to take responsibility for this problem. I think it is criminal.

23/03/2005juliette glover, a/an parent from Warwickshire in England, wrote:

I thought my daughters were exaggerating when they told me that they only had access to one toilet between aprox 1500 pupils at breaktimes only. Then I noticed that on their return from school they were absolutely bursting to go to the loo to the point of arguing on the lawn as to who was going to use the downstairs loo!! Then my elder daughter, who has other medical problems,developed stomach pains and cloudy urine shortly followed by severe vomitting. Immediatley I contacted the school by telephone and it was confirmed that only one toilet was in use due to vandalism, worst still this toilet is in a medical room and has no loo roll and is littered with discarded sanitary protection. I followed up this phone call with an e mail to the school and a phone call to the LEA officer. Neither seem unduly concerned at this appalling situation and apparently it is common practice.
The outcome of all this- there are now just 3 toilet cubicles in use for all the pupils and my daughter has a 3 day medical pass (up until the Easter break) for free access to the toilet!!

13/10/2004Diane Whitehaed, a/an parent from Cleveland in England, wrote:

I visted my child's senior school this evening and looked at the toilets. I would not use these toilets myself even if desperate. As part of the motorcycling fraternity I often spend a weekend in a field with thousands of other bikers with only portaloos, I would prefer to use these portaloos in preference to the facilities provided at my child's school.

When I discussed the matter with the head teacher she said interactive whiteboards were more important than toilets. But decent toilets are a basic need which we all have.

11/10/2004Tom , a/an Caretaker from a secondary school from Avon in England, wrote:

The thing that amazes me most is the amount of vandalism that is done to these facilities by the children themselves. Why do they damage the facilities that are put there for their use and convenience? Yet they then complain about the condition of the toilets.

Bog Standard response:

We sympathise with caretakers having to deal with vandalized toilets. It's also an issue for the majority of pupils who behave themselves in the toilets, but have to put up with the consequences. We have made lots of suggestions, largely based on feedback from schools in the School Management section. We need to bear in mind that if the toilets aren't high quality in the first place then the toilets tend to deteriorate and attract abuse. This may also be symptomatic of wider issues within a school.


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