British Toilet Association: Archived News from the British Toilet Association 

What are the toilets like at your child's school?

Is your child happy to use the school toilets? I only ask because research suggests not only that half of pupils regularly avoid going to the toilet at school*, but that nearly a third of school loos have no soap, that one in three has no (or insufficient) toilet paper and that a quarter didn't have proper locks on the doors.

Now the Bog Standard campaign, is aiming to improve the state of the school toilets. Jenny Perez, director of ERIC (Education and Resources for Improving Childhood Continence), explains the consequences of having smelly, ill-equipped toilets at school...

"The general state of school toilets is often a problem. The toilets might be smelly and dirty; toilet seats broken; they may lack basic supplies of toilet paper, soap and hand drying facilities or privacy so that a child fears being spied on.

Some teachers restrict toilet visits to break so children have to hang on, even though young bladders and bowels especially don’t function to a rigid timetable and can vary from day to day.

These problems can prevent children from using school toilets or make children reluctant to use them. This makes them vulnerable and links to health problems such as daytime and bedwetting, constipation and urinary tract infections affecting more than one in 12 (about 750,000) five to 16 year olds in the UK.

It’s not just health and wellbeing that might be affected. Children’s attention will be focused more on the discomfort of his full bladder or bowel than on the lesson.

Often children can also be put off drinking during the day because they don’t want to use the toilet. Dehydration can also result in the same bladder and bowel problems caused by school toilets, but also headaches, lethargy or poor concentration.

What can parents do?

Ask your child about their school toilets. It’s also a good idea to take a look at the toilets yourself and enlist the teacher for help. You could discuss some ideas with your child, for example to talk to them about wiping the toilet seat with paper before sittings down. You could encourage them to tell the teacher when the soap or toilet paper has run out and provide a mini packet of tissues to keep in a trouser pocket.

If doing a poo at school is an issue, encourage your child to go to the toilet in the morning before school or at night after a meal, to open their bowels.

Reproduced from Times Online Schoolgate Blog on Friday 26th February

The 2010 Loo of the Year Awards include new Toilets in Education Awards. www.loo.co.uk