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how woul u solve the problem of a blocked toilets daily in a school

9 replies

hermykne · 20/01/2010 21:49

this is a daily occurence in te boys toilets in my kids school and has the principle worn out, she now knows how to plumb.
a select few are up to mischief yet she cannot blame any child and has repeatly takled about it at assembly , in the classes ad on the intercom.

any ideas? oh the used anything , hats scarfs, anything going

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Littlefish · 20/01/2010 22:16

Children to be escorted to toilets. No children unattended in the toilets.

The children will know who is doing this. If no-one is talking, then it may well be older children who are less likely to spill the beans on each other.

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SE13Mummy · 20/01/2010 22:59

It depends on how many toilet blocks there are in the school... if it is a particular set of loos that is being blocked up and the Head is certain she knows who is doing so she could issue all adults with keys to them and the older children (it will almost certainly be them) have to sign for them during lesson time. During playtimes an adult will need to be on loo duty (which may well mean that other activities can't be supervised) to ensure the culprits don't have a chance to cause mischief.

Other options include having an adult always accompany children to the loo during lesson time (I've been known to call and ask for office staff to accompany Y6 children to the loo when I've been covering a class known to have a habit of trashing loos during cover lessons).

If the Head works out who it is (and the culprit is over the age of 10) then she needs to get the parents on side, invite a local police officer to come and read them the riot act and explain about the age of criminal responsibility, cautions etc.

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hermykne · 22/01/2010 20:21

SE13, yes i agree , i hink the kids are over 10 under 12. the policeman has bee mooted and will probably happen.

escorted toilet time , i think the school mightnt have enough enough teachers/staff.. bt i'll sggest i

thanks

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pointysaysrelax · 22/01/2010 20:28

all teachers keep a list of who is allowed out to the toilet during class time and the time they went. Regula rchecks of toilet and children encouraged to tell the teacher if found blocked when they go.

During break times, not so much of an issue as there will be witnesses and with some careful questioning, some may crack under pressure and clype.

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Tinuviel · 24/01/2010 13:49

A strategy we use when something has happened in the classroom at school (secondary) is to give each pupil a piece of paper and ask them to write the name of the culprit on it. You will get the odd malicious child putting down someone's name to get them into trouble but most of the class will write down who actually did it. (Most recent one was a stink bomb 3 years ago!! Once the main culprit was named, he willingly grassed on his co-conspirators!!)

The advantage of this is that no one has to verbally say who did it - they just write it anonymously.

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Tinuviel · 24/01/2010 13:52

The alternative is that no one goes unsupervised during lesson time but that each teacher has a 'toilet break' roughly halfway between morning start and break; break and lunchtime etc. If they are top end juniors, that would give them an idea of what secondary is like, when they can't go during lessons but have to go between. It also means that they are always supervised (lovely job for a TA !)

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BigTillyMint · 24/01/2010 14:06

Tin, I love the idea of secretly dobbing the culprit in

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LetsEscape · 24/01/2010 16:26

I once was in a school where this was happening....They used the following approach. They Controlled the number of children allowed to go to the toilet by having a rule that only one child per class goes at a time and wore a coloured sash. Its usually when there is a gang that these things happen. Teachers can see patterns if its really bad teacher notes time and name of child who goes to the toilet. If a child that is on the suspect list goes a teacher may pop in and catch them!!

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princessparty · 24/01/2010 17:30

Kids of 10+ don't grass !

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