In a letter to parents, Ballakermeen High School have said teachers aren’t to allow pupils to go to the toilet during lesson time unless they have a medical pass or it is judged an extraordinary situation.
The letter comes after the school introduced a process that it calls “Faculty Focus”.
It says this has provided the school with the opportunity to observe lessons, speak to students and staff and to get a better understanding of how students are currently engaging with their learning.
From the process a couple of significant themes have emerged that Ballakermeen Headteacher, Graeme Corrin, would like to address:
- School attendance;
- Repeated toilet visits during lessons.
Graeme Corrin says in the letter that the ban of toilet breaks during lessons is to address “too many students requesting to leave lessons to go to the toilet”, which is resulting in students “missing large chunks of lesson time and learning”.
The letter states:
“To address this issue, we will be instructing students that they need to go to the toilet at lunchtime or break time and we will be increasing supervision around the toilets. Teachers have been asked not to allow students to leave lessons to go to the toilet unless they have a medical pass or it is judged an extraordinary situation.”
No toilet breaks and low attendance
Ballakermeen High School attendance currently stands ‘significantly’ below its target of 95% and the school believes this “has a significant impact on the outcomes students go on to achieve”.
In the letter, Corrin added:
“Whilst recognising that illness is sometimes unavoidable, it is clear that effective and consistent learning can only be maintained through regular attendance, hence our whole school target of a minimum of 95%.
“In addition to low levels of attendance, we currently have too many students requesting to leave lessons to go to the toilet. Many of these students are subsequently missing large chunks of lesson time and learning.”
Group gatherings in cubicles & vaping
The school is also banning multiple occupancy of toilet cubicles, and if the rule broken the students could end up with a suspension.
The letter states:
“Regarding toilets, I should reiterate that we have made it clear to students repeatedly in assemblies and tutor periods, plus through the display of signs within the toilets, that multiple occupancy of cubicles is not permitted. There are several reasons why we have this expectation:
- Vaping – some students gather in cubicles to vape. As it is not possible to identify which particular student was vaping, we consider all to have made the negative choice to be involved
- Safeguarding –there is a potential risk posed by more than one student being confined in a single cubicle
- Respect for others – if students gather in a cubicle, then it means that the facility is not available for others to use correctly
- Damage – our experience is that damage, intentional or otherwise, occurs when single cubicles are over-occupied
- Concealment – there is a potential risk to the health and safety of students if they conceal themselves within a single occupancy cubicle Ultimately, there can be no positive reason for multiple students to occupy a single cubicle. Therefore, as a school, we have decided that it is not acceptable and such a decision will lead to a suspension which we do not want as again this leads to lost learning time.”
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