Toilet breaks

Misscollette

Hi, I am a primary school teacher year 3. I don't let children go to the toilet during lesson time. Do you think I'm harsh?

thespiceman

Hello @Misscollette   Please can I ask why are you here on this forum talking about toilet breaks.?  I do not understand.

Are you a teacher in school that has children who have disabilities and illness or special needs.?

My question is why ?

If you are doing this that is wrong that controlling and be bullying is that the answer you seek.

Are feeling guilty doing this then?

I had this situation similar in a training programme.  Scars me mentally right now to this very day.   These training programmes.  Have to sign a sheet to have a break and then to toilet, if too long banging on the door.  Only access was a key.

I suffer anxiety enough with out the torment of people who ran these schemes.  Give me a key I can still hear it, say please I did and me clutching my stomach.  No way I ended up very much the wrong end of this women's sadistic behaviour.

Remember I was an adult.

So please just think what harm are you doing to these children.  We all need to be able to go to toilet.

Matilda

@Misscollette

Does your school have a policy on this?  When I was at primary school we were allowed toilet breaks during lessons if we put our hand up and asked.  Surely toilet breaks are preferable to 'accidents'.

I had one teacher who told us we didn't need to ask to go to the toilet unless a lesson was in progress.  As we only ever had lessons, I'm not sure when we were allowed to go without asking!

cripps

It shouldn’t matter if you’re a teacher a manager a shop worker or a MP from when you’re born to the day you die everyone needs the toilet and one thing your body does is tell you when you need to go, so letting the children they can’t go to the toilet is totally wrong, I’d like to see you go for hours without using the toilet. NC

Government_needs_reform

Point blank that's Harsh. You should and cannot stop anyone going to the toilet. End of.

I will tell you one thing if I was a still child and you stop me going I would soon tell you were to get of teacher or not. Yes I was a difficult child too.

I really do believe your walking on thin ice regarding what you have posted in denying toilet for the kids.

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debbiedo49

@Misscollette not sure why this is on here?

Waylay

My brother had a (benign) tumour which attached the ends of his spinal nerves to the inside of his spinal bones (they're supposed to float freely, so when you stretch or contract your back, they don't get stretched or squished). It's called tethered cord syndrome, and is rare, but not extremely rare.. Although he developed a club foot, his left leg grew less than his right leg, and he had trouble controlling his bowels and bladder, this was the 70's, and most specialists hadn't heard of it. By the time he was diagnosed, at 11yo, he had serious physical problems, chronic pain, and if he felt the urge to go, he had to go *right away*, or he'd lose control and go wherever he was. As you can imagine, this was seriously traumatic, particularly in class, because other 11yo aren't going to understand that he can't help it. 
He had a couple of spinal surgeries and a couple of other surgeries over the next few years, although the damned lipoma keeps coming back. (He has too much scar tissue to have any further operations now, so he's slowly becoming paralyzed, in his 30's.) 

However, when he turned 12, he got a new teacher, whose policy was not to let kids go to the loo during class time (I dunno, some weird "teaching them discipline" thing?) Even though my Mum came in on the first day (and several times after that) and explained that he had a serious medical problem, she refused to understand. Our house was very close to the school, and the poor kid was going in his trousers at least twice a day. My Mum would send him to school with a fresh set of clothes and a waterproof bag, but he often ran home in the middle of the afternoon in tears, having wet himself or pooed himself a third time, and unable to endure the teasing amymore. 

Even after complaining to the Head, this teacher hung on to the idea that he was just challenging her authority (?!?!), and refused to understand. My Mum took him out of that school 2 months in and out him in a private school, where they were very understanding of his problems, and gave him his own little bathroom to clean up in, and permission to go whenever he needed to, without asking.

20 years later, I was sitting on my brother's front step with him, watching his sons play and having a cigarette. We were discussing my recently acquired chronic pain condition, and he was helping me to understand how to handle it a bit better, when he suddenly said, "Do you remember <name of school>? Yes, I went there too. Then this incredibly strong, gentle, understanding man, who had weathered two spinal surgeries, an ankle fusion, and another operation on his leg all before 13yo; chronic pain since he was a young child, a 3 inch leg-length difference, and slow progression toward paralysis, said, quietly, "I still have nightmares about Mme. <hername> not letting me go to the toilet."

It broke my heart.

fishingmum

Children can not control their bodies as well as adults can. Your body does not look at a clock to say I will wait till then to produce urine and fill your bladder. Females especially can have further problems from holding it in such as cystitis from inflammation in the bladder. Most people do not have a problem holding it in for a short time, however you do have those who may have additional problems such as a weekend immune system and doing so could endanger them of getting infections, never mind the pain that can be caused by holding it in when your bladder is saying it needs emptied now.

Maybe consider the age, the possible health problems before deciding not to let a child go to the toilet when they NEED to go.

phoenixpd

Yes it's harsh and not good for the health and possibly well being of the child. 
I know of a child who gets very anxious when asking to go to the toilet so you may be instilling this in some children. 
When asking if you are being harsh maybe ask who you are helping by doing this. Is it for the good of the children or so your lessons aren't disturbed? 

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sam12

This is abuse not letting school children go to the toilet I was a kid a school I had continual accidents in my underwear very bad to hold the toilet inside if a kid needs the toilet then u should respect them let them go can cause serious problems