School puts toilet doors back after complaints

A Swindon school which removed the external doors leading into pupils' toilets has decided to put them back after children complained. Kingsdown School's head teacher Wendy Conaghan said the outer doors - and not the cubicle doors - were removed as part of an open plan trial. She said the toilets would now only be repainted and not totally refurbished.

She added: "We're not investing in refurbishment if this is the reaction to just the door not being there." Ms Conaghan said the doors had not been removed due to behavioural issues such as smoking.



She said: "Smoking goes on in all schools. We've already got smoke detectors in the toilets because that's what students do. We had a student council meeting about a week and a half ago where we got feedback from the students.

"Some liked it, some didn't - overall it was felt that to invest tens of thousands of pounds in a revamp wasn't worth it so we agreed to put the doors back. We wanted to see how the students at Kingsdown reacted to open plan and the answer is - they don't like it."