18 Jan 2019

Wightman & Parrish

ARE YOU TEACHING YOUR PUPILS TO HAVE BAD HYGIENE HABITS?

Essity, a supplier of Wightman & Parrish, have recently released the results of their latest school hygiene survey. More than 400 primary school teachers and 500 parents and children took part and the findings were unexpected. The results show the importance of school hygiene education which can provide a reduction in absenteeism, improved concentration in classes and, most importantly, happy and healthy children and staff

We’ve summarized some of the key findings below.

 

Findings

One of the key findings highlighted by the survey was that one in four primary school teachers and children rate the hygiene standards of their school toilets as poor, or very poor. This results in every year, over one million hours of primary school teaching time, being spent cleaning up after children use the toilet. This could be impacting not only time and money, but children’s health. One in 10 teachers have said they have witnessed children not eating or drinking to avoid using the toilets, with 13% stating this had led to the children becoming ill. Poor hygiene can also make children and teachers sick through bacteria in washrooms, with 59% of teachers believing that if hygiene improved, it could reduce illness in both students and staff, with 48% of teachers seeing a link between poor hygiene and being absent.

 

The main problems identified were that the schools toilet facilities being rated ‘horrible’ and ‘quite bad’ by over 23% of children. Many school toilets were also found to be poorly equipped as well, with a quarter of teachers saying the quality of items provided such as soap and toilet paper is poor, and shocking fifth of primary school teachers pointing out that they have had to use their own money to purchase hand soap for children. Children supported this view too, with four out of 10 saying there was sometimes no soap and over half citing a lack of toilet paper.

 

What’s the Impact

The impact of these hygiene problems, range from children and staff becoming ill, to 46% of children struggling to concentrate in lessons because they are actively avoiding using the school toilets. It also means that the cost of the lost education time from teachers cleaning up toilets is £11 million. It also means that teachers cannot spend as much time with other students in the class if another child has an accident, because they are avoiding using the toilet.

 

What’s the Solution

These major issues affecting children across the country need to be dealt with. Wightman & Parrish offer intelligent solutions to schools, providing high quality products that save money in the long term by reducing cleaning time and waste. By improving the products in your schools toilets you can expect a reduction in:

  • Absenteeism
  • improved concentration in classes
  • happy and healthy children and staff

 

To download the full report, click here:
https://schoolhygieneessentials.co.uk/