EDUCATIONAL & SCHOOL FACILITIES
School washrooms for all ages
The needs of a primary school washroom are entirely different to those of a secondary school. Murray Jardine, from Tork manufacturer Essity, looks at the requirements across the ages and considers how all school toilets can be appropriately configured and equipped.
There are a number of basic requirements that apply across the board in a school washroom. As with any other toilet, the facilities should be designed to promote good hygiene and all surfaces should be easy to clean and sanitise.
Budgets are perennially tight in the public sector so all systems need to be cost-effective. Excess waste should be avoided as sustainability moves ever higher up the public agenda, and dispensers should be intuitive to operate and easy for younger students to use.
However, there are vast differences in the types of systems required in a primary school to those of a secondary establishment. Younger children require reassuring, non- threatening facilities where they can wash and dry their hands in comfort, for example. In a secondary school the premises should be well-lit to discourage bullying and the dispensers must be sufficiently robust to withstand any potential bad behaviour.
Primary school children can be vulnerable and sensitive, and will be easily put off by messy, smelly facilities. They will also struggle to reach hand basins installed at a standard height, and may find it difficult to operate the taps and soap and paper dispensers. However, good hand hygiene is vitally important in a primary school since infections tend to spread rapidly among the very young.
All efforts should therefore be made to create a comfortable space that incorporates accessible facilities. Wash hand basins should be low enough for smaller pupils to reach,
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while the taps and dispensers should be easy to operate by those with low hand strength. The soaps should also be mild and gentle while the hand-drying facilities should be easy to use and child-friendly.
An ideal soap system for primary schools is Tork Foam Soap, which is quick to lather and comes in an allergy- friendly Sensitive version which is particularly gentle on the hands. The dispenser requires a low push force which means it is easy to use by smaller children who may have lower hand strength.
Young children can find the noise of a jet air dryer unnerving, so paper hand towels are a good alternative. These should come in a system that is intuitive to use such as the Tork PeakServe Continuous Hand Towel Dispenser. This requires a low pull force and gives out towels one at a time in a continuous action.
Toilet tissue systems should also be simple to access for the young. For example, the paper delivered from the Tork SmartOne toilet tissue dispenser is easy to pull out via a nozzle at the front. The Tork SmartOne is a good alternative to a jumbo roll which requires pupils to rummage around inside the dispenser for the end of the paper – an action that can prove difficult for smaller hands while also potentially compromising hygiene.
Different priorities need to be considered in a secondary school where bullying, vandalism and drug-taking are all potential issues. The dispensers and fixtures here
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