Farnley Academy: Leeds school's headteacher responds after students protest over 'disgusting' new toilet policy

Pupils at The Farnley Academy in Leeds, which is part of The GORSE Academies Trust, staged a protest over the toilet policy yesterday (Friday). Parents say that the pupils are being asked to use one set of toilets during lesson time and that it is leading to queues.

One parent, Natalie Hennessy, told the Yorkshire Evening Post her son has had to wait until he gets home to use the toilet. She said: “My son has been fortunate enough to be able to hold it and come home and go to the toilet when he gets home because we don’t live far from school, but not everyone is that fortunate.”

Another parent said that the students had taken action because they “don’t feel listened to”.

A letter from the headteacher, Chris Stokes, has now been circulated in which he addressed what happened, saying that “a small group of students decided that they would engage in what they believed was a protest”.

He said: "The protest was allegedly in response to the locking of toilet doors during lesson time. Firstly, within this letter, I need to be completely clear that it is absolutely not the case that all toilets are locked during lesson time. At all times, at least one block of boys and one block of girls' toilets are open.

"Our decision to not have all toilets open during lesson time was taken following two very serious safeguarding events. It was not a decision that we took lightly, but it was a necessary decision to keep all students safe.”

He says that he was aware of the planned protest and asked staff members to get the views of students so that he could respond personally. He writes that when school started at 8.28am “around 1,300” students went to their forms without issue but a group of students walking together “began chanting” up the main drive.

He writes: “Once on site, these students were spoken to, reminded that we have mechanisms for feedback through the Student Leadership Team, and asked to go to form. The overwhelming majority complied with this request, and we thanked them for doing so. Sadly, however, a very small minority of students did not comply with this request, nor did they wish to talk about their views at that time.”

He says the school wants to hear student feedback and “make positive changes” and asked parents to “remember that what is presented to you by your child may not always represent the full story. He adds: “It is clearly not the case that we lock all toilets. This would be completely unreasonable.

“Over the coming days, we will seek to explore with our young people the action that was taken today.”

He says that the curriculum will be adapted so that students can “further understand how they can make their voice heard in a constructive way”, adding: “I would like to thank you for your ongoing support, and I hope that the information above has helped to provide some additional context.”