Nicer Loos
Delivery – part one
Graph showing numbers of boys visiting the toilets (click to enlarge)
Tally sheet of numbers of users and times of use (click to enlarge)
Graph showing types of problems in the boys toilets (click to enlarge)
Cleaners discussing their like and dislikes and how they clean the toilets
"The door needs to be painted and the sign needs to be bigger so the person who needs to go to the toilet can see the sign."
"The sink has no soap and the best soap is liquid soap. The liquid soap doesn't have only germs in it."
"All the toilet paper has to be taken off the Rimu toilet roof."
Marilyn broke down the unit plan each week into manageable chunks for other members of the syndicate. They took a systematic approach to the development of the unit to ensure students would have all the relevant background information necessary to make good decisions and choices. To view the week-by-week breakdown click here.
In the classroom
Marilyn and her students have developed a conceptual statement :
"We want to make our toilets nicer to use."
Marilyn asked her students what they thought of their toilets and their response was guarded at first (they were surprised that this topic should come up in the classroom) but generally they didn't like the toilets. The students went out to the toilets and identified more specifically what they didn't like (initially boys went into the boys' toilets and girls the girls'). They took photos and listed the problems as they saw them:
"There is no soap and if it falls on the ground then someone picks it up they will get germs."
"There is no glass in the push-out windows."
"There is toilet paper on the roof (ceiling) and it (toilet) needs to be clean so we can use them."
"The door needs to be painted and the sign needs to be bigger and nicer."
"The walls are dull and yucky and ugly."
"Drawing on the walls."
"Unflushed toilets."
"The tap was left on."
"Wees on the floor."
The students sorted out a system of collecting data about toilet usage. As well as noting numbers of users and times of use they checked the conditions of the toilets regulary. They analysed the data and found out the high use times (mid to late lunchtime). This helped to explain some of the worst problems – overcrowding leading to wee on the floor in the boys' toilet, soap on the floor, broken roller towel units, and no paper.
Students interviewed the toilet users to find out what they liked and didn't like about the toilets and any ideas they had to improve them.
I like
"Some bits are clean"
"When the toilets are flushed."
I don't like
"Toilet paper on the roof"
"I don't like mean writing on the wall."
"Sometimes no soap."
"Smells"
"No windows"
Ideas to make our toilets more user friendly
"Clean the toilets. Make the toilets look nice."
"If people did not write on the wall."
"Spray perfume around the toilets."
"Scrub the floors and the walls."
"Put a new coat of paint on."
"Put some windows in."
Students wrote about their own feelings
"I think that the people who make the toilets disgusting should stop it. We could keep the toilet clean by washing swear words off the wall. When I go to the toilets at school I feel okay sometimes, because the taps are off and the floor isn't that wet and there is soap. But when the taps are on and the floor is wet I'm not so happy. We could pay people who volunteer to clean our toilets every two minutes when we are in class working."
The students invited the cleaners in to talk about what they don't like about the toilets and how they clean them.
The cleaners like
The toilets being flushed
Clean walls
No bubblegum
When children use the toilets properly
The cleaners don't like
Wee on the toilets
Rubbish in the toilets
Poo on the wall
Wee on floor
"The cleaners wipe the walls with a cloth, then they mop the floor, then they brush the toilets on the inside and the outside and then they use Jif Everlasting Mist to make it smell nice. They clean the toilets after school when everyone has gone."
Together Marilyn and her students began to develop a brief for improvements to the toilets.
"Cleaner toilets, teach children how to use them properly, and our toilets should look, feel and smell nice."
The toilets at Kawakawa
Toilets in the Abel Tasman National Park
Interviews to find out student's like and dislikes
Hukanui
Teachers and parents wanted the school toilets refurbished.
The parents complained the toilets smelled.
Teachers said the paint is dark.
Teachers said the kids should have a mirror.
Teachers said we need signs on the toilets.
We decided our toilets were not hygienic.
We decided our toilets were smelly and dirty.
We decided we wanted light paint.
We think we should have a mirror.
We decided to put signs on the toilet doors.
I think children should decide what to do not just adults because it is our toilets and we can make our toilets suitable to use and bright."
"I think that the kids who use the toilet should decide because if the teachers decide the kids won't look after them."
| Abel Tasman | Rimu | |
| Problem | 1 000 to 2 000 people are going to the Abel Tasman toilets and it's getting crowded. | Rimu kids aren't respecting our school toilets. |
| Conceptual statement | They wanted the toilets to meet the needs of growing numbers of visitors. | We want Rimu kids to respect our toilets and use them properly. |
| The brief | They don't want to wreck the park. It has to be affordable. They don't want it to upset the trees. Park visitors have to like it. It has to be practical and easy to use. |
We want clean toilets. Kids to use the toilets properly. We want them to feel, smell and be nice to use. We want a new coat of paint and no toilet paper on the roof. |
The students found there were no regulations governing school toilet hygiene so they decided to talk to the School Health Nurse about good hygiene practices.
"Today Chris, our school nurse came to talk about hygiene. Chris showed us a video about hygiene and germs. Hygiene means to keep things clean. I know soap and liquid soap are different. I think we should use soap liquid because it is much more hygienic and better to use."
"Today Chris, our school nurse talked to us about hygiene and she told us how to wipe our bottoms properly and wash our hands properly. I know that when we have used the toilet we have to wash our hands. We have to get our nails and rub them against our palms to clean our nails and rub our left palm to the right palm. Our toilets have to be clean by flushing the toilet and we need to get liquid soap because germs go on the soap blocks. We have to do poos and wees in the toilet not on the seat. Hygienic toilets are so important because germs could go everywhere and make diseases and germs get on your food. I think we can get some liquid soap instead of blocks of soap and we can get a new towel and we can replace the toilet paper more times through the day."
