School Support Report

Most of us probably have some toilet-related memories from our schooldays. And they may not necessarily be happy ones!  

But for many school pupils round the UK today, toilets are becoming synonymous with twinning thanks to their enthusiastic adoption of Toilet Twinning as a focus for fundraising.

It’s a natural partnership - toilet humour ranks pretty high on the junior school joke list.  And older students don’t forget the serious nature of the problem: for example, in Africa, half of young girls who drop out of school do so because they need to collect water, often from many miles away.  

So while many schools have been fundraising hard, and having fun into the bargain, it’s also great to hear news of some help they’ve had along the way from others.  

Etone College students show off their Toilet Twinning certificates .  They are joined by Seddon Construction staff in  the new school block.

Nuneaton’s Etone College are shortly going to be enjoying a new ten-classroom block and library, with office and toilets. Their construction company Seddon seized the chance, while on site, to twin three of the school’s toilets. Pupils have taken delivery of the certificates showing their twinned latrines in DRC, Nepal and Sierra Leone.  

Meanwhile, on the Somerset coast, two Clevedon schools have benefited from some fabulous fundraising at their local churches. Christchurch and St Andrew’s Church beat a baker’s dozen: they raised enough money to twin not only their own 13 toilets, but also to donate twinnings to St Nicholas Chantry School and Mary Elton School. Miniature toilet-shaped collecting boxes were given to church members, who were asked to 'spend a penny' or, better still, 'spend a pound' to fill them up. The total raised - £1,359 - was way beyond expectations: a testament to the generosity of the churchgoers and their enthusiastic support of Toilet Twinning.  

Young people from Clevedon fundraised enthusiastically for Toilet Twinning, and a golden  loo brush was awarded as a quiz prize

Further east, Sussex Coast College students have also been hard at work, and have raised enough to twin six toilets so far, with another two likely before the end of term. Lay chaplain Barbara Powell-Jones helped the cause by making and selling almost 200 lavender bags.  As the name ‘lavender’ derives from the Latin lavare: to wash, the connection with a sanitation charity (not to mention language lessons) was entirely appropriate!  Proceeds from the bags were enough to achieve the first three twinnings for the college.  

Younger children don't get forgotten either. Bevan Lodge pre-school in Farnborough recently refurbished their toilets - and a generous parent twinned the new loos. Kate Jamieson, chair of the school’s management committee, said, ‘It seemed like the perfect opportunity to broaden the children’s knowledge while supporting a worthy cause.’

Thanks to everyone who has encouraged their local schools and colleges to help flush away poverty through Toilet Twinning. And don’t forget, there are lots of useful resources for schools on our website at www.toilettwinning.org/resources/