ERIC eNews

ERIC Campaigns

Campaign news

We bring you news of a new sponsor, a visit to the opening of fabulous new toilets at a primary school in Liverpool, and a hygiene launch from another of our sponsors.

Sponsors vital to campaign

The Bog Standard Campaign is continuing its work with the help of our corporate partners. Our sponsors are selected because they offer schools a great product or service and because they genuinely share our vision of a country where all school children have open access to clean, well maintained, quality toilets and washrooms. Without their financial support there would be no Bog Standard Campaign! We are delighted that Armitage Shanks and Albany have renewed their sponsorship and we are delighted to welcome another new sponsor.

New sponsor

Quebicle themed washrooms is a unique and exciting company, recently created as part of the RIGBY Group of Companies. Quebicle offer a complete package to schools: they design, build and install washrooms and shower rooms with aftercare services.

Quebicle, led by Director, Darren Rigby, are now leading the way in children’s themed washrooms and shower rooms, specialising in colourful and imaginative designs. By involving the teachers and more importantly the pupils in the conceptual design stage, together they create a unique identity that the children have a certain amount of ‘ownership’ of, thus generating additional pride and inspiration, encouraging the children to respect their facility for years to come.

Quebicle’s own design team centre an enormous amount of attention into high standards of provision, practical usage, aesthetics, hygiene and aftercare. They combine this with an emphasis on energy saving technology, which means that they can guarantee energy savings on power and water, year after year.

Opening of new toilets at Bedford Primary School

ERIC Campaigns’ Organiser Nickie Brander attended the opening of new toilets created by Quebicle at Bedford Primary School, Bootle, in Sefton just north of Liverpool.  All seven sets of the pupils’ toilets were redesigned and upgraded in a project led entirely by the pupils.

The new toilets include a space theme, complete with twinkling stars and alien characters, X Factor inspired loos with stars, hearts and funky shaped mirrors and for the younger children, giant footprints lead the way to colourful dinosaur loos.

Not only do the toilets have the wow factor for design but they are kinder to the environment too – they have infra red sensor water savers fitted, dual flush options to save water consumption and soggy blue paper towels have been replaced by smart energy efficient high-velocity hand dryers. The school is so proud of its new loos that it unveiled the completed revamp during a grand community opening led by the new Director of Children’s Services for Sefton, Peter Morgan on 11th November.
Mrs Ruth Braithwaite, Headteacher, says of the project, “At Bedford our aim is to make children’s voices loud and proud. The pupil council had complained that the old toilets were smelly and unpleasant, so when they asked for new toilets we thought we’d go one better by asking them to work with the builders to design them. Needless to say the children had no problem coming up with bright and colourful ways of making their toilets more fun”.

Bedford Primary School is part of the Sefton Healthy Schools area that is piloting the Bog Standard School Toilet Award and is aiming to be the first school to achieve the highest award, the School Toilet Gold with Distinction award. Watch this space!

Launch of the Albany Healthy Schools Programme

ERIC Director, Jenny Perez and Campaigns’ Organiser, Nickie Brander attended the launch in October of the Albany Healthy Schools Programme, set up by one of our sponsors Albany Healthy Schools. Nickie also spoke about school toilets and the Bog Standard Campaign at the launch and welcomed Albany’s initiative to improve hygiene standards in school.

The programme is offering all schools nationwide a hygiene audit appraising the needs and priorities of the school, including hygiene educational needs of pupils, teachers and cleaning support staff.

Mike Burton, Founder of the Albany Healthy Schools Programme and Managing Director of Albany Hygiene Facilities explained: “The government’s National Healthy Schools Programme currently allows 4 million pupils to enjoy the benefits of attending a ‘Healthy School’ but, unfortunately, this programme does not sufficiently cover the hygiene of the building environment which the pupils, staff and teachers inhabit. Also, it does not encompass the critical area of infection control within the school. Our programme aims to work with and support the schools needs.”

The Albany Healthy Schools Programme will run with several waves of activity, starting initially with the offer of free hygiene audits helping to create a nationwide picture of schools’ hygiene needs. Initially the programme will be launched to independent schools with a view to state sector expansion and culminate in the creation of a recognised and credible hygiene accreditation scheme with professional partners.

Dr. Ronald. R Cutler, Queen Mary, University of London also spoke at the launch: “Starting hygiene education from a young age is important to creating a safer school environment. Learning appropriate hygiene practices, such as cleaning hands, can be a powerful way of reducing the risk of cross infection and helping combat viruses. I welcome a dedicated initiative for the education sector that will support their specific needs and even make hygiene education an enjoyable experience.”

If you interested in a free hygiene audit for your child’s school or more information please visit www.AlbanyHealthySchools.co.uk  or call 0870 366 5777.

 There is also new guide for schools on cleaning standards and detailed methods of cleaning school toilets on the Bog Standard website, titled ‘Detailed cleaning guide of school toilets for cleaning staff’.

To download a copy visit www.bog-standard.org/adults_resources.aspx