Research has reveals that 16% of teachers have prevented a student who has their period from using the bathroom during lessons and 30% of teachers believe girls should “wait until the end of a lesson”.
One 15-year-old girl said: “If the toilets are locked when you have a period, you’re in trouble. A friend of mine bled through her uniform.”
The findings show that concerns about issues such as truancy, vaping and bullying are preventing teachers from allowing students to leave their lessons.
However, the survey report reminds schools: “For every teenager asking for a toilet break without a valid reason, there could be another who is about to bleed through their uniform.”
The survey findings have been published by Phs Group and Irise International and have led to the launch of a guide and toilet policy toolkit for schools to help address the issue.
The poll involved more than 500 secondary school teachers and shows that in 35% of the schools, students can access toilets freely at any time. However, in 65% of the schools toilet access is restricted to varying degrees:
- Students must have a teacher’s permission to go to the toilet (29%).
- Students need a hall pass or similar (15%).
- Toilet access is restricted but only during lessons (13%).
- Toilets are locked at certain times (5%)
- Toilets are locked at all times (4%).
One in four of the responding teachers (26%) admitted that they had witnessed issues after denying students permission to go to the toilet, including bleeding through uniforms.
Previous research findings show that, on average, three school days a term are missed due to periods. Holly Hicks, 15, from South Wales is now being home-schooled due in large part to her school’s “inadequate and inaccessible toilet facilities”.
She explained: "Some were open, some were closed. Often the entire block where the toilets are located are locked, so you can’t get into the building.”
Furthermore, requests for menstrual products required a trip to the office, often involving male staff and lengthy detours. Holly added: “It’s this whole big process just to get a pad. The toilets were also really far from the office, so it becomes this extremely stressful ordeal if you unexpectedly get your period. The whole process could take around 10 minutes of walking here and there and you could leak through and be embarrassed in front of the entire school.
“If the toilets are locked when you have a period, you’re in trouble. When I was in year 7, a friend of mine bled through her uniform. She had to walk with a teacher the whole way through the school to a different block to get products and change, it was horrible.”
More positively, 96% of the schools involved in the survey have signed up to the Department for Education’s period equality scheme, which was launched in 2020 and is delivered by Phs Group.
Free products available under the scheme include period pads, environmentally friendly period pads, reusable period pads, applicator tampons, non-applicator tampons and menstrual cups.
Figures show that since the scheme began, 99% of secondary schools have made orders, with £5.5m being spent on products in 2023/24 (DfE, 2025)
However, the Phs Group survey revealed that some secondary schools “are not making period products freely available in washrooms due to concerns the funded schemes are open to abuse”.
In 40% of the schools the products are only available via reception or the nurse’s office, whereas only 27% said they are available in washrooms.
Irise International has now published a Toilet Policy Toolkit to help schools “create an accessible, inclusive, working toilet policy to ensure all students can use the toilet facilities as and when they need”. This resource comes alongside a 16-page guide to period equality in schools published by Phs Group (links below).
Chrissy Cattle, CEO, of Irise International, which works to tackle menstrual injustice, said: “Restricted toilet access in schools remains a major barrier to education for young people who menstruate. In developing this toolkit, we have been horrified by reports of school toilets being locked throughout the day and government-funded period products being hidden away in cupboards – completely inaccessible to the students who need them.
“We know schools are under immense pressure, but the reality is that young people who menstruate, as well as those with bladder and bowel conditions, are paying the highest price for these restrictions.”
Kelly Greenaway, period equality lead at Phs Group, added: “Many teachers feel torn between implementing school policy and supporting students on their periods who need immediate access to a toilet. No learner should ever be forced to endure the shame and embarrassment of bleeding through their uniform because they are not allowed to leave their lesson. We need to give teachers the training, knowledge, support and tools to ensure that toilet access is a given – a right – for any learner on their period.”
- DfE: Period product scheme: management information, 2025: www.gov.uk/government/publications/period-products-scheme-management-information
- Irise International: Toilet policy toolkit: www.irise.org.uk/uk-schools-toilet-policy-toolkit
- Phs Group: Period equality (survey findings) 2025: www.phs.co.uk/media/p01old3k/phs-group-period-equality-whitepaper-a-lesson-plan-for-toilet-access.pdf
- Phs Group: Best practice guide on how to facilitate period equality at your school, college, or university, 2025: www.phs.co.uk/media/kuzfs3jb/phs-best-practice-guide-how-to-distribute-period-equality-mar2025.pdf
- For more information on the Department for Education period products scheme, visit www.phs.co.uk/campaigns/period-equality-dfe/