In many school buildings, the sanitary facilities are neglected. To change this, a beautification competition was announced for the first time.
School toilets are a hotspot in many places, there is a lack of soap and toilet paper, and it often smells bad. Some students avoid the toilet and eat and drink too little. At the 1st German School Toilet Summit this Tuesday in Berlin, three schools from Munich, Unna and Winsen an der Luhe will be honored for their newly designed sanitary facilities. One of the main prizes in the “Toilets make schools” competition organized by the German Toilet Organization (GTO) goes to the Winsen High School (Harburg district) for its innovative ideas.
“Our goal is for children to stop thinking about whether they want to go to the toilet,” says Steffi Wille, initiator of the toilet club Toffi Club – the name is based on a well-known sweet that the teacher brought to each of the numerous meetings with the students, especially those in the fifth and sixth grades. The club now has an email address and business cards.
Last year, Wille worked with Lüneburg artist Swantje Crone to beautify the sanitary areas using mosaics. Children put together pieces of clay from old tiles and painted some of them. This school year, the wall motifs were polished and cleaned. The school also bought toilet brushes, which the group put their stickers on. Light motion detectors and trash cans are also new.
A total of 135 schools from Germany took part in the competition. In some cases, the infrastructure was dilapidated, and vandalism, stench or privacy were often problems. The Laagberg School in Wolfsburg was awarded a special prize for sustainability. In the primary school, there is, among other things, skills training for first-graders: how does the flush work. And every week two other children do a “toilet check” using a checklist.
Moment of shock at the football festival: Police officers shot down an armed attacker on Hamburg’s Reeperbahn. The situation is secure, the background is still unclear.
After her mother’s death, Sophie Weber clears out her completely trashed apartment. And remembers her childhood and youth near Stuttgart, when she didn’t even have her own bed.
