SRC - Student Representative Council

The School Toilet Project

Did you know that 62% of boys and 35% of girls avoid going to the toilet at school? According to Dannielle Miller, Project Founder of The School Toilet Project, "School toilets can be dirty, under-funded, poorly designed and a hideout for skipping lessons and even self-harm. School toilets can be detrimental to student mental and physical health and in desperate need of reform."

Since March 2019, hundreds of schools around the country have taken part in this transformative project to turn their school toilets into places that offer students inspiration and hope. Our 2020 SRC, led by Ailish Barry, Lily-Rose Battaglia, Calum Reid, Payton Lawler, Riley Carniato, Loki Marchant and Tallulah Bolsdon has been busy working on this project for over 12 months - researching and collaborating on what we could do to transform some of our school toilets and impact positively on student wellbeing. It was decided to start with the toilets in the canteen area with the aim of eventually transforming the other toilet blocks in the school.

After many hours of meeting, discussing and researching it was finally time to put our paint brushes to work. In week 9 a group of students and teachers worked on creating inspiration boards to be attached to the toilet doors in both the boys and girls toilets in the canteen area.

The selected inspirational quotes were projected onto plywood boards (which have been generously prepared by our maintenance staff) and then they were painted to bring them to life. It is our hope that the opportunity for our students to read these affirmations every day will improve student wellbeing.

At SJPC we value student voice. The School Toilet project was an awesome opportunity for our students to develop leadership skills and work as a team to bring about positive change to their environment. 

We would like to thank the MANY staff who dropped in throughout the 3 days of painting to offer a hand, with a  special thanks going to the Visual Arts Faculty for allowing us to use their space and offer artistic advice. The talented students who contributed to the artwork were Madeline Scarlett, Lincoln Van Ryswyk, Cleo Davison and Alexandra Nealand.

The boards will be installed over the Christmas break. We were inspired by the results and hope that you will be too.