Westdale Junior School

Westdale Junior School caters for children aged 7-11 in the Mapperley, Nottingham area. Their mission is that “every child thrives academically and socially and is fully prepared for the next stage of their education and their future lives”. To achieve this, the school aims to nurture the children to be “kind, hard-working, confident and socially responsible members of society”.

Westdale Junior School wanted to redesign their primary school toilets to create a unisex open plan washroom. Make Consulting started work on the education washroom specification, and Bushboard Washrooms were asked to help by supplying our Department for Education compliant school toilet cubicles.

Our HiZone for Schools full height toilet cubicle was chosen by the school as the right fit for their needs. They opted for doors and partitions in Pastel Blue and pilasters in Grey Thatch to match the colours of the Westdale Junior School logo. HiZone for Schools was introduced in response to Department for Education school toilet regulations requiring toilets to “be designed and fitted out to a standard that ensures privacy and discourages anti-social behaviour (including by use of mobile phone cameras) and vandalism”. Westdale Junior School has a “zero-tolerance approach to bullying, the HiZone for Schools toilet cubicle was designed with Secondary Schools in mind aiming to eliminate bullying in areas that are difficult to monitor. The range features a 5mm door clearance with partitions finished at floor level with an aluminium privacy skirting.

Even though the full height school toilet cubicle was initially designed for Secondary Schools, there are safety features included that make this range suitable for primary school toilets which require additional privacy. All of our school toilet cubicle ranges come with anti-finger trap hinges, and we wanted to make sure this was still the case for the HiZone for Schools toilet cubicle whilst still maintaining the 5mm gap. Therefore, we implement a privacy strip detail which allows us to keep both design features.

The full height school toilet cubicle paired with the gender neutral washroom design means that children have total privacy whilst also creating an open plan environment to allow supervision. The vanity units were supplied in matching colours to the toilet cubicles. Countertop basins paired with self-closing mixer taps ensure a safe water temperature for hand washing is always delivered and reduces risk of flooding by ensuring taps are always turned off after use.

Mark Thomas, the Managing Director at Thomas & Sons Ltd, was in charge of the fit out and told us that they choose Bushboard for “their great quality products and fittings along with clear and concise installation instructions”. We supplied the vanity units and IPS panels as our Ready Plumbed Modules (RPM); these units are delivered ready to install with a carefully selected range of sanitaryware and brassware pre-fitted to panels and pre-assembled to a rigid steel frame. Bushboard’s own SanCeram sanitaryware was chosen in our Shenley schools range. Mark suggested the reason for choosing this sanitaryware range was down to the quality and value for money it provides. He noted that while there appears to be an initial additional cost with the RPM units, the quick installation significantly reduces time on-site, leading to substantial savings on labour costs. This has a positive impact on overall site expenses.

Mark said the service from Bushboard was ‘excellent as usual’ and went on to tell us that he received very positive feedback of the fit out from the school. So much so, the toilet cubicle style and colour scheme has been rolled out to other schools within its group.