An Auckland high school has caused a stir after issuing a notice which appeared to declare students would be unable to take bathroom breaks during class time.
Lynfield College principal Cath Knell spoke to TVNZ's Breakfast this morning about the issue.
"At the moment, we have our students heading into an assessment period for the next eight days," Ms Knell explained.
Ms Knell says an appeal was made for staff and students to "wherever possible, use the facilities before and in between classes" after students were being disturbed by others who were out during class time. But she says this was misunderstood.
"There was never a ban on using the toilets, rather, an encouragement [to use them at appropriate times]."
Ms Knell says there is "always the opportunity when you're out of class" to have conversations with friends, but the school's "key point is to make sure that our students do as well as they possibly can in their assessments".
"There was a message that was put out in our internal messaging system and unfortunately, the title said, 'No toilet breaks during class time'.
"That had not been checked, it hadn't been sanctioned, so it is a reminder for us that we always need to get somebody to read over our information before it goes anywhere."
She confirmed that students "can go during class as long as they're not abusing the situation".
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