A secondary school in Orpington has hit the headlines again after introducing another controversial rule which has inspired complaints.

Toilets at Harris Academy Orpington are now locked during lessons, and students must be led to the loo by teachers if they wish to relieve themselves.

This comes after parents blasted the school at the start of the year for introducing a black-coats only rule which "must be removed before entering a classroom".

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Harris Academy Orpington accused of being too strict on coats

Harris now finds itself in another storm with its crackdown on inappropriate toilet use.

One parent, who has two children at the school, told News Shopper it was "ridiculous" and said it was unfair for girls on their period or students with IBS.

She claimed teachers had to email support staff to unlock the toilets once a student asked for permission to use them.

A spokesman for the school said: "Students are allowed to go to the toilet whenever they need to, but if they need to go during lesson times they need to be accompanied by a member of staff.

"This is to ensure they come back to lessons promptly and to prevent a small minority of students from using going to the toilet as an excuse to miss lessons. Students with a medical need are being given keys to the toilets so they can access these on their own when they need to."

Despite the explanation, another parent took to social media anonymously to criticise the rule.

She said her child had been sent home because of the "disgusting idea".

"To deny a child use of a toilet at the point it is needed I feel is disgraceful," she said.

"Even prisoners have a toilet that can be accessed when needed. Children with additional needs or anxiety issue's must be finding this extremely hard.

"I will be making a complaint and I urge other parents to do the same."

A former student who left in 2014 spoke to News Shopper. 

She said the rule was enforced while she was at school and that "girls would relive themselves in bins" when teachers refused them out during a lesson. 

"They enforce an absurd amount of rules on the pupils that in fact cause more trouble than if they were not to exist." 

She added: "Pupils rebel when they feel they are being mistreated.

"The fact that they are locking toilets to prevent pupils using them during lessons will only cause the pupils to cause more trouble and waste more lesson time due to arguments between the pupil who needs to use the toilet and the teacher refusing to let them go." 

Are you a parent at the school who has an opinion on this one way or the other? Please get in touch with our reporter at liam.mcinerney@newsquest.co.uk