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A school has introduced gender neutral toilets which it says were designed to make them accessible to everyone.

The “hotel style” facilities were opened at Bishop of Llandaff Church in Wales High School in Cardiff for the start of the new term this week.

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Head teacher Marc Belli said the open plan toilets were designed as gender neutral for practical and not political reasons. He declined to say how much they had cost.

A photo of the new facilities accompanied a tweet from the school’s twitter feed.

The head of the school, which has pupils aged 11 to 18, said: “We put gender neutral in our tweet but it’s not meant to be a gender issue. It is for practical reasons.

“Our toilet facilities have not had any significant investment for a number of years. We decided for open plan facilities which is in line with virtually all new existing buildings for the positive reasons associated with this.

“The facilities were made specifically for us, with floor to ceiling doors, and we felt it more appropriate to say that each cubicle should be available to all as opposed to separating them by gender.”

But the facilities have already sparked some criticism on social media.

And Richard Morgan tweeted: “Are the teachers are specially (sic) trained and willing to give up their break times for the necessary supervision that is going to be required?”

Mr Belli said pupils had been told about the new facilities at assemblies.

“Boys and girls have already divided each side of the open-plan toilets.

“The boys have already gravitated to the left side of the corridor and girls to the right. This was as we anticipated as the original toilets were based in these areas but in an enclosed space.

“But we didn’t want to create a situation where children would have to wait to use any specific section if there were cubicles free. If this is how the children use them this is fine as we are only concerned about students having access to high quality toilet facilities.”

“The decision on this area was purely practical and not designed to be political.

“The primary aim is to ensure all students have access to the best possible facilities. For us, this has not been about gender.

“We have explained the rationale to all students in their assemblies this morning and the feedback from them and families to date has been excellent.

“The students appreciate the investment made on improving a key area of the school which impacts positively on their wellbeing and safety at school. “Naturally, this helps each child thrive at school.”

Mr Belli said there are other toilets at the school which are gender specific.

He said they hope to upgrade these to a similar standard in the next 12 to 18 months but that there are no plans to make these gender neutral.