Drinking Fountains

Drinking Fountains

Drinking Fountains for Schools

Children require proportionately more fluid intake than adults due to differing body compositions; a child’s total body mass is roughly 75% water, whereas adults range between 50 and 60%. Children also have higher metabolism rates. As such, eatright.org have issued the below guidelines for daily water intake, based on data from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies:

Boys and girls, 4 to 8 years, 5 cups per day

Girls, 9 to 13 years, 7 cups per day

Boys, 9 to 13 years, 8 cups per day

Female, 14 to 18 years, 8 cups per day

Male, 14 to 18 years, 11 cups per day

Research into water consumption for schoolchildren suggests that dehydration causes slower cognitive and motor skills, leading to shortened attention spans and making tasks like handwriting all the more cumbersome. It is therefore advised that teachers make more effort to encourage regular hydration throughout the school day.

Stainless steel drinking fountains offer a cheap, robust solution for schools to provide access to drinking water. Additionally, bottle filling stations are now offered to encourage the use of reusable water bottles instead of disposable ones, aiding hydration while on the move and reducing the amount of plastic sent for recycling or to landfill.

Planning your school drinking fountain

It is common for drinking fountains to be incorporated into toilet facilities, but BREEAM guidelines suggest that drinking water should also be provided away from such areas. As such, it is advisable to have several drinking fountains located throughout school premises, encouraging children to drink at regular intervals. Open-plan access adjacent to corridors is considered best practice, allowing for staff supervision, encouraging good behaviour and limiting the chances for vandalism.

Government guidelines state that schoolchildren must have access to clean, fresh drinking water at all times, but a Natural Hydration Council survey in 2013 suggested that 60% of parents throughout the UK were dissatisfied with water provision in schools, with 73% claiming there was no access via water fountains.

It would appear that it is common for traditional drinking water fountains to have fallen into disrepair, owing to anecdotal reports of limited access to water, but the positive impacts of hydration - on health in general, and on cognitive ability in particular - should not be ignored. Thus, installing appropriate numbers of drinking stations throughout the premises and within the grounds, should be a priority for all educational organisations.

Local authority schools can purchase on account - please email your purchase orders to sales@washwareessentials.co.uk (please include delivery charges and VAT on the order), or call us on 01275 400456 for more details.

Outdoor drinking water fountains will need to be isolated and drained down during freezing temperatures.