Yorkshire schools urged to sign up for educational period assemblies

Yorkshire Water is urging secondary schools to sign up for its period education lessons to educate young people about sustainable period products and how flushing pads and tampons down the loo can cause blockages in the sewer network. 

Unblocktober is the perfect time to raise awareness about the ‘Bin it. Don’t block it’ messaging where only paper, pee and poo should flush down the loo - to keep Yorkshire's drains and sewers flowing freely. 

Yorkshire Water’s education team have devised a programme that includes sessions on period health and wellbeing for secondary school students. As well as distributing free ‘Full Cycle’ kits to each student in attendance, the period health education sessions feature where to access products and explain the benefits of sustainable products that can be better for the environment, the pocket and the sewer network.  

Anne Reed, social value and education manager at Yorkshire Water, said: “Over 220m non-sustainable products are flushed away every year which contain plastic and take a very long time to break down, which can cause problems to the sewage network.  

“The aim of our sessions is not to convert everyone to reusable products, but to use them as a gateway to openly talk about period poverty and the problems flushing single-use sanitary products can cause." 

The Yorkshire Water education team have recently delivered lessons to year nine students at Dixons Trinity Academy in Bradford. Head of the Preventative Curriculum, Vicky Haycock, said: "We were delighted to welcome Yorkshire Water and Hey Girls into our school. The staff were wonderful!  

“The year nine girls found the session extremely valuable — it gave them a safe, supportive space to talk openly about periods, reduced stigma, and helped them learn so much. The workshop was engaging, positive, and empowering, and we would love to make it a regular part of our provision each year." 

Schools are encouraged to plan and get booked in for 2026 by emailing the Education Team at education@yorkshirewater.co.uk for more information.