PLANS are now in place to offer free sanitary products in all Glasgow schools to ensure no girl misses class due to period poverty.

Pupils from four Glasgow secondaries have been working on a pilot project that will now be rolled out to all primary and secondary schools.

As told in the Evening times, work of female pupils from Hillpark Secondary, St Paul’s High, Castlemilk High and Smithycroft Secondary has shaped the council’s policy on period poverty.

Councillor Jennifer Layden, City Convener of Equalities and Human Rights, said: “This has been a brilliant piece of work by our pupils.

“What better way to tackle and issue than by empowering the very girls that will benefit from our policy.

"The girls looked at the specific issues relating to their school community, researched their audience and came up with viable solutions to any barriers they identified.

“Even in this day and age when no subject is seemingly taboo or off limits to young people – periods and sanitary protection can still be an embarrassing topic.

“And even more so if a young person finds themselves unable to afford the items every month.

“Our schools have always provided pupils with sanitary products if required - but our new policy means that a range of products will be on hand without the need to ask anyone.

“The bottom line of our policy is that we want schools to be flexible in the roll out and develop a process that works best for their school community.

“Having to miss school, college or university because you can’t afford sanitary products is against a women’s human right to access education.

“Glasgow’s policy will put a stop to this and means that any girl in our schools - regardless of their personal circumstances - will never have to suffer the stigma of this again.”

At one Glasgow school 73 per cent of pupils said they knew of a girl unable to come to school because she was not able to afford sanitary protection.

Across the city it was found five per cent of Glasgow schoolgirls have missed school because they can't afford sanitary protection.

The number was smaller than expected - but amounts to around 50 girls in a large secondary school.

An issue highlighted by the girls was dislike of the phrase "period poverty" - they want to see it called "period equality" instead.

The Scottish Government has provided £169,983 to the city council to pay for products and set-up charges for 2018/19, based on costs of £9.63 per girl in secondary schools.

This figure is based on a predicted uptake of 35 per cent in schools with the council pledging

Hey Girls - a Scotland based social enterprise - provided a range of products for the schools to try.

The company also produce a range of supplementary educational tools including booklets and posters that can be used as a learning resource in schools.

For every pack bought from the company, Hey Girls donate a pack free in order to tackle period poverty.

Celia Hodson, Founder of Hey Girls, said: “We are absolutely delighted to be working in partnership with Glasgow City Council in supplying period products to students across the city.

“Glasgow City Council has shown real commitment to tackling the problem of period poverty through their pilot project, and it’s commendable that they engaged the students themselves in designing how this roll out would work.

“We are really pleased to be extending the range of products on offer in Glasgow schools to include reusable menstrual cups and reusable pads, which are more sustainable for young people in the long term.

“As with all of our sales, we will match each box ordered by Glasgow City Council with another box donated by us, meaning that money goes much further as we strive to stamp out period poverty.”