Stick those pencils in your pocket..

Adamocovic

Saw an article when browsing the BBC about schools in England banning pencil cases to stop bullying.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-44075878

Quote from the article:

St Wilfrid's Primary School in Blyth, Northumberland, said it had taken steps to get rid of any "designer goods".

Head teacher Pauline Johnstone said pencil cases have been banned "so there's no comparison on the tables and children are learning".

Maybe times are different now but I don't remember any bullying stemming from what type of pencil cases we had, most of the time people would just draw on them with tipex anyway.

Other actions taken include issuing a standard school bag for all students so no competing again can occur. Charity behind the movement have also called on the teachers to keep eyes out, saying non-uniform days are targeting poorer children and to keep an eye on conversations and discussing what you did at the weekend may offend low-income family students too.

I'm sorry but does some of this seem a bit mad for anyone else? I'm all for targeting bullying behaviour but would it not be better to actually address the behaviour rather than create this monotonous environment where even casual conversation must be monitored?
The two kids in the article say it's helped them so I suppose who am I to judge.

What are other peoples thoughts?

Brilliant idea that needs to be added to and rolled out to other schools
...or...
Over the top actions akin to the world in Equilibrium.

Ubbquittious

Where's the reset button for this planet?

Gravelly

"There was a culture within the school, within pupils, that noticed those children who were never in on PE days for example," Ms Johnstone said.

School has bullying problem - instead of addressing bullying problem and taking action (possibly in case some of the bullying was carried out by pupils that could pull out the discrimination card as happens so much in the UK), school bans pencil cases so they can pretend they are doing something about it without offending anyone.

Rory28

I had a teenage mutant ninja turtle pencil case in school and anyone who tried to take it from me would feel the cold hard steel of a compass!

DavyD_83

Ubbquittious wrote: »

Where's the reset button for this planet?

in Trump's tiny hands :pac:

Adamocovic

Got me thinking, do children really have "designer pencil cases now"? How much money we talking here?

Always was some cheap yoke that would get covered in pencil parings and tipex in no time. Or covered in sellotape was another. Maybe you may get lucky and splash out on one of those Pepsi can ones!

Kitty6277

Adamocovic wrote: »

Other actions taken include issuing a standard school bag for all students so no competing again can occur.

I've seen standard issue schoolbags in the UK a few times, often wondered what that's about.

I think it's a bit much banning pencil cases so kids don't get bullied. Are kids these days not taught there are some who have a lot, and there's some who have very little? That's the way of the world, there's no need for kids to bully each other over what one has or doesn't have.

TheValeyard

Adamocovic wrote: »

Got me thinking, do children really have "designer pencil cases now"? How much money we talking here?

Always was some cheap yoke that would get covered in pencil parings and tipex in no time. Or covered in sellotape was another. Maybe you may get lucky and splash out on one of those Pepsi can ones!

My He-man case was awesome back in the day.

TheValeyard

Ubbquittious wrote: »

Where's the reset button for this planet?

I KEEP PUSHING IT BUT NOTHINGS HAPPENING!!!

riffmongous

Schools said it has led to higher attendance and better results

There was groups created around who had the best things but I think that has been taken away. That's not an issue anymore

Chief executive Jeremy Cripps said the project had improved behaviour and helped more pupils take part in extra-curricular activities.

Hard to argue with results, although it needs to be done alongside work on tackling the real causes of bullying of course.

I still remember the dread of the 'what did you do for summer' segment each September in primary school and one year making up something because we were too poor to go on holidays

This is the pencil case i used have in school. Great for battering bullies with.

ohnonotgmail

Deleted User wrote: »

This is the pencil case i used have in school. Great for battering bullies with.

The pencil case of champions.

_Kaiser_

Deleted User wrote: »

This is the pencil case i used have in school. Great for battering bullies with.

Oh la-de-da with your fancy wood case! This (with surprisingly no actual geometry tools in it) was good enough for me:

ohnonotgmail

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

Oh la-de-da with your fancy wood case! This (with surprisingly no actual geometry tools in it) was good enough for me:

the best thing about them was the stabby thing inside them

andekwarhola

The world has gone to pot.

Gucci pencil cases.

I had a Basil Brush one that cost 2p.

Am I doing this right?

valoren

The Oxford Set of Mathematical Instruments contained an incredibly sharp compass. I think that was banned as well.

_Kaiser_

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

the best thing about them was the stabby thing inside them

Nah these were the best thing in the arsenal:

pleas advice

Mr.Plough

I've been teaching for the past 4 months, and in my (limited) experience when a child is getting picked on by other students they nearly always take something belonging to them and hide it, throw it around etc. It's usually the pencil case too. Kids value those, has all their favorite pens, coloured pencils etc.

I remember back in primary school some fella was slagging me off to my girlfriend (girl who I had kissed once for 3 seconds behind the community centre). Skulled him from across the room with one of those metal pencil cases. He walked over like the Terminator and boxed me full force in the head, and a scrap was had in the classroom before the teacher got there. There wasn't enough time for us to settle our differences so we 'Claimed' each other (agreed to fight in the football field after school the next day).

The next day was PE day, so we both had comfortable clothes for scrapping on. I arrived first, with my supporters, he arrived a few minutes later with his. I remember feeling very nervous. When the time came, neither of us were into it. A few weak punches were thrown followed by a half hearted roll around. We shook hands.

The crowd weren't happy. Someone gave someone a dead leg, which set off a chain reaction of dead legs, and everyone ended up on the ground with dead legs. Good times.

freshpopcorn

Will they ban conversation and shampoo next that might make some kids feel poor?

wexie

......I thought this was going to be about banning pencils cause people were getting stabbed with them.

As far as I see it if nothing is actually done about the behaviour then kids will just find something else to bully other kids over.

Ginger, glasses, freckles, tall, short, fat, thin, white, brown, yellow.....will they start banning all of those too?

The One Doctor

Ubbquittious wrote: »

Where's the reset button for this planet?

Ask Donald Trump, he knows.

Try_harder

I used burned sticks!

wexie

The One Doctor wrote: »

Ask Donald Trump, he knows.

He couldn't find his own ass with 2 hands, a road map and a flashlight.

Let's hope he'll never be able to find that feckin button either

byhookorbycrook

It doesn't matter what you ban, children will still find a way to feel superior to other children. The focus should be on teaching children resilience, both at home and at school. I say this as a teacher with decades of experience.