To think this was a bit tactless of the teacher

[callherwillow]

The teacher in question referred to friends daughter (Year 4) as 'bonny'. I realise that there are areas of the country where this is just a compliment without any other connotations but here it essentially means 'fat.'

The friends DD was a few minutes late due to helping set up the assembly and upon entering had gone to sit with her friends and was stopped by the teacher who tried to steer her to the year 6s and when she politely explained she was in year 4 the teacher commented (in a whole school assembly where the children could all hear her) 'well, you are a very bonny girl for year 4, aren't you?'

Not the teachers finest hour, I don't think?

i think 'you are a very large girl for year 4, aren't you?' makes a lot more sense than 'you are a very pretty girl for year 4'... especially since the OP has confirmed that the girl in question is 'portly' and that the word 'bonny' means... chubby? might be a nicer way of putting it... so yeah, seems a bit tactless.

She shouldn't have been commenting on anyone's size at all tbh.

was the 8yo in question upset by it ? not the point, just wondering if she understood it to mean the same thing...

Bonny doesn't mean fat at all, it means pretty here! Never heard of it meaning fat before.
"You're a bonny lass."
translation - "You're a pretty girl."

Nothing to do with fat!

Acasualobserver

It means pretty here

It doesn't here

Ego like I say I'll PM you if you're really that interested.

Yeesh, willow get yer fat self elsewhere... this is becoming ridiculous.

My apologies for any fuel I may have added to the fire. In my defence, and yours, who the hell knew posters would get so het up about different dialects and verbiage?

I agree with KateBeckett that in this instance it was meant as a female version of strapping. But reading between the lines, yes, she meant fat. most people use bonny as a polite way of saying fat, despite the protestations on this thread.

I don't understand. How could the teacher mean "fat" if they were explaining a mistake in respect of age? How could you determine age by weight? It suggests a daft brain slip.

When you next see her just ask her not to use the word again in that context for the reasons you have explained.

Don't phone the police (or have a "quite word" with the Deputy Head) - inappropriate escalation seems a thing on MN.

callherwillow

I'm going to stick a pin in the map and guess you come from Sheffield.

I guess it's impossible to know what the teacher's meaning of 'bonny' is, as I don't think you can derive that just by knowing that she's local. Maybe she grew up with Scottish relatives or first became acquainted with the meaning in a book? I think we are probably all attached to the meaning of words as we first heard them.

And I would be delighted if someone called my child bonny. To me it's means healthy and well-grown.

Not quite, but I am aware of 'bonny' being accepted as 'fat' in some parts of the north west and the East Midlands. Not sure about elsewhere. But anyway it does not matter. Just a little upset on behalf of friends DD :)

Never known bonnie to mean fat. Just reminds me of this bonnie wee song.
A fine wee lass, a bonnie wee lass,
Is bonnie wee Jeannie McColl;
I gave her my mother's engagement ring
And a bonnie wee tartan shawl.
I met her at a waddin'
In the Co-operative Hall
I wis the best man
And she was the belle of the ball.

Yes, a healthy child for year 4?

It's not really on to comment on someone's size in front of them and other people.

It can be extremely humiliating to some children, who may remember that remark for years to come.

I don't think I'd complain, but focus on child's self-esteem.

I guess it's impossible to know what the teacher's meaning of 'bonny' is, as I don't think you can derive that just by knowing that she's local. Maybe she grew up with Scottish relatives or first became acquainted with the meaning in a book? I think we are probably all attached to the meaning of words as we first heard them.

I've always thought it meant pretty, and I'm pretty sure I learned it from the book Outlander.

I think you are sensitive as you own that your daughter is "portly".
A fat child doesn't look older though, it's being taller that makes you look older.
I grew up with this rhyme about the day of the week you're born on:
But the child who is born on the Sabbath day, is bonny and blithe, good and gay

If I play devils advocate and assume she indeed meant pretty, can you explain the meaning of the sentence 'well, you're a very pretty girl for year 4, aren't you?'

It makes NO SENSE!

Yes, but words change meaning too TooLazy as evidenced by the word 'gay'!

Oops sorry, your friend's dd.

Well, the situation was the teacher tried to sit her with year 6, because she looks like year 6. Bonny meant well grown here.

If it meant just fat, the mistake wouldn't have happened. A year 4 the height of a year 4, but very fat does not look like a year 6.

I don't think it means pretty on its own, it means "you're a big strong healthy lassie".

I've come across it meaning well-grown, big, healthy-looking. This is because, according to two Scottish friends, I have a very bonny ds. And it's true - he is the size of children two years his senior, with barely any chub on him.

So I would think absolutely nothing of that teacher's comment.

(I have also heard it meaning pretty, especially ass applied to babies. Pretty babies often are fat, but that doesn't mean bonny means fat!)

Not really paxillin, because it does lead to a more solid look which generally makes children look larger and, well, bigger generally I suppose. Anyway - whilst I am happy to concede regional variations, 'bonny' very much means 'fat, well built, plump' here, so I know what the teacher meant.