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?

My ds was a bonny baby - happy and pink cheeked!

He was tiny though!

All babies are bonny :)

But babies can also rock the bald toothless look

Will you have a chat with her tomorrow OP?

Who, the teacher? No, it's not my child - not my place.

To me, bonny means fat, too. I just cannot believe a teacher would be so unprofessional to call a child fat. Or stupid enough to do it in public if they are horribly mean and tactless. Which is why I think she didn't mean fat.

I don't think teachers should comment on pupil's looks at all, so even if "bonny" meant "pretty" where you live, that'd be inappropriate.

Perhaps that teacher lives in an unique bubble where "bonny" means "tall", but ... unlikely.

You do know teachers aren't saints, pax?

There have been teachers who have abused the children in their care, sexually, physically, emotionally, teachers who have committed unpleasant crimes, teachers who have shown up drunk, under the influence of drugs, and so on.

Now before anybody pounces, I am not for a second stating this incident puts the teacher in this league, but it's misleading to suggest teachers are always without fail professional, kind and supportive people.

Bonny Blith Good and Gay, obviously born on the Sabbath Day :)
Sorry love that little poem.
I've never associated bonny with anything other than happy

I agree Vestal.

Sorry OP,I thought it was your dd.

No, I agree, not saints, but generally quite intelligent and also mostly professional in my experience. Insulting a child as fat would be both unprofessional and phenomenally stupid, especially in front of many witnesses.

North east - bonny=beautiful/pretty

Bonny means fat here as in locally, too but I have lived here all my life and don't use bonny to mean fat. To me it means healthy and glowing because that's what it means where my parents grew up and that's where I picked up the meaning from. I wouldn't assume that the teacher uses bonny to mean fat just because she is local tbh.

Having just done 30 seconds research on the matter, it seems that Sheffield is one of the few places where bonny does indeed mean 'fat'. It's linguistically interesting because in other dialects such as Scottish, it's a positive term meaning pretty, but originally large or big-built as in healthy (because centuries ago chubby babies would be the ones who survived); only in Sheffield (anywhere else too?) has it taken on the pejorative meaning of large as fat. So the meaning is very similar, what differs so greatly is whether it's used as a compliment or an insult.

Under the circs, a Sheffield teacher who used the term in a Sheffield school can only have meant it in a derogatory fashion, and that's not acceptable.

Just going off on a bit of a tangent here:

I wonder if there is a link between bonny meaning "attractive" and bonny meaning "fat." It's only recently that we all want to be thin, for most of human history being a bit chubby was considered quite attractive, and the word "bonny" is an old word.

I know in Latin America when I was a kid, "gordita" was a term of endearment, and being thin was considered a shame for a young woman because she wouldn't be considered attractive. Pleasantly plump was the ideal, I wonder if "bonny" is sort of like "gordita." Connotations of pleasing plumpness.

Sorry x-post Archfarchnad.

And I should have mentioned that "gordita" means little fat one.

My goodness teachers get enough stick from parents without having to have another teacher going to town over 1 word.

I would love to know in what parts of the country bonny is regarded as fat. It isn't in:
London
Northumberland
West Yorkshire
South Yorkshire

Are there some areas of the UK where people are more likely to look for offence than others?

What about the regular bonny baby competitions our local paper does every year? You can bet your bottom dollar it isn't about being fat.

I bet those who think that being bonny is fat would hate to be told they look well

In the midlands some 'older folk' do indeed say bonny when they mean large or well-built, as in 'she's a bonny lass'.

YABU.

And over-invested. If your friend's daughter is upset by her teacher's comments, let your friend follow it up with the school.

Also, you've accepted yourself that the word 'bonny' is open to interpretation so why not give the benefit of the doubt? As pp pointed out, teachers are generally not out to insult their pupi's physical appearance.

'Going to town'

Asking about it being tactless isn't "going to town"

Teachers do, absolutely, have it tough, that doesn't mean they can never be wrong or questioned

Re 'bonny', is there any possibility at all we can just calmly accept that it means different things in different parts of the country without making snippy comments?

I didn't answer you original question. It wasn't tactless because bonny doesn't mean fat. Is that OK?

I don't suppose there's any chance at all you can happily concede, as I have, that it might not mean fat where you are, but here, it most certainly and unquestioningly does? :)

I wouldn't have thought a teacher would say, or mean, 'You're very fat for Y4' after mistaking her for Y6. On her first day in Y7 a slim child went to her classroom and was asked why she was there, the teacher was assuming she was a Y9 come with a message. Having towered above all pupils at her primary school, except for one equally tall boy, she was used to strange teachers assuming she was at least 2 years older than she was because of her height, not her girth.
That tends to be teachers' rule of thumb for assuming age up to about Y 10 or 11.
At primary identically dressed twin sisters caused much confusion for some adults because one was taller than average and the other shorter than average.

Yanbu. Bonny can mean fat/big where I'm from.