To ask you not to buy fidget spinners or any other shit and let your DCs take them to school?

[StrongerThanIThought76]

I'm a teacher. The current fad for Things To Piss The Teacher Off In Class is fidget spinners.

Before anyone jumps on me I recognise and accept that for some SEN kids they are a godsend. I know that. I really really do.

But there are so many kids that are now telling anyone in their vicinity that they are to help them focus etc etc.

NO THEY FUCKING DON'T!

They're a distraction not only to the kid in question, to the kids around you and to the poor sod at the front of the room trying to teach.

If your kid has SEN speak to the SENCO at school who will advise you if your kid would be allowed to have one. Even then (as it is in my school) they should only be used when appropriate.

If your kid is 'normal' then please don't send the damn TOYS into school. The only thing most kids should have in their hand during lessons is a pen or pencil!

And don't call in demanding that your kid gets their TOY back immediately - they've had it confiscated because they're pissing about in class. We wouldn't be happy with them playing with an Action Man or remote control car in class, and neither would you be.

Rant over. We have a hard enough time as it is in schools, keep the extra distraction out of the classroom please?

Thankyou

Randomer, how can my son overcome autism please? I'd love to know.

I like them to play with as well saucery. The weight of them is particularly satisfying.

The trouble is when you've got loads of them going at once the noise is pretty irritating, plus if you've got hearing impaired students in your classes it can affect how much they can hear.

DS keeps mentioning these and I still have no idea what they are. He definitely isn't getting one now. Teachers have a hard enough time with him and his concentration

Not reached critical mass of disruption at my school yet, though. Individual teachers make their own judgements and that is veering towards no spinners out in class, but they do provide alternative fidget items and have done for a while.

Let me provide an example: I have a student in my class who has ADHD. I have no doubt that he has ADHD. He has a fiddle toy. He cannot keep still. He comes into the room swinging his bag round his head. No amount of saying his name (strategy recommended on the PIP) will get his attention. He engages other students in play fights. They reciprocate. He is seated at the front, bit so are the other students with ADHD and they all distract one another.

At this point I am trying to get books handed out, learning objectives written, date and title written down (all school policies - I have to do this). I am SUPPOSED to reprimand him, warn him and then sanction him, irrespective of his SN. I try to give him some leeway. By the time we are 10 minutes into the lesson and he has interrupted me, loudly, perhaps 10 times, and been asked to use his time out card perhaps once or twice so that other students can get on, we are five minutes behind. By the middle of the lesson we are fifteen minutes behind. Etc.

He has a 1:1 TA. She is amazing. He is a lovely boy. However, I look at the faces of the students waiting to hear from me about the poetry techniques we are learning about today (caesura, enjambment, chiasmus) and they are so desperate to listen and learn and literally cannot hear me, or I have to stop giving instruction.

From both points of view, it upsets me.

zzzzz

Not because I want that. I don't. I will cheerfully teach them. I would be their 1:1.

I just can't agree that it is fair to place them in MS when it has such a clear and negative impact on other students. And I HATE saying that. The pp who implied I am pretending is wrong.

They are the devils work!

Can I ask a genuine question. Why would children with special needs need these spinners? They've pretty much appeared from nowhere, and are sold in crappy shops. I wouldn't have even thought they would be remotely safe for a child who mouths. My oldest chewed everything, and I wouldn't have risked letting him use something like this, with the possibility of lead paint.

It's a total straw man argument that it's unfair on children with SN to have a blanket ban on spinners. Surely children who need a fidget object will have had a school "approved" one already. Therefore banning spinners doesn't affect children with SN at all, in fact spinners are doing those kids a disservice, because now people will think their legitimate distraction aids are just another stupid fad 😕

3 of the children in my class have fidget cubes given to them to use by me. During carpet time they use them while concentrating and being focused. One child told me it helps him to not get told off for touching things he shouldn't. He is a much happier boy.
We talked about fidget spinners and my class decided they should not be called fidget spinners but fidget toys. They are not allowed to bring in their own but I have a few they can play with in golden time.
When our newspaper club where writing about them I said I had two words to describe what they are like. "Loom bands!"

I think trifles words are getting twisted and that some people really don't understand just how much teachers already have to do outside of the lessons already.

I have a ds with asd. Yes I have oto do more before school than I imagine most parents if same aged children do for their kids in a week. It's hard work and incredibly draining.
However amazing a teacher is they have to do the same for each child with an additional need in their classroom alongside teaching everyone and making sure they all make progress at the same rate.

I never understand why teachers are expected to manage 30 children simultaneously including 2/3 in that group who require 1:1 in some situations. Ime most teachers give the child 1:1 in classroom where needed - but at what cost to other students? In the same way as focussing their lessons on the need of the majority (27) is at a cost of the 3 with Sen.

The problem is with increased accountability and increased difficulty of the curriculum alongside cuts to support staff and to funding.

Teachers already have to meet weekly/monthly and termly to show progress and highlight those students not making enough. They also have to prove they've implemented wave 1 interventions to improve the outcomes fir those students. If that hasn't worked they need to employ wave 2/3 inteventons. These are clearly outlined in most send reports as 'extra' and small group/ 1:1 interventions above and beyond differentiation. They have historically been delivered by Lsa's.

With Lsa being cut that is the issue.

zzzzz

No, not at all. I know what it is like. I love my kids (I call them that - I know they are not 'my kids') whatever needs they have. I understand those needs and do my best to meet them. I just don't feel I can, adequately, support students with those needs as well as the majority in the classroom. I don't think anyone can do this in a core subject. I would love to see someone do it, though.

They're banned at DC school.

youarenotkiddingme

Massively appreciated. Thank you.

the term " disabled" is a massive spectrum. and there was no luck involved.

Can I ask a genuine question. Why would children with special needs need these spinners? They've pretty much appeared from nowhere
They've been around for 20years but the patent ran out on it last year by the original woman who made it and probably that's why an explosion in them now as anyone can make them (read an article on this the other day )I don't use this specific fidget toy but the general gist is its calming and something you can focus on and fidget with if you have pent up enevery which helps you destress/concentrate/nor melt down

Well it will depend on the individual child as to whether MS is appropriate for 'them'.
In my experience carrot always works better than stick for kids with ADHD. It sounds like the child you talk about would find it extremely difficult not to shout out impulsively so would deserve a reward for the tremendous effort it would take rather than being disciplined for behaviour they can't control. Find out what their interests are and what motivates them - rewards can be the most random things that other children wouldn't think twice about. Whereas being sent out of the class where they can move and not be told off seems to be the only reward offered at the moment.

the term " disabled" is a massive spectrum. and there was no luck involved.

What I meant was you were lucky to be at the end of the spectrum where just "hard work" was enough to allow your children to cope in school.

#Gowgirl bottle flip is still going strong here

zzzzz

I will try to do this. How will it influence me, in your opinion?

TheRealPooTroll

Thank you. All tried. I also teach him in Drama. Practical activities allow him much more latitude in terms of raising his voice and moving around. The demands of the curriculum in my subject (English) preclude my making practical learning the larger part of any one lesson.

They are banned in our school unless on IEP - instant permanent confiscation and a detention now after lesser sanctions made no difference.
I overheard some boys the other say and one was saying 'we should pretend to be autistic'
A boy who is allowed one but who never previously flaunted it now comes into class ostentatiously spinning it because he can