School calling children piglets?

[GoToSleepBabyPlease]

Came across this on another thread but felt discussing it there would constitute a derail, so bringing it up here.

On a school website (link below):

'To make table manners fun at Hanford we have devised the ‘Manners Table’, a ranking system of eleven different levels with ‘Piglet’ at the bottom and ‘Royal Guest’ at the top. Each level has a different name to describe the behaviour, for example, a messy eater will be a ‘Panda’ or even ‘Cave Lady’ whereas those girls who have mastered dining rather than merely eating will be a ‘Favourite Auntie’ or ‘Best Granny’. When new girls join they start somewhere in the middle with the aim of working their way up as quickly as possible. If they should become a ‘Royal Guest’ they are allowed to bring their own jam to breakfast. Every Friday after lunch, Miss Morrey reads out the week’s manners rankings. If a girl is moved up then they are given a sweet while others may be warned or some even moved down.

1. Royal Guest (allowed to bring their own jam or other spread and can also move people up and down)
2. Best Granny (allowed to move people up and down in manners)
3. Favourite Aunty
4. Primrose
5. Panda
6. Cat (can go to Tuck Shop on Sunday)
7. Squirrel
8. Hyena
9. Boa Constrictor
10. Cave Lady

10. Piglet'

AIBU to think that referring to children as piglets doesn't exactly model good manners?

hanfordschool.co.uk/wellbeing/manners/

@randomer

In some homes,eating with cutlery is not the norm.

Yes but it is useful to know how to do so.

@randomer

In some homes,eating with cutlery is not the norm.

Really? How do they manage their food, then?

Some people will eat with their hands, some will use chopsticks etc.

Nevertheless, regardless of the cultural derail, it is helpful for all children to understand how to use a knife and fork.

@powershowerforanhour

CBA to RTFT but a) how shit must Hanford's house jam be for one's own jam to be sufficient inducement to move up the ladder? b) can you fake it till you make it to best granny then promote everyone else to Royal Guest even if they are eating with their face straight in the bowl- after all, the epitome of good manners is making others feel at ease. c) Royal Guest? Which kind of royal? What's the correct etiquette when consuming one's nosh in Woking's finest pizza establishment anyway...and would you want your teenage daughter to be a guest??

@powershowerforanhour 😂😂😂

It's disingenuous to suggest that Sri Lankan families using their hands and bread to eat curry at home, or Chinese families using chopsticks to eat rice and noodles at home would expect their children or even themselves to eat food such as cottage pie, roast dinners, etc in the same way and would baulke at their children being taught "English manners" whilst paying a lot of money to be educated in a private English school

@MagicSummer, they use their hands/chapatis???

Had a look at the school website on the strength of this. It looks fab - happy girls and unlimited ponies! Stunned by the idea that learning standard British manners in this context is somehow controversial and agree with @SleepingStandingUp that’s disingenuous. There can be reasons why boarding is a sensible option and @Puffykins has been amazingly polite and clear on that point. Not everyone has the same circumstances. The other thing that has come through is the lack of humour in many posts. I am absolutely not suggesting humiliating children is ok. But being a piglet (from Winnie the Pooh) or a cave lady sounds like quirky English humour and something the children engage with - and there’s clearly plenty of scope for climbing up the scale. And the parents have actively chosen it so presumably they don’t see a problem...

@Sobel

Had a look at the school website on the strength of this. It looks fab - happy girls and unlimited ponies! Stunned by the idea that learning standard British manners in this context is somehow controversial and agree with *@SleepingStandingUp that’s disingenuous. There can be reasons why boarding is a sensible option and @Puffykins has been amazingly polite and clear on that point. Not everyone has the same circumstances. The other thing that has come through is the lack of humour in many posts. I am absolutely not* suggesting humiliating children is ok. But being a piglet (from Winnie the Pooh) or a cave lady sounds like quirky English humour and something the children engage with - and there’s clearly plenty of scope for climbing up the scale. And the parents have actively chosen it so presumably they don’t see a problem...

Are you being serious?

@Butwasitherdriveway I'd send my girls there if I had some, lived in a different county and was v rich. No one is screaming piglet in their face, it's private and if they came home crying cos they'd dropped to a piglet, I'd be asking them why they'd been so deliberately rude

Would boa constrictor be like that woman who can eat a burrito in 30 seconds?

She's fascinating to watch, she doesn't chew - she must un;atch her jaws somehow and it just slides down her gullet

[quote SleepingStandingUp]@Butwasitherdriveway I'd send my girls there if I had some, lived in a different county and was v rich. No one is screaming piglet in their face, it's private and if they came home crying cos they'd dropped to a piglet, I'd be asking them why they'd been so deliberately rude[/quote]
Great.

That won't give them issues for life.

Nah former inmate conforms to get to the bottom tiers you'd have to be deliberately rude and she only ever knew of one person in her time there. They're not wearing a pin badge, or being called out in assembly. It's just a board to work UP so you can get your own Nutella. It doesn't sound like it's done or taken with any malice

I just can’t get my head around people who think that table manners are a bad thing .

My children would not get issues for life if they ended up at the bottom. I am very confident that they would be able to be at the higher end because I have spent a lot of time teaching them table manners. I also believe that they could end up towards the bottom through laziness, know exactly what they did wrong and be able to correct it quickly. They would not be “scarred for life”.

I like the “bring your own Nutella”. I might implement a version at home with a sticker chart for chores and table manners. Nutella is a great motivator.

@Puffykins

Also, regarding the inclusivity for children who are disabled; the school is in a listed Tudor manor house and the classrooms are in the old coach houses and girls have to climb in and out through the windows. However I have no doubt that if someone really wanted to go to the school who couldn't manage that, the school would do all they could to facilitate that.

I know this is from very far up thread but are there no doors?!

I think this must be the school a friend of mine went to, she always talks about climbing trees and riding ponies at her prep and I know it was in Dorset.

I am generally very anti boarding but even I was fairly seduced by a look at the website.

I'm coming to summer school. I shall bring blackcurrant jam. I have impeccable table manners as do my kids who are not traumatised or scarred from my expectations.
I'm utterly amazed at the amount of posters who don't think manners are important and also the amount of people who have no sense of humour.

Learning to deliberately turn up dishevelled, stump your feet, display an antagonistic or disruptive stance is not going to do children any favours when they grow up TBH

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to have done Boris any long-term harm...

Ah, the inbred arrogance that money brings. Dress it up all you like.

My DD is at this school. People are making too much of the table manners thing. It’s light hearted, like most of what goes on there. I’ve asked my daughter where she sits on the manners ladder, she doesn’t know.
The school is lovely, childhood is really cherished here. The girls lucky enough to go there leave as confident, we’ll-rounded individuals. There is no hot-housing, girls are expected to do their best and be kind and polite.
Free time is spent away from screens, mostly outside running around, doing cartwheels, doing what children should be doing.
My daughter loves it there.
The only problem with it, which I have heard from many, is that it spoils every school thereafter.

It sounds so pompous and old fashioned

It's an amazing school. Yes, quirky, but no uniform and horses all day. Marvellous.