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/

@Tankflybosswalkjam

I’ve just downloaded and read the prospectus, and allowed myself to drift into a haze of how much I want to go there right now. And then remembered that I’m a 50 year old mother. Damn.

Me too!

( read the name. READ IT AND UNDERSTAND IT made me ! Funny Heron!)

I looked up this school because of some comments on the boarding thread which intrigued me (saying it was magical, unique, etc) and spent a happy hour on the website - it does look really lovely, though obviously only available to a tiny minority...

Lots of emphasis on playing, tree-climbing, making dens, etc. I'd have loved this for myself, or my own girls. I'd have specially loved tacking up a pony and riding every day before breakfast, or popping to the stables at free periods to help groom or muck out.

Any school can be a cruel place for this or that reason (I hated my own) but it looks to me as if Hanford gives its girls the sort of childhood/schooldays which could be idyllic and I can see why Puffykins looks back on her days there with such fondness.

Bloody hell. 10 levels? Very complicated just to get children to eat well. Seems bizarre. And just very complicated!

Imply that being a cave dweller is something to be ashamed of

For all those children from cave dwelling backgrounds at this school or indeed anywhere? I think it's light-hearted and the previous posters who went there have explained this.

Another 50+ person here who wants to go to the school, a school with no uniform but dogs and ponies, and options to bring your own pony!

Over the summer they should run a summer school for oldies to spend the day.

Two of my aunts 'did' there back in the 70s. That manners system was in place then. They worked in a few schools and always talk about there as the best place, girls very relaxed and happy. Unlike a nearby school that was riddled with 'class warfare' from top to bottom.

I wonder what other ancient traditions they still have?

It sounds wonderful and just the sort of school I would have loved to attend as a girl.

Over the summer they should run a summer school for oldies to spend the day.

Yes! I'd love that but would prefer to stay overnight so I could knit in the dorm

@CuriousaboutSamphire that is really lovely to hear. I probably knew your aunts! Everyone who worked at Hanford when I was there was really lovely, and because the school is quite small everyone knows everyone.

sashh fully agree I would sign up to several weeks esp if they included a stay in a high alpine dorm finishing school. I think there is something in this idea !

How weird? What about kids like my boy with dyspraxia who are messy eaters through no fault of their own?

I would imagine that the manners being taught would include acceptance of that!

It’s all being taken a bit seriously on this thread isn’t it. I think it sounds sweet - I fear both my children are piglets - would have loved school to weigh in!

@Puffykins, I'm intrigued by the lessons in the coach house. Do the teachers also have to climb in through the windows?

@SallySycamore yes! Although they can walk through other classrooms if they'd rather..... (and not all of them are window access only.)

@Skatastic

How weird? What about kids like my boy with dyspraxia who are messy eaters through no fault of their own?

Your boy is presumably not going to be at an all-girls school though, so is probably safe from the rules

@SionnachRua

That's fairly normal for a prep school.

I've worked in a couple of private schools in my country and that's not how we do it here, I find it a bit repulsive tbqh. But maybe it's different in the UK, I wouldn't know.

I’ve worked in both systems in Learning Support - very different set up. No govt subsidy in U.K. private schools.

Shouldn't really be offering sweets (or jam) as a reward. There's enough disordered eating around.

@serin

Shouldn't really be offering sweets (or jam) as a reward. There's enough disordered eating around.

And there will be a lot more if we outlaw moderate quantities of jam and sweets as treats.

The school grows its own fruit and veg so I’d bet my house that it offers a very healthy and well balanced diet.

I don't see a problem with it personally. I just think it's over complicated with too many levels. My niece has awful table manners and something like this at school might encourage her to improve. They try and teach her at home but she just doesn't seem to care. She is nine her younger sister is five and has really good table manners. The nine year old eats with her mouth open, talks with food in her mouth and uses her fingers to put food onto her fork. If they did something like this at school she would want to be in the top group and would definitely make more effort.

On a side note at the primary school I went to in the 80's, they swimming lessons were split into 2 groups ... dolphins and bricks!! I never got a complex for being a brick... I was just very proud when I became a dolphin!

@serin

Shouldn't really be offering sweets (or jam) as a reward. There's enough disordered eating around.

LMFAO. I expect jam on toast after pre-breakfast horse riding is probably ok!

Some people just want to suck the joy out if everything.

Sign me up for the summer camp for wannabe boarders who are now far too old, please!

It sounds like the whole school is designed to turn out little handmaidens who know how to serve the menfolk and appear prim and pretty in public. I can imagine these rules being written by a man, rubbing his hands together and heavy breathing.

@HeyDemonsItsYaGirl

It sounds like the whole school is designed to turn out little handmaidens who know how to serve the menfolk and appear prim and pretty in public. I can imagine these rules being written by a man, rubbing his hands together and heavy breathing.

I think it’s exactly the opposite. Girls do a lot better in single sex schools and are far more likely to be feminists with a strong sense of self worth.

It’s a mistake to conflate traditional good manners with misogyny.

@HeyDemonsItsYaGirl are only girls meant to have good manners then?

I would have thought most girls would leave that school confident happy young people

HeronLanyon
read the council name. READ IT AND UNDERSTAND IT

Brilliant!

I did find the bit about manners weird but I've been on the website and it sounds brilliant, like a fun, happy place to be.

I admit I'm always one if those people who think why do people have kids and then send them away? Being from a working class council estate family it's just way out of my experience but then everytime I read about a boarding school I always end up wanting to go myself 😂

Anyway I read it all out to my dd and she's demanded I buy a lottery ticket ASAP so she can go and my ds is mad that he couldn't go there!