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/

Omg @Puffykins I remember your name as it’s the same as our )old) cat. Did you have the most amazing flat in the world? Not far from me? I tried to get DH to say we should buy it but A. We couldn’t afford it and B. We don’t want to move and C. It wouldn’t look as good without the decor.

Anyway, forgive me if that wasn’t you, but if it was, do you think the school fostered your artistic abilities?

This has given me the best laugh in ages.

And,yes,sign me up for the (imaginary as yet) Summer school, though those ponies may not appreciate me on their backs!

Teacher in State School calls children 'piglets' - PHONE THE COG AND GET THIS CHILD ABUSER SACKED!!!
Private school does the same thing - HOW UNUTTERABLY CHARMING! Manners are sooo important!
Fucking hell.

@Camdenish oh my goodness well remembered and YES! We're still living in that flat. Though theoretically we've sold it, it's just all taking a very long time - which is fine by me! And yes Hanford 100% informed my taste in interiors, though mine are not a patch on Hanford. It's probably the only school to have been featured in World of Interiors. We grew up there surrounded by very good paintings and hundreds of books on art, there was a Welsh blanket on every bed, and even the costumes we used for the Nativity Play (the same ones are still used) were precious and antique. At the same time we were always freezing and there was never enough hot water, but what does that matter if you have beauty?!

My friend went their from aged 8 and totally loved it
She a well rounded intelligent woman

I completely agree with PP who have said that if this was happening in a state school, people would be horrified but because it's a fancy private school it's deemed charming. Such double standards.

Lots of emphasis on playing, tree-climbing, making dens, etc.

You don't need an expensive private school for children to play.

Can you picture the scene when Mr Smith at a West Yorkshire Secondary calls children piglets?

You don't need an expensive private school for children to play

You shouldn't but in practical terms it's a lot easier with the grounds, class sizes and time in this setting.

The whole point of the school is it is Enid Blyton style, innocent, outdoorsy old-fashioned boarding. The girls that go there are all pretty well-mannered, compliant girls. They equally aren't the more competitive perfectionists you can get in London preps. So it works in a way it would t anywhere else. The school traditionally would've been preparing them to be the country lady hosting lunches so is teaching etiquette. It is just a leftover tradition which seems bizarre to the majority as it is so far removed from the typical English primary school!

@GreyGiraffe we were taught to be a LOT more than country ladies hosting lunches! It was at Hanford, in fact, that I was introduced to Hogarth's series (and cautionary tale) Marriage a la Mode and realised that I needed a life plan that went a lot further than just 'get married.' And Hanford was led by some very strong women, which was inspiring.
I am very aware of how privileged I am to have been there. You are right that it is miles apart from the London preps in terms of perfectionism and ambition, but the school does very well academically without the children realising it (for instance, I had Latin lessons while sitting on a pony), getting a disproportionate number of scholarships to senior schools every year, and I really do think that it helps its pupils become the best version of themselves - just, without the competition and neurosis that can be a feature of some of the London preps. Also because the children spend time mucking out ponies/ cleaning the dining hall etc., the other benefit is children not leaving with a superiority complex.

@randomer

Can you picture the scene when Mr Smith at a West Yorkshire Secondary calls children piglets?

But the scene would be made by the parents. Parents who don't like the way this school is run, piglets included, wouldn't send their kids there. That's the whole point of these little, individual prep schools. You pick the one that suits you, suits your child, and you discount any that don't. It's not the same as a parent of a state school child who has little to no control over where they send their kids.

@SirSamuelVimes you are totally right. There were things that I tried to implement at my children's state primary that had been standard for me - such as them taking turns to clean their dining room after lunch/ each class picking up litter in the local area once a term each - and both stopped because parents complained. Even though the children didn't mind doing it and in fact took pride in doing it.

Unbelievable that parents would complain about kids tidying up or picking up litter.
I also want to sign up for the adult summer school!

@motherrunner

Sorry to sidetrack but is this the school where they wanted to send the daughter in ‘Three Men and a Little Lady’? I loved that film as a child!

Pileforth Academy. And I didn’t even have to look it up. I saw that film so many times

There are quite a few of us booking for this summer school. Would it be unfriendly of me to enquire whether there are any single rooms ? Obviously happy to sit quietly communally with the reading and knitting suggested before bed.
I don’t at all mind dorm accommodation in the breakout alpine chalet excursion.

It’s the feline name Puffykins and the fact I drooled over your house at the time. I LOVE a Welsh blanket and every big birthday I plan to buy one for myself but it’s not happened yet.

I love that the story of the flat has come full circle and now we know a bit about how the taste was developed. I’m going to try and look up the school in W of I now!

The school sounds mad bonkers and my hard head says no way would a child of mine go there. My heart wants to go there though. I’m not even that keen on ponies but if they’ve got cats??

Thats terrible. Not just the piglet bit, all of it.
Not a school Id want children of mine to attend.

I’m finding it fascinating how some of us are keen to attend ourselves and others find it diabolical.
I don’t mind sharing HeronLanyon as long as there’s midnight feasts under the Welsh blankets? I don’t even know what a Welsh blanket is. Sound a bit itchy. I also want to climb through the windows to class. Although I’m now worried there’s cats. I’m allergic.

notdonna you think we may need a diagram ? I must have our Swiss excursion included though. Possibly by BOAC from Heath Row.

Holy moly, OP shock
Are you suggesting poor people can’t have nice table manners?!

(There is an excellent ‘working class traditions’ thread running atm. Go and have a look at it, and blow your assumptions out of the water...)

Not at all. Just that if they don't it doesn't make them inferior.

@camdenish thank you for your very kind words.

Re the school, it is a bit bonkers I suppose, but that is what makes it so very wonderful. And certainly there were cats when I was there. One year, a cat called Calypso slept on my bed every night, which made me very happy. But to the poster who says she's allergic to cats - do not fear: they are not compulsory bed companions! Also, being a Jacobean Manor house, the rooms are very well ventilated (ie drafty) so fingers crossed your allergies wouldn't be too bad.

I'd totally come back for summer school with you all, incidentally. Also, I know from which room you can get out onto the roof, and where the loose floorboards are under which we used to hide our sweets.....

@HeronLanyon @notdonna Welsh blankets are a bit scratchy, but also very thick so very good for reading under by torchlight without anybody else knowing.
Also @camdenish I got my Welsh blanket from Ebay and it genuinely was not expensive - certainly nowhere near as expensive as a new one would have been anyway!

If I eat nicely can I bring a duvet instead of jam/primula etc please? And can we make the apple juice with the press (on Instagram) and forage for wild garlic & chives and make flatbreads on the fire pit (also Instagram). I used to beg to go to boarding school - this one would have been top of my list!

Also, I know from which room you can get out onto the roof, and where the loose floorboards are under which we used to hide our sweets.....

Arghhh!! Stop it, you're making me so so jealous. I want to go!

Oh wow - this is insane. Literally like Enid Blyton come to life. I kind of love it, while acknowledging how bonkers it sounds. These girls make their own school skirts in needlework lessons, write letters home on a Sunday after chapel and serve trays of food to visitors at a beagle hunt?!?

I work in a relatively posh private prep school and I can just imagine our children's faces if we gave them rules like these. They'd never be able to take it seriously. Elements of Hanford sound similar to how the school I'm at was when I first started working there 14 years ago - no phones, dens, tree climbing, riding etc - but so much has changed and modernised over the last decade that it's hard to believe there are still schools like this. Our 7-9 year olds still build dens. Sadly the older children turn their noses up now. And tree climbing above 1.5m was banned in a health and safety drive years ago. Our boarders only get very limited time on their 'devices' but I can just imagine the outrage if we tried to take them away from them. Hanford sounds like a little time capsule of loveliness that I can't quite believe really works. And not quite sure how the girls would cope even at a public school such as Stowe, Rugby or St Edwards. Maybe they're more likely to go on to smaller, single sex senior schools too.

re learning support being a paid for extra, it can be a bit deceptive. Prep school learning support isn't always the same as it would be in a state primary. We have two different types. Learning Support and Teaching Assistants who work in the classroom with individuals and small groups of children and/or take them out for intervention work are not paid for by the parents. The paid Learning Support lessons are 1:1 weekly or twice weekly sessions in the Learning Support base and are open to any parent who wants them - usually children with significant learning needs of course but sometimes high achieving children with dyslexia or children who have had their early education in a different language will pay for lessons to plug some gaps. The paid lessons also include internal screening and testing, exam access arrangements etc. So it isn't that a child with learning difficulties will be left without support if parents don't pay. It's more that they can choose to pay for more support (as they are by choosing private school in the first place, I suppose - unfair and inequal but that applies to the whole system, not just to learning supprot).