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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to ask if your primary school have banned water bottles in class

106 replies

crikeycrumbsblimey · 10/01/2022 17:48

Just having a discussion with a friend whose primary age DD has been told they are not allowed their water bottle in class and it needs to stay in the locker. They have said water bottles are distracting. They only allow access at breaks.

Could anyone let me know if their school has adopted the same policy? They have told my friend that "most" primary schools are adopting the same policy but between us we can't find a single other school.

YABU - my school does not allow water bottles in class
YANBU - my school allows water bottles in class

Just wondering how common this is. Thanks

OP posts:
Redlocks28 · 10/01/2022 20:38

It used to be a highly prestigious monitor role when I was at school to get to collect the teacher on duty a mug of hot coffee from the staffroom and take it down two flights of stairs and out to the playground where they were!

Original poster
crikeycrumbsblimey · 10/01/2022 20:45

Come to think of it my English teacher did this as well!

OP posts:
crazyjinglist · 10/01/2022 22:18

As for teachers drinking tea/coffee in the classroom, I was shocked when DD told me they did that at her school.Wait until break everyone!

Why? Unlike children, I don't spend the lesson fiddling with my drink, spilling it on the desk or knocking it on the floor. It's a lidded flask. I don't see any reason why I wouldn't be able to have it in the classroom. In one of my schools the headteacher often brings me a cup of tea into the classroom while I'm teaching Grin

I work in multiple primary schools. In some the children are allowed drinks bottles on the desks, in others they're in a tray at the side of the room. I'm not sure which is more disruptive actually- the fiddling and spilling or the constant asking to get their drink bottle. Oh and then the resulting always needing a wee!

OnlyAFleshWound · 10/01/2022 22:24

@crikeycrumbsblimey

Just having a discussion with a friend whose primary age DD has been told they are not allowed their water bottle in class and it needs to stay in the locker. They have said water bottles are distracting. They only allow access at breaks.

Could anyone let me know if their school has adopted the same policy? They have told my friend that "most" primary schools are adopting the same policy but between us we can't find a single other school.

YABU - my school does not allow water bottles in class
YANBU - my school allows water bottles in class

Just wondering how common this is. Thanks

Wow, you and your friend have some strange conversations!!
starfishmummy · 10/01/2022 22:28

@JurgensCakeBabyJesus

I don't have a child in primary school, but certainly when I was at primary school we had access to drinks at break times and our daily milk. None of us died of dehydration. It doesn't seem unreasonable to me.
Exactly. We had to queue up for the barely functioning water fountain at break times
Davros · 10/01/2022 22:31

In my day,, teachers did not have drinks during classes. We suspected they rushed to the staff room for gin and a fag at any opportunity. The smoke that billowed out when the door got opened!

Thirtytimesround · 10/01/2022 23:28

Yanbu. My school tried to move water bottles into the hall. The children (age 6) got dehydrated with most drinking nothing throughout the day. I looked up the law in England, found that the school are LEGALLY REQUIRED to let the children access water and wrote an angry message to the head about her illegal policy.

They have the bottles on their desks now.

AdviceOnLife · 10/01/2022 23:35

Before covid all water bottles where kept at the sink and they had access all day. It worked perfect.

Since covid they are no longer allowed water bottles brought from home incase they use the wrong one or bing in germs on the bottle.
But to make sure they all still have water the school has mass bought waters bottles for each child in the school.
The same identical bottle for each child. Confused
It is the class teachers responsibility to fill them and clean them each day. Poor women has far to much to do as it is bless her.

HotPenguin · 10/01/2022 23:38

When I was at school there were no water bottles, only open jugs of water hanging about on tables in the canteen which you always suspected someone had spat in. As a result I used to go all day without a drink, which must have been awful for me. I also used to go all day without using the toilet at school. I'm pleased my kids can have a drink when they want!

JustLyra · 10/01/2022 23:45

In the schools I’ve worked in it’s been mix of on desks or on the side. I can’t think of any in the last 10 years that have banned, or even discouraged water bottles.

DD3’s school currently asks that the children have two water bottles. One for morning and one for afternoon as they can’t refill them easily atm (they’ve kept up a few strict policies re covid). Infants keep them on the side and the rest on their desks

TheTeenageYears · 11/01/2022 00:24

@ArblemarchTFruitbat

Slightly off topic but in my young day it was unheard of to have drinks in the classroom. You could get a drink of water at break or lunchtime. Why is it children nowadays need to have water bottles in the classroom?
Maybe because things change over time and hydration is now known to help concentration amongst many other health benefits. Newborn babies were given water overnight in hospital when I was born rather than milk to try and make them sleep through the night. Do you also think feeding newborns every 2/3 hours day and night is also poppycock?
HiJenny35 · 11/01/2022 00:49

Very old fashioned attitudes and actually rather concerned by the amount of teachers who apparently can't cope with a water bottle that has a closed lid being on a desk. How some are getting spilt weekly I have no idea, it comes in full, lid is on, only opened to drink from, if it falls over its closed, just pick it up again. Studies haven't been disproven, it's actually been proven time and time again that access to water throughout the day increases children's focus in lessons. It's not at all difficult to have a water bottle either on the table or at the side, I've managed it for years teaching primary and sen pupils from 3 to 25 years old. If your class are being disruptive then there's somthing else going on and you need to look at that no limit access to drinking water.

shouldistop · 11/01/2022 05:56

Ds1 has a water bottle in class, he says they all go in a box together. I don't think he ever drinks any. He has a drink at breakfast, milk with his lunch, a drink with his after school snack and one with his dinner. He seems hydrated.

Water bottles weren't a thing when I was a child.

Redsquirrel5 · 11/01/2022 06:12

Years ago the school I was working in was part of a study into children having access to water available in bottles within the classroom. We were an inner city school.
The outcome was that the children’s concentration increased when allowed access to water. The study was done over quite a period of time.
The Deputy Headteacher whose class was one taking part found it surprising and interesting that concentration levels increased and therefore performance improved.
The school continued to have water bottles available and the teachers could chose as to whether they were on the desk or in a box.

AnotherMansCause · 11/01/2022 06:23

DD's school encourages water bottles but AFAIK they are placed in a box near the sink rather than on desks, except in very hot weather. DD is prone to UTIs (like me), it's been an ongoing battle trying to get her to drink enough water during the school day. I would not be impressed if they restricted her access to drinking water. When I was at school it was breaktime only - at primary there were no cups provided, at secondary there wasn't time during break, non spill bottles weren't really a thing by then. Maybe in outdoor shops but my mother wouldn't have been able to afford one. I'm practically wedded to mine these days & soon notice if I get dehydrated for long - hello cystitis!

GladysTheOstrich · 11/01/2022 06:28

Agree with @Daimari. Humans are not tropical houseplants. Year 7 sit chugging water and asking for the toilet all the time when they first arrive at secondary; it’s really disruptive and totally unnecessary.

Fedupsotired · 11/01/2022 06:29

@Davros if I waited until break I wouldn't get a drink! I don't get a break in my classroom, if I'm lucky I get a quick moment of cover to go to the loo so I always take my drinks in a thermal mug so I can have them when I'm teaching.

Like others have said we have bottles on the side and then they can have access when they ask

GladysTheOstrich · 11/01/2022 06:30

I would also argue that the learning time lost to drinking/going to the toilet outweighs the benefits to concentration.

RoyTroyAndChris · 11/01/2022 06:31

@Redlocks28

As for teachers drinking tea/coffee in the classroom, I was shocked when DD told me they did that at her school.Wait until break everyone!

I am on playground duty with my class every morning so don’t get a break (unless I am desperate for a wee and the head comes to watch my class for two minutes). I have a screw top flask in my classroom with tea in, otherwise I wouldn’t get a drink.

Absolutely this! Teachers rarely get breaktimes - duties, phone calls, prep for next lesson, dealing with issues...

Our water bottles go on a shelf outside the classroom - I was fed up with the spills and the children's places aren't static so bottles are just another thing to carry to their next seat.

The metal bottles also make so much noise when they get knocked over - they are particularly frustrating. Children are allowed to go and get a drink when they ask.

LondonQueen · 11/01/2022 06:33

Most schools use a tray to keep them in but children are free to get a drink when they ask. An outright blank is not in the best interest of the children.

purplesequins · 11/01/2022 06:34

they haven't banned them per se here, but they ask dc to only drink during appropritate times.
so not during teacher's talking or during their work but in those moments when they get the books out for example.

PoorMegHopkins · 11/01/2022 06:56

On the desks, no issues- tricky class and I choose my battles wisely Grin I can’t be bothered policing their fluid intake. Or fidgeting/slouching for that matter. Cannot expect 11 year olds to sit like little robots for 5 hours a day. How many adults sit at their desks with no drink, no slouching allowed? I know which kids are listening and which aren’t. I drink coffee in my room too, break duty every day because of Covid.

crazyjinglist · 11/01/2022 07:52

Very old fashioned attitudes and actually rather concerned by the amount of teachers who apparently can't cope with a water bottle that has a closed lid being on a desk. How some are getting spilt weekly I have no idea, it comes in full, lid is on, only opened to drink from

I don't think any teacher said they couldn't cope. We generally have to cope with more difficult things than water bottles. And you talk as though you somehow think it's the teacher's fault that children spill their drinks.

There's nothing old-fashioned about remarking on something which has a distracting and potentially time-wasting effect in the classroom. Banning water bottles from the room entirely isn't necessarily desirable or the only solution.

MarshmallowFondant · 11/01/2022 08:00

Completely the opposite in our school. Kids have to take water bottles with them from home if they want them, as access to water fountains was banned because of Covid. Hmm

Original poster
crikeycrumbsblimey · 11/01/2022 08:10

@PoorMegHopkins you sound like a lovely teacher! I like a human teaching x

OP posts:
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