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

[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

Keeping hydrated is great but this trend of kids having to lug water bottles around all the time is crazy

How the fuck did we manage as kids with no water bottles on the table in class and no dedicated snack time?

I've got to be honest and say I think the two things are utterly nuts.

The whole thing just teaches that you have food and drink availability 24/7 which actually isn't a healthy thing.

At our school they used to be kept on a tray by the sink in each classroom, and children could help themselves.

Since covid, they have them on their desks.

They have to bring water, so spills are easily cleaned up, but that's the only rule.

Most children are sensible. Some definitely use 'having a drink' to procrastinate. Some fiddle with them. Some constantly have them hanging out of their mouth, chewing the straw. They can be a distraction. I wonder whether this has become an issue at your friend's school?

As an aside, it is ridiculous now how panicky kids and parents get if they don't have access to a drink. We recently had a visitor in, with artefacts and all sorts of fabulous, delicate things for the children to handle. They asked that children did not have access to food or drink for that hour. Kids forewarned and allowed a big drink before bottles removed for one hour. My god, the panic amongst some kids, and several parental complaints.

@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?

In my day too, but suffered with loads of UTIs which in hindsight might have been something to with only having a tiny cup of water during the day.

Never heard of a UK primary school that has lockers - is this usual?

"In my day too, but suffered with loads of UTIs which in hindsight might have been something to with only having a tiny cup of water during the day."

You knew which of your little primary schoolfriends had UTIs? Or you had UTIs? I grew up without water bottles and have never had one. Interesting.

""In my day too, but suffered with loads of UTIs which in hindsight might have been something to with only having a tiny cup of water during the day."

Also surely you had more than a tiny cup of water during the day?

A drink before school, milk or water at breaktime, as much water as you needed at lunchtime, a drink when you came out of school?

"Never heard of a UK primary school that has lockers - is this usual?"

We have lockers in each classroom, some schools have trays. So they won't have to go far for a drink I don't think, no further than going to the sink I wouldn't have thought.

Perhaps the school did this before covid and are reverting to that rule op?

I thought good hydration was proven to be better for learning.

They're kept in a crate outside the actual classroom at ds' primary school. Not sure what the issue is here.

Ours insist on water bottles and they're kept in a trolley in class for easy access.

They’re only allowed at break and lunch at my DC’s school as well. Unsure if it’s the same on younger years but they recently banned them from the tables in my DC’s years (5 and 6) because they were too distracting. The teachers have also made it clear how much they dislike metal water bottles because they fall over in the tray and have hurt people’s feet falling. I refuse to buy plastic bottles anymore after they went through 4 plastic ones in 2 months so they’ll have to deal with the metal ones.

Think they're in trays in the middle of a table group in one of my children's classes and in a basket on the side in the other's at the moment but both take water bottles in. I have a straw chewer though so do send in the metal ones to stop that habit (cos she would shred through them).

@RedToothBrush

How the fuck did we manage as kids with no water bottles on the table in class and no dedicated snack time?

I've got to be honest and say I think the two things are utterly nuts.

The whole thing just teaches that you have food and drink availability 24/7 which actually isn't a healthy thing.

I visit a lot of schools, mostly primary and observe a lot of lessons. I was in one recently in which the Reception class I observed all morning had the following: breakfast for all (bagels, fruit yoghurts, snack bar, juice) before school; after 15 minute Phonics, 45 minutes of Continuous provision, during which they could access fruit as often as they wanted; break time with snacks; 45 minute lesson; off to lunch at 11.30am.

No child needs to eat that much food of a morning. It seemed to me to be setting them up with a continuous grazing habit.

No child needs to eat that much food of a morning. It seemed to me to be setting them up with a continuous grazing habit.

Exactly.

I do think kids should be encouraged to drink more water through the day and have it available - but you also have to teach that there are appropriate times to do that and none appropriate times too.

The whole instant gratification culture has taken things to another extreme where you don't learn self regulation or managing when you eat/drink and actually that has value too.

It has struck me that constantly feeding kids has been used by some to regulate behaviour, but in an inappropriate way. Its more of a crutch or comforter and actually we need to either eat better to avoid sugar highs and lows or learn to manage those better.

Eating and drinking at appropriate times, in appropriate levels just seems to be completely over looked.

If you are working in so many jobs, you can't just eat or drink on demand. Its not preparing for the real world. And thats what school really should be about - life skills of all kinds and preparing for the real world.

Once you set up and normalise habits such as regular snacking, its incredibly difficult to break.

I just dont get this.

Water bottles in tray for kids to access through the day at an appropriate time is absolutely where it should be. It should not be water bottles at the table permanently.

And i do wish they would just ditch snacking as a normalised thing. Its just not and I think it creates much bigger long term problems for a term short immediate fix.

@RedToothBrush

How the fuck did we manage as kids with no water bottles on the table in class and no dedicated snack time?

I've got to be honest and say I think the two things are utterly nuts.

The whole thing just teaches that you have food and drink availability 24/7 which actually isn't a healthy thing.

We didn’t, we used to spend most of our playtime queuing for the two water fountains for the whole school, and people used to bring crisps of sweets for morning break.

Schools provide fruit for snack time because the alternative that many children would bring is far less healthy, and water bottles remove the need for water fountains and allow the children to have a quick drink when the need it rather than queuing up or constantly leaving the classroom.

We also used to allow children to sit in the smoking carriage of trains, to go in the back of cars that didn’t have seatbelts, and made them do sport in their underwear, should we go back to these too?

I don't understand the current trend for drinking water constantly.

I went to school in Kenya and even in those temperature we never had drinks constantly at hand, only at break times.

No we still get regular emails asking that all children are sent in with a full water bottle every day as not allowed to use water fountain due to covid. They are kept in a tray and the class has regular water break for little ones. Older children can drink whenever but expected not to interrupt class/ be rude about it.

OP, we’re not ‘horrible teachers’ for getting annoyed about constant interruptions to learning because of toilet trips and constant water chugging.

If you have a class of 30 children for an hour per week (as is the case in my subject) and seven children want the toilet at seven different points during the lesson, that constitutes seven pointless lesson disruptions and reduction of learning time.

I’m trying to maximise focus and attainment, and I’m being asked for the loo every 5 minutes.

Children don't need to sip continuously, especially at this time of year.

They should be having a proper drink with breakfast before school, encouraged to have another at each of morning break, lunch, and afternoon break.

In the summer term if it's hot I'd think its reasonable to have water bottles to hand but not the rest of the time.

Btw children aged 4-8 need around 5 cups a day, so I think 3 during school hours is plenty.

@GladysTheOstrich nice bit of creative writing there

Nope , I do prefer they have a drink on the way in from break and lunch though.

Toilet trips are a no no during lesson time.

No they aren’t banned, but I have a rule where if they’re the metal ones they need to stay in their bags to avoid the deafening noise of them crashing over onto the desks at various points when I’m teaching.

@easyluckyfree

Just have to deal with bottle lid flipping then 🤣🤦‍♀️