to expect my permission to be asked before teacher weighs the whole class

[nametaken]

dd was weighed at school today along with everyone else in year 6 - no warnings - no permission slips to sign - nothing.

Now, all my dcs are the correct weight for their height but I take offence at this.

Number 1 for this governments constant interference in the minutaie of family life

Number 2 for school not asking my permission.

Honestly I feel like one of those cartoon characters with steam coming from their ears. If this useless government really wants to tackle childhood obesity why the effing hell don't they

make the streets safer
lower car speed limits
increase pedestrian only zones round housing estates
add more sport to the curriculum

or any number of other things.

OK - is it just me moaning or would you be incensed.

And what happens if your dc isn't within the guidelines for weight/height ratios. Oh dear me you GET A LETTER TELLING YOU OFF.

Lovely.

CP, it's not just about statistics though. If you're very tall, or quite short, it's a statistic but not one they'll use against you. If you're overweight, you're a problem.

Having now read the thread, Iagree it was vile to humiliate the overweight boy, and should be handled more sensitively. But I don't have a problem per se with them being weighed. Otherwise everything we read in the news about X percent overweight etc. is just guesswork. Obviously they should have the common sense to look at their height and build not just pure weight.
I also see no problem with asking children if they eat breakfast. If you know your children are fine, then it all seems a waste of time, but let's face it, lots of children aren't fine, and the school nurse is quite right to be looking out for their best interests, and keeping an eye on possible eating disorders (which are starting very young in some children) as well as poor diets.

I think you are being unreasonable. At least one of my DD's was wieghed in year 5 or 6 it was to do a class graph.

I am just feeling so, so, sad for the poor boy crying. My own ds is on medication that has meant he has put on 2.5 stone in 3 months and he HATES himself. There is not a lot I can do for him. We eat very healthly, I have done SW for over 9 months now, so the whole family is really benefitting but still the meds pile on the weight. I have a very unhappy ds at the moment. I would not like to see my ds humiliated in front of all the class like that.

When my DD started school last year we had a form to complete about things like this. I don't want my DD's weight and height checked, or her teeth checked or her eyesight checked I will do these things myself thanks very much. As someone else has said its all about government stats. Perhaps if they spent more time teaching our children rather than this stuff we might actually achieve better results!

YANBU.

Candlewax!

To be honest we have measured the whole class's height and I'm sure I have weighed groups of children before - but it has just been part of a numeracy lesson on weights and measures. I think I probably wouldn't have chosen that particular lesson if any child had a weight problem though.

If it had been a health check I'm sure they would have been done in private.

golly mountain quite right
interfering busy bodies

We were all asked in our school and I refused.

I was weighed as part of a numeracy class in 1st year secondary school (age 11). I was totally mortified and even more so when I was the heaviest person in the class and got my name on a bar chart on the board...lovely! How to scar a young girl in her first month of secondary school...i will always remember that lesson, i felt like dying.

Just for info: was also tallest in class and not overweight at all but all the other kids were saying 'wow, i CAN'T BELIEVE you are 7.5stone...that's heavier than all the boys!!'

no need for kids to be weighed in public, in maths class - would be ok with it if it was nurse and other kids didn't find out.

another way that the govt can tackle a social problem - a parental problem throught eh eexisting structure of school

georgedontdothat I can relate to your sitution. From primary school I was singled out because I didn;t gain weight, I was skinny and small. My parents were called into school and asked what I ate, the scholl dinner lady was called in as well. The school reported my parents to social services (apparently they fed my sisters and brother and not me ) They did back off until I was 16 and having my final check at school, I was asked what I ate, where I ate (home dinners) and the nurse called my parents again. My dad just told them to leave me alone, I ate like a horse and he wasn't putting up with it anymore. I am now 29, have had 4 children (the last one 4 months ago) and I am 5ft tall and weigh 7.5 stone. All through school I was made to feel dirty because I was skinny and small, that I didn't eat (when I did)

When I was at ballet school - a long time ago - all the girls (17+ y.o.) were weighed every week ... and the results publically displayed..

And they wonder why there are serious eating disorder problems in the ballet world...

Both my dc's came home with papers about the weighing of children and yes did ask for you to send back the slips if you didnt want it done. I was not bothered anycase and just explained to the children about it, so they new what was happening.

it's the public nature of the weighing that bothers me. Is it really beyond a school to have each child taken singly into a room and wighed in private. It's all very well sending the results home in a sealed envelope but that's not much help to an overweight/skinny/tall/short child when your classmates are all given seats in the public gallery as you are officially pronounced out of the ordinary.

it's not f*cking hard to allow children their dignity and their privacy is it?

As for labelling a child as overweight without measuring their height - that is just incompetent. Fortunately I learnt that lesson early at DD's 6 week check

Message withdrawn

YABU. They weighed them, they didn't take blood.

It is public health though isn't it?
I do agree that it could have been done much more sensitively though in a private room, like the secretary's office or something.
We signed a slip when dd started school to permit (or otherwise) any checks like this.
You are obviously a caring sensible parent, but there are some who aren't.....They won't be on a 'parenting' website though....

Message withdrawn

Was the crying boy crying because of being weighed, or something else?
How do you find out he cried, nametaken? Because my 6yo would not be a reliable witness to what upset the boy. What age is he? Only that the Reception/Yr1-age children I know don't care or hardly notice who's pudgy and who isn't.

FWIW, I do think school should have asked for parent approval, allowing for opt-outs, and the weighing should have been done in private. DD was weighed at school during Reception (the county LEA is doing every child in state school). I can see the value of collecting the information, and I don't give a monkey's what happens to it.

Are you sure you didn't miss a letter from school about this? We've had letters go missing, or info was buried deep in some long wordy general newsletter from school. If you're really incensed you could take it to local newspaper to embarrass the LEA, media would love this kind of stuff.

oh this takes me back

i was always the biggest in class - not really fat, but tall (5ft 4 at 11) so heavier than all, even the boys. The sickening dread as it came to my turn. Then they put us all on a chart!!! Stuck on the wall for all to see

Oops, sorry, my mistake (lljkk eats humble pie). I just saw OP said it was Yr6, that does sound quite out of order. Kids that age are aware of body image, surprise or public weighing bound to embarrass someone badly.

In that case, take it to the media!!

Wow! Must have been a massive set of scales.

No yanbu. Any of the children might have found that utterly humiliating.