is this allowed, advertising in school?

[5madthings]

basically my children had a 'motivational' talk in assembly today, but as part of this talk there was some kind of talk about Ned -yo-yos? whatever the hell they are and the children have ALL come out school saying they NEED one they are priced from £5-£11 each!

they havent said much else about the assembly its all about the yo yos that they can buy/

so these were essentially advertised to them in the guise of a 'motivational' assembly?!

anyway i am wondering what the rules are on things like this in school, they often have guest speakers in etc, all great, but surely a company who are essentially advertising a product is not ok?

are there any guildlines on this? is this usual for a primary school? we sometimes get leaflets in bookbags advertising educational materials etc but the childrne have never been spoken to before, it just seems very blatant product placement and i know have a 7yr old who has to have one

are the school allowed to essentially endorse products in this way? and how the hell is a yo-yo or yo-yoing motivational anyway?! there is some kind of little catch phrase they keep singing as well!

oh having just checked the bookbag there is a letter!

its called 'The NED show' a motivational assembly with humour, storytelling, audience participation and memorable object lessons like YO-YO and magic tricks...

blah blah blah and then an ORDER form attached to the bottom so we can order yo yous, and various other accesories such as a yo-yo holster nad dvd!!

plus a web link i can look at myself www.theNEDshow.com for free resources etc etc!!

seriously is this allowed in schools?!

bump i cant find out whether this is something that is allowed in schools, it seems to be a bit of a murky area, there was a recent vote by the nut to stop advertising of junk food etc in school, but nothing about other product placement?

debating mentioning it to the school/ht as i am not happy about it, and given that they supposedly had a 45 talk on motivation nad how to 'develop three valuable characteristics to become champions at school and in life' my boys remember nothing about the talk or the 3 valuable charachteristics, its all aboout the yo yos!

I don't know if this is allowed or not, but this is the sort of thing that has annoyed me for years. Our last school was particularly bad at using these freebies/ advertising spots for PE related things. One year, we had sports week. Every day the children tried a different sport, judo, yoga etc and came out massively enthused. Oh, and carrying a vast array of marketing bumf. This resulted in a lot of nagging, and bad feeling when the children weren't allowed - the reps had clearly made it sound like it was easy "just tell mum and dad to bring you along". Made my blood boil.

I'd contact the school and ask about their reasoning behind it.

We had something similar in school, about holidays not yo yos. I emailed the head and she said "we agree, we won't be doing it again".

yes we have had some sports ones as well, a dance one and drama i think, i dont like them either but at least they are an activity, an 'assembly' where they have essentially marketed a TOY!! is hugely annoying! its whether its worth complaining to the school, def worth a mention i think! i am wondering if the school gets a percentage of any yo-yos that are orderd from pupils!

I would write to the HT copied to the chair of the governors explaining why you are unhappy.
If possible signed by mulitple parents.

I've just had a look at the website - apparently the show is free to the school as long as they can sell their stuff.

You can get a propper trick yoyo for £5 so that price is ridiculous.

When my kids school had those sharks in I put in a formal complaint to the Head, the CofG and the LEA.
Its the same with the "authors" who are free to visit but put mahoosive pressure on kids to buy their book.

Bin the letter.

yes i will be complaining to school! i have seen some kids with the yo-yos tho so they have got what they wanted!

apparently this assembly was a 'treat' for the children, they can accrue 'heads high' points and when they get so many the whole school gets a treat, normally an extra playtime or a picnic, but this time the ht chose this assembly! a treat that essentially encourages the children to ask for a new toy

The school DC used to go to had an author talk to them, managed to convince them that dragons actually exist, then sold a book complete with a magic crystal which they can rub to see if they are near a dragon.......£7 each or £30 for the series!!