School has asked dcs to use only plain, undecorated pens, pencil cases, rulers etc. Is there any evidence that using 'fun' stationary puts kids off studying?

[comoco]

Is banning fun stationery now normal in primaries?

Feel bad for little ones not allowed fun 'character' pencil cases or rubbers etc they've been given as presents. Apparently they will now be confiscated. :(

I've never heard of this before - is there actually any evidence that kids study better with boring stationery? And won't kids get it all confused with everyone else's if it's all identically boring?

My dd was at a girls school where most of the girls were actually from rich families and I've never known her to have so many of her things stolen. I was fuming. The things that most regularly went missing was stationary and pencil cases from Smiggle. Another child also had a very expensive pen stolen. In year 6 a child stole charity money. It seems that some people are so entitled they think they can just help themselves to other people's stuff

Leccybill YY to all of your post.

Only good thing is that I gather in all useable stationery left and hand it out to the next person who realises 20 mins into the lesson that they might need a pen (this is the other end of the stationery scale).

Year 7s are a nightmare with stationery so I dread to think what they are like in primary. They faff about with fluffy pens, green gel (that fades after a day and can't be read) and ask loads of questions such as 'can I underline the date in pink melon?'.
Black or blue pen, pencil, a ruler that is actually straight and a boring rubber. Perfect.

The kids in my class spent ages arranging all their cute rubbers 'just so' (usually demarcating 'their' portion of the desk, but occasionally interesting pyramid structures or little tableaux showcasing mini-portraits of the daily grind of life as a rubber ) a couple of years ago. To the detriment of their learning.

Then they'd fall on the floor and be trodden on / misplaced / binned by the cleaners so parents would be in, annoyed that the squillion pounds they spent in Squiggle / tinc was wasted. To the detriment of my sanity.

So I banned them

"Sadly I don't think there's too much research council funding out there to facilitate research into the side effects of Smiggle." OutDamnedWind lol!

Comoco - wasted time is a detriment to learning - these things are unnecessary and waste time; therefore detrimental to learning.

Never had to provide stationery at primary school...,,,thank goodness

No, we don't provide any stationery at all either. The school provides it.

Can't believe a parent is so exercised by this.

OP I'm guess little Stasha has come home upset she can't use her sparkly pens and you want to complain?? How much time have you wasted on this? Are you going to speak to an unreasonable teacher or the head? You could write to the daily fail ..... In gel pen ....

Bottom line, comoco - it won't kill your dd to leave the fancy stationery at home.

As another poster has said, you aren't going to find any big research trials to give you statistics on this - but there is some good, anecdotal evidence on here, from teachers. I guess that's not going to be good enough, though, is it?

It's a Daily Mail sadface story just waiting to be written. Disconsolate little girl holding up some pretty pens, with the headline, 'Artistic lass left heartbroken by Head's black and white attitude to learning'.

Someone will call out 'Can we do it in gel pen?'

To which the correct reply is 'You certainly can. The question is, may you?'

Channeling Miss Annersley, Harriet?

Smiggle nil, teacher 1. Sounds like common sense is thriving in some schools at least.

I wondered how long it would take for someone to identify the origin of the saying!

Banned personal stationery in my class when I taught. Totally unnecessary for any child to have anything beyond the pens, pencils, that we provide. Bloody novelty rubbers were a major PITA!

Instead of getting down to what they are supposed to be doing they look through all the pencils to decide which one to use, choose one then discuss it with those on the table therefore distracting them from working.
Then suddenly it is the end of the lesson and they have only completed half the work!
Let your DC use it at home. No, they don't get confused as they write their name on it and recognise their own writing or the teaching staff do!

We provide all stationary to avoid "fun" pens

Stationery stationery ...I hate predictive text stationery!

My dad is 4 and just finishing her first ever term at school.

My initial reaction to your post was , that is so boring and unfair and unnecessary!

But after a minute reading and thinking, this is great!!

I am a single mum of 2 (4&2) and I loathe the days the competitiveness starts. We live in a very affluent area of north London. Kids showing up to school in Barbour coats, uggs, gant, joules, hunter wellies etc.
By comparison I'm the single mum in the council flat struggling to make ends meet. Dd's fleece went missing and I simply can't afford to replace it.

This whole system sounds great!!

I see your point but I might actually suggest this to our school and there is a visible division between the haves and have nots here

OP, really?! Does this actually matter?!

DD1 is 9 in primary school, they don't allow any personal stationary at all and provide everything the children need themselves.

DD couldn't give a stuff!

Keep the glitter and crap for at home and perhaps get a bit of perspective about what's actually important at school?

Year 3 here, still not allowed personal stationery. Makes sense though I think. Opposite area to Getting!

I'm in a year 6 class. We can barely see the tables for pencil cases. Some children have 2. They're beautiful, I love stationery. If Smiggle was around when I was a child I would've loved it.

They are also the the cause of so many problems in the classroom, in my experience!

Some children will always find something to fiddle with, a plain ruler or a bit of Blu tack for example. Some children can fiddle and it doesn't affect their listening.

This is another level. I've worked as a TA for about 10 years and I've definitely seen a difference in the last couple of years.

"The school claimed it was because sparkly pens etc are a distraction. To go back to my original query - is there any evidence for this?"

Evidence that extraneous distractions and repetitive off-topic behaviour are unhelpful in the classroom? Loads.

Or that this particular class has a problem with pissing around stationery? Won't be found in the literature, but unless you think the teacher is inadequate all round, there's no reason to doubt their assessment.

It's only a few days until the end of term (many places broken up already) and I expect behaviour will improve after Christmas. The autumn term is the longest and tiredness can have a creeping negative effect on pupil behaviour. You may well find big improvements just arising from having a break and then a fresh start with a new term in the New Year.

If you ask teachers they will tell you that "fun" pencil cases, pens, erasers etc are a huge distraction