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?

I think this is good.

1. If you are in an area with high poverty and deprivation? its important to instill the value of a no frills lifestyle where one square of chocolate is a massive treat. This is important so that companies can pay poor people less, but still keep people approximately happy.
2. Its good training for low budget employers and low cost high discipline environments like prison or sports direct.
3. Sandhurst insist on officers using only basic kit, so they can determine who can perform in harsh conditions without disproportionate advantages.
4. The HT has obv accidentally ordered 2 pallets of basic pencils instead of the 2 individual pencils she meant to write on the order

I remember the time a parent of one of my yr7 tutor group sent a series of increasingly entitled emails concerning a £5 eraser her daughter had lost somewhere in the vast school, expecting me to help her find it!
I was polite, but seriously?! Like it have nothing better to do with my time.
I used to ban my students from getting anything out of their pencil cases anything not on the school equipment list (black or blue pen, pencil, eraser etc). And any equipment left in my lab went into a communal pot to be lent out at the next lesson.
Because of the frankly ridiculous marking policy, highlighters and colour gel pens were not allowed to be used in classwork.

Our junior school provides all stationery so they don't have to take anything in. They are allowed to take only one smelly pencil due to too much swopping in class! Doesn't stop us having endless piles of the shite at home though!

Conversation we recently had.
DS "Mummy, can you buy me new gel pens?"
ME " You already have gel pens."
DS " Yeah, but X & Y keep telling me it's not the right one. It's not scented. Let me show you which one I need."
Opens a web page.
ME " No, I am not paying £16.50 for gel pens!"

I really wish my ds' school is sensible enough to ban all these stuff.

DD2's class wasn't allowed personal pencil cases until y4.

Then the fiddled with them so much the teacher banned them and only let them try again in the summer term.

Sounds a bit ott but is probably down to theft. I dont mind what kids use but I do not want to get dragged into refereeing whose pencil case is whose. However kids do have lockers where I work so they can lock stuff away at lunch. Maybe this just isnt possible in primary.

I'm a teacher. No experience of chn stealing but I definitely support the claim that children fiddle and get distracted because of them.

It's the absolute faff. They line up all the rubbers; Go and get their special pencil sharpener instead of using the one right in front of them; Ask constantly if they can use x type of pen/pencil; Get up to go and borrow someone's special stationary instead of using the perfectly good pencil/rubber/etc that they have on their own desk.

It's all endless faffing that just takes up so much time.

Also, to reiterate PP: the school wouldn't have banned them unless there was a reason.

Before novelty rubbers we wrote yes and no on each side of a normal rubber and used it for 'fortune telling'. We didn't need novelty stationery to distract us

I do remember the joys of shopping for nice pens though. It was a big deal to be allowed to use a fountain pen (and get your very own tiny square of blotting paper) so of course we wanted one we liked. My best friend and I managed to get ourselves a middle drawer in the table that we could have shared stuff in.

As a grown up and a parent, I can see how it could piss the teacher off. It's bad enough dealing with 2 kids who both argue over who things belong too.

Novelty items are a massive distraction...and things do go "missing" regularly. Children fuss over their things. Children who haven't got them want to "borrow" said items. Upset is caused if the answer is no. Regular cries of "S/he's being mean to me, because s/he won't share".
I totally agree with banning. School has enough pencils, pens, crayons etc there is no need for children to bring anything in.

It's bad enough my daughter complaining 10 times a day she can't find whatever pen she's lost, at home. I'm very happy the school provide all pencils and other stuff, because it means my kids can't forget to take them to school!

Also when the mountains of pencils etc get too much I just donate them to the school.

Thanks for all the feedback.

In answer to a pp, I have a ds who is not particularly bothered about his stationery, in fact I don't think the dcs have been told yet, so no, this was not in response to a tearful dd and no, I wasn't planning to complain!

It just seemed rather Gradgrindian and...joyless to me.

But if teachers insist that kids do waste time faffing about with it, then I must believe them. :)

(I think the whole theft thing is a red herring at this particular school - never, ever heard of any items, pencil cases or anything else, going missing.)

Glad this rule wasn't in place at my primary - I lurrrrved my smelly pens etc - and still came top of the class. And was well behaved. Hence my questioning of the need for this as overkill.

Poor kids now. :(

i love posters who say something like "well I/my child has had this experience so based on this sample size of ONE I generalise this fact..."

They then usually add ALL their friends (really, you've talked about this to all your friends?!) and ALL the schools in their area (I don't even know the names of all the schools in my town let alone their policies).

Teachers, who may have taught 500+ children and in a variety of schools, however are wrong.

Makes me laugh.

I doubt it is due to distraction and more to stop competition and stop the poorer students feeling left out. Same as uniform I suppose.

Wellthen, sorry, I don't get your point at all. (I'm foreign)
Care to explain? What makes you laugh?

I think she means because OP loved smelly pencils and was top of the class - they must be ok - let's not look at the 29 kids who weren't top of the class and may or may not have the latest pencil -

Hey Ho

The you've never experienced ...
"She's got my pen," (substitute pencil, rubber, ruler or any other tool)
"It's mine!"
"No it isn't ask ...(some reliable witness) she said I could keep it"
Teacher spends 5 minutes only for accuser to discover her pen on the floor

"He's broken my new ruler it cost £X!"
"It was already broken when I picked it up"
"No it wasn't he did it on purpose!"
"No I didn't"
Etc

Teacher spends 5 minutes defusing incident

Parent of child arrives /emails angry that pen rubber pencil ruler has been stolen /pen pencil rubber, ruler as been broken

Teacher spends 5 minutes of lesson investigating complaint which turns out to have been resolved

Yes Astro is right. The op has said more than once that she loved smelly pens and was top of the class. She appears to be suggesting that therefore smelly pens can have no impact on learning which is obviously ridiculous as it based purely on her own experience.

The teachers who are actively experiencing the problems however must produce clinical evidence.

Never heard of any stuff being nicked. It's a school in a fairly well-off area.

Our juniors is in a well-off area. All my dc have had things nicked, often the new thing they're particularly pleased with. I don't mind when it's a chewed pencil borrowed and not given back. I now wind all pens round with their name too tightly to remove quickly.

But if you've got a local Smiggle I'd suggest it was probably done out of poor sympathy for the poor parents.

I think the whole theft thing is a red herring at this particular school - never, ever heard of any items, pencil cases or anything else, going missing.

Just because you've never heard of it, doesn't mean it isn't happening. It just means your kids haven't had anything stolen from them. Yet.

Also are you prepared to put money on nothing going missing? Are you 100% sure that no child has ever lost an item at that school or had an item taken (by mistake or otherwise)?

It's a very bold claim!

wellthen but don't you know? ALL the kids in my/your Year 4 class have a mobile phone and they get £10 a week pocket money?! AND they're allowed to eat chocolate at bedtime! Yes EVERYONE.

I think it's a good idea sorry, pencils are not pencils anymore are they - have you been in smiggle?? All singing all dancing ridiculous fancy things that distract children. Dd's teacher no longer allows pencil cases on they're desks because of too much fiddling. They have to take out one pencil, pen & ruler & leave the rest in their tray. V sensible imo

Thank you Wellthen & Astro. Sorry to be a dim.

All this craze about Smiggle is unbelievable at ds' school. 4 pencil for £4.50. That's more than £1 a pencil. These need to be banned.

At ds' school, children are not allowed to bring in more than 1 pencil case. Why do the children need to bring in more than 1 in the first place?
I had few fancy pen and stuff in my childhood. But it's not the same.