BY BEATRIX

Our table resources are being chewed, snapped and treated without respect, and now, no one wants to use our well-paid-for pencils and pens.

Here in Year 5 class Ellie Simmonds, three responsible girls are cleaning up after their messy class.

THE DREADED PENCILS

Currently, our worst situation is the pencils. In my class we only have about four pencils that have not been chewed or treated disrespectfully. 

We also have our green pens – they have been chewed and the little clips have been snapped off resulting in people being scratched by them and annoyance as they feel the rough edge of the pen lid. 

This is concerning because it means that more children are not willing to use these resources and therefore not get their work done.  Obviously, this is not good because our focus is to help children learn and make sure they are comfortable while doing it.

THE LEAKING 

And don’t even get me started on the dreaded glue situation. They leak easily, they stick and it’s almost impossible to unstick the roller. Warm water doesn’t work, and we need something to help us make these work better. 

They are hard to fill and when we do fill them, they are still stuck. When we do get them loose, the glue comes out too fast which means we’re being wasteful, and everything sticks together which results in everything being ruined by the pages being stuck. 

But – our sticky glue situation isn’t all bad. These glues are reusable, eco and good for our planet. Which is why the school made the change from prick sticks to these environment friendly rollers in September. Eco council supports this change as they feel they are showing that tiny changes can do great things. I interviewed Jim (one of the eco reps) about the glue issue:

ME: What do you think we could do to help the school ?

JIM: If this glue situation continues, we will need to adopt a new way to keep our glues safe from ruining our other resources. We’ve got some top tips to do in the classrooms. 

As of this week, via my own sources, we found out that Ms. Georgia (from Year 4) took the glue matter into her hands. Cleverly, she named prick sticks after members of her family, and all the tables look after them, for fear of ruining their reputation. This seems to be working well, but with some years, people will be careless.