BY RUFUS AND FELIX

Our school has a “hands up” system instead of a bell. But does it work well?

Our school used to have a bell to indicate when to stop playing in the playground during breaktimes, but the system was changed. Now we have a rule that if a teacher puts their hand up, then everyone must stop what they are doing and fall silent. They must then face a teacher so that they know what to do next.

The problem with the new system is that in many areas of the playground, some cannot see an adult and therefore, the process of stopping everyone takes a lot longer.

An anonymous student stated: “It was a better system when we had the bell because it was much less hassle, and much easier. The hands up system also means that our break is shortened, and the whole thing takes so long.”

The reason break time is shortened is because it takes a couple of minutes to get everybody to stop and be silent and then to line up.

The hand sign is now also used within the school during other times, such as assemblies or in class, so perhaps the bell was banished for consistency. However, we are still getting used to it.

Do you believe we should bring the bell back?

Tune back in soon because we plan to do some more digging into this subject and report back!