BANNED!

taking over Chrissies

and disturbing pupils.

A CITY school, which came top of the class for its Worcester News Tsunami Appeal money-raising efforts, has banned pupils from wearing charity wristbands on its premises.

Christopher Whitehead School in Bromwich Road, Worcester, has been selling the bands to boost cash for international and national appeals like the Tsunami, Beat Bullying and Make Poverty History.

But headteacher Neil Morris says the craze is getting out of hand and has called a temporary halt to the wearing of bands in school.

"Some children are wearing as many as 10 wristbands. It is getting to the stage where it is distracting them from their learning because they are fiddling with them all the time.

"Most children, if they are right handed, tend to wear them on their left wrist. We have just introduced a new uniform, which we are very proud of, and it doesn't look good with all these wristbands.

"And not all of the bands raise money for charity. Some of them are supporting football clubs.

"Wearing wrist bands has become very competitive and it can create an unseen pressure on parents who are being asked to buy them. They are becoming the latest 'must have'.

"We are not anti-wrist bands or anti-charities. We have sold them through the school and we raised the most money, mainly through the sale of wrist bands, for the Tsunami appeal of all the schools in Worcestershire."

Mr Morris added that the school already asks parents to support its non-uniform fund-raising days and the bands are an added financial pressure for the less well off parents with two or three children.

"We are trying to be sensible about this and saying let's just pause for a while and if another cause comes along that we want to support we will consider reintroducing them."

Worcestershire County Council Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, Liz Eyre, said the local education authority did not have a policy on wristband wearing in school, but that it was a matter for individual schools.