Fidget spinners: What is the new craze banned in schools across the nation?

They are marketed as a stress-reliever to help children with learning difficulties concentrate in class.

But fidget spinners have instead become such a classroom distraction that the handheld toys are being banned across schools in the UK.

So what are fidget spinners?

If you haven’t yet heard of the new craze sweeping playgrounds, a fidget spinner is a three-pronged, palm-sized piece of plastic or metal which spins around a central weighted disc - a modern version of the old spinning top.
What are children doing with them?

As the gadget spins it can be balanced on top of fingers, toes, or event the nose or forehead.

More than one can be stacked on top of one another, creating a spinning tower that plays with your vision.

As the forces come into play, the skill lies in trying to pull off various tricks and stunts. The biggest challenge is throwing a spinner to a friend and trying to catch it, a feat even more impressive to pull off than the successful bottle-flip.
So what's the problem with fidget spinners?

One headteacher shared a letter from a Year 7 pupil complaining that lessons are being disrupted.

“They are the latest craze and roughly seven people bring them into my lessons and share spares with other people,” the unnamed girl wrote to Chris Hildrew, head of Churchill Academy in Somerset.

“When you are trying to focus on your work, all you can hear is it spinning round and round. If someone around you has one you kind of get attracted to it because they are trying to do tricks and everyone else is looking at it. This means that I am not doing my hardest on my work so I get less done.

“To sum up, I think they should be banned in lessons.”

A number of teachers posted on the Mumsnet forum, complaining that the toys were ruining lessons.

One said: “I’ve had two children bring them in today ‘because it helps them to concentrate’ - no, it helps them to annoy their peers and stops everybody else from concentrating [sic].
“They are now in my desk drawer waiting for their parents to come and collect them.”