Are school bags too heavy for children?
Thursday, 15 March 2018
Report by: Thomas, Olivia, Austin, Alfie, Theo and Matthew
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Many secondary school pupils find they are carrying heavy bags to and from school. The weight can have a serious effect and, in some cases, it can cause lasting back problems.
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Pupils carry around laptops, text books, exercise books, calculators, phones and pencil cases, while some also carry packed lunches and sports kits.
We weighed some school bags we chose randomly and they were 4kg and 13kg.
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Esther, a Year 7 student at Hockerill, who was carrying a 13kg bag, told us she sometimes finds the weight a problem, explaining: "I have a 15-minute walk to school and then have to take it around school and to any clubs I have after school. Then there is the walk home as well."
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We interviewed one of our teachers, Mr Mackenzie, and he told us: “The school introduced lockers because I saw students with big bags and they didn’t need half the books. My son in year 7 has a big school bag with no straps across his chest, so it isn’t evenly weighted on his shoulders."
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A representative of the school Health Centre gave us some further advice: "Some pupils come into school with appropriate bags, but as they get older, they get fashion bags and don’t spread the weight of the bag evenly across the shoulders. This can cause scoliosis and curvatures in the spine.”
We also carried out a survey of Year 8 students. The results are shown below.
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Special thanks to: Mr Mackenzie, the health centre staff and the people we interviewed.
