Waihopai School students, from back left, Ebba Brown, 9, Dekan Harris, 8, Zach Cylma, 9, and from left Mandy Li, 9, Billy Crimp, 9, and Emma Hodgetts, 8, play with their fidget spinners.

A Southland school says it will destroy fidgets spinners found on school grounds.

Waverley Park School principal Kerry Hawkins said the toys were banned on school grounds and if found would be confiscated and could be destroyed.

"This definitive reaction has been brought about by us reaching our collective tipping-point with frequent and multiple interruptions to learning caused by off-task fidget spinner owners, fidget spinner losses, fidget spinner thefts, hunts for lost fidget spinners, disputes over 'found' fidget spinners and the odd attempt at the on-selling of 'found' fidget spinners," Hawkins says in the schools' newsletter.

Kavinda Herath/Fairfax NZ Waihopai School student Billy Crimp, 9, is one of the students at the school who has seen benefits to the use of fidget spinners.

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On Wednesday Hawkins said: "We generally let things run their own course . . . but if it gets to the point where there's disruption then we'll kill it."

Some children benefited from the toy, which was originally designed as a therapeutic tool for children with autism and ADHD, but it was causing disruptions in the school so was removed, he said.

Kavinda Herath/Fairfax NZ Waihopai School students, from left, Mandy Li, 9, Ebba Brown, 9, Zach Cylma, 9, Dekan Harris, 8, Emma Hodgetts, 8, and front, Billy Crimp, 9, play with their fidget spinners.

The fidget spinner is a hand-held device consisting of a bearing in the centre of a three-pronged device, which is held by two fingers and spun.

It had gained popularity worldwide and before the ban nearly half the students at the school had them, and the other half were putting pressure on their parents to get them, Hawkins said.

For the children that benefited from the toys, the school would find alternative ways to manage and cater to the students' needs, he said.

However, Waihopai School principal Allan Mitchell said students at his school had not had the same issues and saw positive results from the toys.

The school used fidget spinners among other tools to keep children focused on their work, Mitchell said.

While the toy was "the fad of the month", he did see improvements in students keeping their hands to themselves and not disturbing others, he said.

While some students might envy those who had the toys if they did not, the school had no record of any theft or arguments in relation to the devices.

Wallacetown School principal Neville Hore said the toys were very popular at the school, but he too had seen no negative impact of them being used at school.

School staff were keeping an eye on them to make sure there were no disruptions to the students' schooling, he said.

It was a "harmless craze" that did have some benefits to students with lack of focus, Hore said.

Te Anau School principal Grant Excell agreed.

As with any toy, they were not allowed to be used in class so there were no distractions, and while he had not heard of any problems with their use in the playground, they had not been around long enough for him to see any positive results either, he said.