Almost every year, a new toy craze will sweep the nation’s children.

And not long after, some primary schools will inevitably ban them from the classroom and playground alike. This can be for all sorts of reasons, from causing injuries, to starting schoolyard fights, to supposedly encouraging violence, gambling, or other potentially harmful behaviours.

Even the most innocent-seeming playthings will sometimes face bans. Maybe they caused arguments, or distracted children during class. Others have been deemed choking hazards, or simply annoying to teachers.

We picked the brains of some of our reporters who went to school in the UK in the 2000s, to see what they remember being banned. Here are some of the top nostalgic toys they had to leave at home.

Tamagotchi are tiny virtual pets in a distinctively egg-shaped case, which allows you to carry them around with you. You would raise your pet from egg to adult, taking care of their needs to keep them happy and healthy.

Originally from Japan, Tamagotchi became a sensation across the world in the late 90s and early 2000s. However, they ended up being banned in quite a number of schools. This was in large part because of how distracting they were, with pets frequently becoming hungry, unhappy, or even sick if you didn’t clean up their droppings. No kid wanted their Tamagotchi to die, and that - combined with their constant beeps when they needed attention - didn’t exactly make them a good fit for the classroom.

Match Attax and Panini are football-based collectible cards and stickers, and with football being such a big deal in the UK, it’s no wonder they were popular. Featuring different players, they were banned at many schools for the playground rows they caused - particularly around trading. Some schools, however, reportedly found them too similar to gambling, while others saw children stick their Panini stickers to their desks or in other inappropriate places.

3. Pokémon cards

When it comes to card-based drama, Pokémon cards - based on the hit cartoon and video game franchise - had more than their fair share. In the late 90s and early 2000s almost everyone seemed to have a few, and the lunchtime battling and trading scene could be fierce - with fake cards, fights, stealing, post-trade regret and the inevitable upset that came with it all causing woe at school.

4. Slap bands

Slap bands were bracelets that came in all sorts of fun colours and patterns, popular for the novel technique involved in putting them on. While they could take the form of a rigid strip, if ‘slapped’ onto your wrist with a bit of force, they would spring into a bracelet shape. Inside slap bands, however, was a big piece of metal, and there were reports of poorly made or modified slap bands injuring children - with many schools banning them as a result.

5. YoYo

Yoyos have seemingly been around forever, but every now and then they come back into fashion for a while. The late 90s and early 2000s both saw spikes in popularity, coupled with bans at some schools. These were primarily for safety reasons, especially as children started doing tricks which saw them fired off in all directions. However in 2003, a new type of yoyo (described as a squidgy ball of liquid with plastic attached to it, was banned in the whole Middlesbrough Borough Council area after two girls got them wrapped around their necks.

Heelys are sneakers with a wheel in the sole, which allow kids to glide around by rocking back onto their heels. They were also banned from many schools and even shops during the height of their 2000s popularity, again for safety reasons. The UK’s Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) issued official advice that Heelys should not be worn on roads or near the edge of pavements after a serious accident where a child wearing the shoes was hit by a car, while head teachers raised concerns about them being used near stairwells in school buildings.

These popular handheld gaming consoles have gone through many iterations since their inception in the late 80s, from the Gameboy Colour in 1998, to the modern Nintendo Switch. Game Boys were banned in many schools for being distracting, or the risk of the (quite expensive at the time) devices or game cartridges being stolen. But the head teacher of one Worcestershire middle school that banned them in their very early days slammed them as antisocial and violent, saying children playing war or fighting games were imitating that behaviour on the playground.

These were miniature skateboards replicas which you could ‘ride’ with your fingers, even doing tricks and using nearby objects as ramps. Though relatively innocuous, they too ended up being banned in some schools. This was reportedly often due to them being a distraction when kids used them in class. After all, with a bit of imagination your whole desk can be a skatepark.

9. Transformers

These popular toys, many of which you could switch between a robot and a vehicle form (and sometimes even assemble into a whole new form by combining them with others) have been highly collectible since their release. Many of the retro ones are worth a fair sum now, but even at the time they could be on the more expensive side - with some schools banning them amid reports of them being "borrowed" and not returned, or getting broken.

10. Beyblades

Taking spinning tops and making them combative (with a great tie-in cartoon to boot) was a stroke of genius. These tops could be launched at each other at high speeds by pulling a ripcord, bouncing off one another until one ‘lost’ and stopped spinning. But the early 2000s craze saw them banned in many UK schools. In some cases this was due to safety, with reports of a few minor injuries, and a parent being hit in the eye. Some children also modified their Beyblades to make them more competitive - which could also make them more dangerous.

11. Crazy Bones

Crazy Bones were a modern, collectible form of knucklebones. Each of the small plastic ‘bones’ was a different character, with some being incredibly rare. When trading began to cause problems they were banned at some schools (although there are reports of children smuggling them into one West London school in hollowed-out tennis balls). There were also concerns in some corners about them being a choking hazard, due to their size and children’s tendency to stick things in their mouths.