Dennis no Menace in free Beano for schools

The special edition of the Beano will include a cartoon strip that sees Dennis the Menace and Gnasher forsake the habits of a lifetime by instructing young readers in time management and motivation.

Instead of getting into scrapes, Minnie the Minx will tell children about responsible money saving and the Bash Street Kids are to champion the benefits of eating healthily.

Danny, Smiffy, Spotty, Plug and Fatty of Bash Street Kids fame will forget creating mayhem in the playground to deliver lessons in the importance of children getting five servings of fruit and vegetables a day.

The free comic will be distributed to every primary school child by the end of August. The special Beano edition has been produced by the publisher DC Thomson in an initiative with Scottish Business in the Community (SBC).

The virtues that will be promoted by the comic characters are in line with the teachings of the Scottish Government’s curriculum for excellence and chime with the SBC’s work encouraging businesses to improve the impact they make on the economy, environment and society.

The massive printing of the special edition Beano comes after the Dundee-based publisher revealed it would print the last Dandy comic in December – on the eve of its 75th anniversary.

Dr Alasdair Allan, minister for learning, said the special issue has “used the iconic Beano characters in an exciting way to engage our children and young people”. He added: “Making learning fun as well as engaging and relevant and setting it in a format that makes our young people want to learn is not an easy thing to do. Experience shows that enterprising approaches help youing people develop essential skills.”

DC Thomson is a member of SBC and the special edition comic was devised to celebrate the 30th anniversary of SBC, whose patron and president is Prince Charles.

The Beano is somewhat older than the SBC with the first edition hitting the shops on 30 July 1938.