Are thye allowed to not let my son eat some of his packed lunch?

[jellyjelly]

My son was told today at lunch that he was unable to eat his chocolate custard and two jaffa cakes. Its the first time but i think its a bit wrong.

Advice please and not about giving him things.

[Twiglett]

yes they're allowed

[jellyjelly]

why though?

[Twiglett]

what advice do you want exactly?

It's the healthy eating agenda .. am surprised school hasn't informed you of what's acceptable or not .. they tend to be pretty quick to tell you

[MingMingtheWonderPet]

DS's school wouldn't allow these in a lunchbox

[avenanap]

Poor thing. I would save nice thigs like this for when I collected him (I did this on the first day and got a filthy look off one of the mums though ).

How about a small bag of grapes instead or some chopped up apple or strawberries? Swap the chocolate custard for yogurt. I used to give ds pasta salad, chicken drumsticks, small muffins for his packed lunch.

[forevercleaning]

whats wrong with choc custard and jaffa cakes?

how old is DS

did they give him a reason.

they should have let him eat it, I would be really pissed off if it had not been explained before they disallowed certain foods.

[bellavita]

funny this should be mentioned, have just received a NewsFlash from school about packed lunches to say what is acceptable or not.

[goingonajolly]

school foods trust says schools should consult with parents if they are going to have a confiscation policy.

[Twiglett]

here you are

[LostGirl]

At dd's school, they advise what you should put in a packed lunch but do not bar anything completely but stress that chocolate, crisps, sausage rolls should be occasional treats not daily items. I would be cross if someone told dd she could not eat something in her packed lunch, especially when school dinners still have puddings and custard etc. As long as they have eaten sandwiches and salad or fruit then I think something extra should be fine. If the school have not let you know that they have a zero tolerance policy of junk food then I would go in and speak to them and if they have informed you then you will just have to follow it.

[goingonajolly]

Twigglets website has jaffa cakes in the healthy balanced lunch menu planner.

[bellavita]

this is what the head had to say (I have copied and pasted her exact words)

Lunch boxes
In the same way that the government has standards for school meals, we have, as part of our Healthy School initiative, some standards for packed lunches, too! Please don?t overload your child with chocolate and sweet foods as the energy that (s)he gets from them is short-lived and won?t sustain him/her through the afternoon, making learning more difficult. Also, I?d like to remind you that sweets and bars of chocolate shouldn?t be included. (This doesn?t include a chocolate biscuit! eg a KitKat is fine but a Crunchie or a Twirl isn?t.)

[jellyjelly]

The silly thing was, he had nice ham on a brown bread, orange juice. Fruit bar, rice cakes, raisins and then the jaffa cake. Its a very long day as i work full time and want to make sure he can get through as much as he can.

He also has cucumber/sweetcorn/other veg so on average 3 portions of fruit and juice.

[goingonajolly]

How old is he

[jellyjelly]

i cant have him home for lunch as i work 40 miles away and i am a single parent.

He doesnt have these every day maybe once a week if he is lucky. He had crisps last week and he ate those.

[mrz]

Today I had a child who's lunchbox contained
2 packets of crisps
2 fun sized chocolate bars
1 packet of skittles
2 bottles of blue pop

sorry but we gave him a school dinner instead

[jellyjelly]

nearly 6

[jollydo]

There is another thread on MN about school staff not letting children eat what's in their packed lunch, or commenting negatively on it.
If schools DO have a healthy lunch policy, and a child's packed lunch has something in it which isn't allowed, then surely staff should mention it to parents but NOT criticise the child or take his/her food away that day.
Anyway, I agree that balance is the most important thing, and saying 'no biscuits' at all etc. is too strict. Just the Nanny-state doing its thing again...

[jellyjelly]

i work in a school and i have not know the staff to ever take away or ban something being eaten.

And yes i do the lunch duty. Its not mainstream though.

[Mercy]

Complain away.

Healthy eating policy or not, no child should be deprived of their lunch - or did they give him a free school meal instead

[SorenLorensen]

I've just had a look at Twig's link and I have to say, I'm all for healthy eating, but I really dislike the advice to put things like low fat yoghurts, low fat mayonnaise, low fat crisps etc. in your child's lunchbox. I think unless your child is actually overweight you should give them full-fat versions of things like that.

[forevercleaning]

the parent puts the lunch box together and the child gets penalised

Mrz - that does seem an awful lunch box that the boy at your school was given. But even so, i expect there will be a backlash from the parent for undermining them over their childs lunch!

[Twiglett]