School telling us to remove nut trees from community orchard

[Calling]

We are in a local voluntary group and local people planted an orchard in the grounds of a school, for the school.

Now, the school has written to say that we have to remove the nut trees because one pupil has a bad nut allergy.

There are fruit and nut trees, that the local people planted some years ago and we have put a lot of work into weeding and watering. The yield was actually for the kids and we are volunteering with the school with and nature sessions outside.

Before anyone says we are potential child killers, we do understand the importance of safety. There is a management plan in place, but the school has been asked by a parent to remove our trees.
I do feel disheartened - nobody in the school said no to nut trees originally.

They do not have to go near that tree though.

Does your child have anaphylactic reaction to wheat or dairy? If so I would support making it as safe as possible.

@Calling totally with you on this. There will be nut trees, products people eating or who had contact with nuts all over the place for the whole of this child's life. The important thing is that if their allergy is severe enough they must learn to recognise dangers and take appropriate action. It is not reasonable or possible for them to live in a perfectly safe zone their entire life. These trees are far less of a risk to them than a child who had peanut butter for breakfast or the teaching staff who may have eaten a handful of nuts as a snack at breakfast. Do their parents not take them into supermarkets where there are definitely lots of nut related products.
The child would be excluded from a large part of the town I live in because twenty odd years ago the council planted hundreds of trees and every year we have a huge number of cobnuts that grow and fall.

It seems sad to deprive all children of using it.

The child should "miss out" because to do otherwise might kill them.

If anything the child needs to learn how to manage its allergy. The idea of removing the trees is total overkill.

He or she will not be at the school forever. I would counter with an offer of temporary fencing, but I would also ask for medical evidence - name removed if necessary - before I took action - if only to justify the cost.

It does. I was the epipen kid. Now I am the epipen grown up.

People die each year and yes children from dairy allergies.

Remember Hannah Jacobs a few years ago? It was all the news but not school related. I never have a coffee in a place like Costa Coffee. Can't risk it.

Current advice and mandatory actions are not to make schools nut or dairy free.

Current advice is not to declare your school nut free because its creates a false sense of security and is impossible to achieve.

But it still says is to risk assess and put in place plans to reduce the risks as much as possible. Not just leave risks as are. The suggestions for reducing risk are extra cleaning and eating at different timings or locations. Plus awareness, training, response etc. The new code is very much about inclusion too.

Im not saying I agree with the schools response as it seems disproportionate to the actual risk and suggesting volunteers sort it is very odd. But it is possible they have risk assessed and found all the nature lessons would be easier to manage with different trees. This isn't the same as banning nuts or saying they are nut free. There are so many alternatives in my mind, they could also just rake the area to clear fallen nuts and prevent them being there long enough to split. They could also enforce handwashing after the lesson, fence bits off etc but i do feel for schools trying to do the risk assessing and involve the parent in the AHT as they should. Perhaps directing to anaphylaxis uks video on should schools be nut free would give them confidence to manage it differently. Or benedicts law website which has great information.

I also agree children have to learn to manage thier allergies. But children start school aged 4. They need support to manage thier allergies from the adults around them as the consequences of mistakes are high. We learn lots of other things through trial and error aged 4 but maybe not 'is this milk or soya milk spilled on the table'

No school would ban gluten or milk.

Ultimately the school owns the land and trees. They can contract a tree surgeon to remove trees if they wish. It’s not up to you, in any sense.

This is exactly why nut or other allergen bans are not recommended and are detrimental to teaching the safe management of allergies for someone with severe allergies. The school may be nut free and be doing everything they can to reduce exposure. But you cannot do anything about home life or daily lives of others.

If there are no allergen bans, instead of the child/ parents assuming that all school food and environment is safe. They would instead as a habit bring their own fruit snack into school and would be allowed to do so under reasonable adjustments. They would habitually know to ask (or staff around them would know) that the communal fruit is washed before they are offered it. They would as a habit know to ask that tables are wiped down before they eat at them (something that they will have to do in later life in a restaurant). They would know where their epi pens are kept and if they are older would be familiar with their use. They would build allergy safe routines for themselves and become comfortable asking and advocating for their allergy safety which is vital for young adulthood and daily life in public.

I plead guilty to that, m'lud. 🌳🌳🌳

Plus I don't think anyone has explained yet what the danger actually is from nut proteins that are locked away inside a nutshell?

It's not recommended to remove all allergens from the environment. It creates a false sense of security.

Make sure the kid isn't just peanut allergic. Tree nut and peanut allergies are different, but people get confused.

It's peanut that's the awful one. Tree nuts aren't as bad.

Because peanut allergies can be severe, and peanut tends to stick to stuff.

Err other allergies can be severe. 2 children have died in schools from dairy allergies none from nuts.

This confusion is because we have far too many people with food sensitivities walking around calling them allergies.

They are not the same thing.

Lack of the ability to digest dairy foods is common, and different from dairy proteins triggering your immune system to attack your body as an alien invader.

My child is anaphylactic to cows milk. Cows milk allergy kills more children than nut allergy every single year. 2 children have died in school from a dairy allergy whereas no child has died in school from a nut allergy. Do you think it’s reasonable to ban all children in school from cows milk? No cake, no cheese, no yoghurt?

And because of the “nut free” school declaration. People think the only allergy to worry about is nuts and being nut free keeps children safe. It doesn’t.

This is bizarre
Schools aren't advised to be nut free -none of the majority allergy charities recommend this

I can guarantee that school will be full of children eating cheese and yoghurt , yet milk protein is the leading cause of allergy fatalities in children

Bullshit. Tree nuts cause nearly as many deaths as peanuts, and milk causes more than both put together.

www.imperial.ac.uk/news/215053/deaths-from-food-allergy-rare-decreasing/

My son has nut allergy, he reacted once sitting beside a hazelnut tree (lesson learnt!)

edit - sorry I replied to the wrong person!

You are so wrong it is unreal.
Milk allergy is just as severe as nut allergy. Lactose intolerance is totally different

Look up Benedict Blythe and Karanbir Cheema - lovely little boys who died at school from their milk protein allergies.