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.

And yet, milk is given out freely.

In what is supposed to be controlled environments yes. For example lunch halls.
I may be wrong but I don’t believe they would let children run around freely with cups of milk in the playground if there is a severely allergic child!

You think a lunch hall is a 'controlled environment'.

Have you ever been in one?

Why are you doing this when you've had pointed out to you on this thread that the allergy specialists and education authorities don't agree with trying to make schools allergen free?

Just ask them when they plan to make the school dairy free!

If you read my comment you would see that I said in what is ‘supposed’ to be a controlled environment. I suppose all schools are different but my kids school is pretty civilised and supervised at their lunch hall!

I don’t think the allergy specialists would advocate for nuts, or bottles of milk, or sesame snacks etc to be left about the school grounds?

You’re right that they don’t advocate for nut-free lunches in schools (though the guidelines are different in childcare/pre-school environments).
However they do advise schools that it is very important to remain actively aware of the risk posed by allergens, and to take steps to minimise the risk of exposure, as well as having robust emergency response plans in place.

I presume it’s because the school have asked them to be removed and it’s in their property. It’s actually none of the ops business as to why they want them removed and I don’t believe the op has a choice in the decision, they can either remove them as requested or let the school do it. I would choose the latter.

That makes sense, but in that case the cost is on them.

I suspect the school would just get a guy with a chainsaw and the OP would prefer to save the trees if possible.

The nut proteins are protected by hard shells. In general people are no more allergic to hazel trees than to any other tree. Milk and milk products are everywhere. Sesame snacks could be in any luck box and residue could be on any child. We've been through all this already.

Also makes sense.

100%

These items are not lying about the playground usually.

Pupils should be encouraged to wash their hands after eating. This is part of allergy management guidance. Not sure if it happens though.

Neither are the hazel trees.

They seem to be be freely accessible to the children from what OP said. It didn’t sound like they just go to the orchard for supervised nature classes.
The orchard is alongside the outer fence of the playing field, so the kids go into it.

Just fence it! Add a gate. It’s hardly fair to stop the majority enjoying it because the nut allergy child cannot recognise a nut and not eat it. It’s plainly over kill to remove the trees.

The allergic child will be careful, the others might not be. You can get a reaction from skin contact and these reactions are sometimes systemic (anaphylactic).

In other words the child doesn’t have to eat the nut for it to be a problem. Residue transferred from a friend could be enough to cause a reaction.

A bit horrible to lock one child out in any case, don’t you think?

It’s hardly fair to stop the majority enjoying it because the nut allergy child cannot recognise a nut and not eat it.

And also we are talking about primary school children here!
They are allowed to make mistakes and should be able to make them without risking death. It should not be a young child’s responsibility to have to be able to recognise and avoid nuts in their schoolyard.

I would just write to them saying that previous dropped nuts have already mixed with the soil and there cannot be any guarantees that a child would not be exposed in that environment.

If the school is willing to take liability for any harm to that child, they can fund removal of the trees themselves OR the parents can accept that that is not a safe environment for their child and it's ridiculous to expect mature trees to be removed at someone else's expense or for other children not to have to go because of their child.

I'm sure their child could have a personalised gardening introduction in another part of the allotment using compost and pots but not being around something which has rotted into soil, which can NEVER be allergen free again. This would not risk either anaphylaxis OR ridiculous additional expenses to everyone involved.

The soil will be allergen free again. Might take a while if nuts are in shells, but animals and soil microorganisms will cause their decomposition.

@Calling

What a massive over reaction by the school! A tree ffs! Nuts in hard shells, and casings, that vulnerable kids can easily be educated and risk managed around, and even that is probably being over cautious. A very sad state of affairs…

I’d be very tempted to tell them to stuff themselves and leave them to it in all honesty.

Good luck!!

Given nothing can be done in time for this nut season, and there will already be nuts on the ground, could you strap a small letterbox to one of the trees about 4-5ft from the ground and get the older children (not the allergic one obvs) to post any nuts they find lying around into it?
Empty it each time you’re in maintaining the orchard, then the nut risk would be effectively removed until next autumn.

It's already been explained many times in the thread that dairy allergy is a far more serious and widespread problem and recognising that they shouldn't share another child's Laughing Cow triangle or yoghurt pot is an essential part of bringing up children with allergies.

Dairy is not banned from school.

It’s not a far more widespread and serious problem, it’s an equally serious and widespread problem (for children).

I’m not objecting to allergens in lunches, at least not for older children, but to allergens lying about the schoolyard, especially when there is no good reason for them to be there.
There is no benefit to the children in having almond and hazelnut trees growing in their school garden rather than other trees.

We have been through all this already. Dairy IS a more widespread problem which causes more deaths and is therefore more serious.

But we don't keep dairy out of schools.