I am a primary teacher. Try asking the teachers what THEY have at playtime!!!!! Not much fruit going around, I can tell you, and moans and groans if there are no biscuits etc.
I can't believe so many schools have a lunchbox policy. I check what they are eating when I am in the dinner hall, mostly just to make sure they eat their sandwich/roll/carbs etc first.
I spoke to a boy today who had no sandwich and told him to show the HT, as I was concerned and not sure what the policy was. The boy said there was no bread left at home (entirely possible, though not quite sure why he didn't just have a school, the mum is sensible and "well-educated") and he had some fruit, a drink, and a cake slice. I just didn't think that was enough. The HT told him to go and get a sandwich from the dinner ladies. I don't think he was meant to pay or bring money in tomorrow.
I try and make sure that the children who buy a school dinner get good value for money and take everything they have paid for. I have tio say that nobody else seems to bother, and that's been for 20 odd eyars of being in the dinner hall. The HT stands around chatting although he doesn't let them out if they have left lots. I send them back to get amilk, a pudding, some bread etc. They have paid for it, so I want them to have it.
It does annoy me that nobody else seems that bothered. I'd like to think that a teacher would make sure that my DS were getting everything they had paid for.
We encourage our children to have something healthy at playtime, but they would certainly not be stopped from whatever their parents had provided. I might praise those who had a banana etc, and I might even say that something was very sugary and bad for their teeth, but not said in a harsh way, just matter of fact.
My onw 2 don't eat fruit (they ate it when they were weaning/toddlers but not now.) I have tried all sorts but got fed up of food being wasted. I buy them fruit smoothies and DS1 will eat raisins. I had a terrible diet myself as a child (as mu mother is fond of reminding me). I was never tired, could climb a rope/tree in seconds and was active from dawn to dusk. I didn't die because I didn't eat much fruit.
Sometimes the Local Authority put pressure on schools to promote healthy eating, and i can assure you that teachers are fed up of having to "teach" children all these peripheral subjects. We would lOVE to be able to concentrate on the 3R's but we get bombarded with Fairtrade stuff, Eco schools, healthy eating, drug education. It's never-bloody-ending!!!
Yes, there is a place for encouraging children to recycle (and it's a particular crusade of mine) etc, but the primary curriculum is totally overloaded adn we are fed up.
I can see why you are annoyed, I would be too, but I would certainly not go in all guns blazing. The teacher may have been told to adhere to this policy. It will just get her back up if you make a big deal of it, trust me! I do understand why you are irked. Maybe ask the HT to clarify the snack policy and if your banana bread is deemed unacceptable, then ask why whatever it is, is being served in the dinner hall, sorry can't remember.
And finally, you can always politely remind the headteacher that YOU, as the parent, are responsible for your child's snack, and they will eat whatever you give them.
Sometimes a comment/remark can be taken totally out of context, and as I said, she might have been told to check.
And as for fruit/veg only snacks, well, that's ridiculous! Chidren need carbs to keep them going. Nothing wrong with cheese and crackers, flapjacks, breadsticks etc. I can assure you that the HT is not sitting with a cup of tea and some cucmber slices with her/his morning cuppa, neither are the teachers!! And I can't see anything wrong with a digestive in a lunchbox, the world has gone mad!