To think school should stop feeding my child rubbish

[lattelov3r]

This is my first post on this site so apologies if i am indeed being unreasonable. Im not ott with healthy eating by any means my ds (6) gets his fair share of sweets, occasional treat days i.e visiting family and the odd tea of pizza, fish fingers etc but i do try to ensure he gets plenty fruit, any veg i can sneak into him and 90% of the time i cook from scratch and limit biscuits, sweets etc to weekends but it feels like my efforts are being undermined by school.

They are rewarded for good behavior by being given sweets for eg mini bags of haribo, a couple of quality street etc this happens a few times a week, he attends a class within school for extra support at intervals through the day ds is very hyperactive and needs help sitting still, taking turns etc one of the main reasons i try to limit junk food especially on school days but during this class hes told me they are given iced donuts, sponge cakes, hot chocolate etc, he also is given another breakfast by the class in the morings which is either rice crispies or jam toast.

The school do have a healthy eating policy and they cover it in class ds is forever telling my whats 'healthy' and whats not and what will make him fat! and they gave out all the leaflets on school dinners and that they follow healthy eating policy but they seems to be contradicting themselves in their methods imo. The school dinners themselves seems strange to me on thurs ds had pizza with pasta and cucumber and a 'sugary cake' friday was fish and chips with cold peas followed by jammy donut. This is my first child in school so maybe is me just wondered what others thought and if its the norm and shouldnt bother me.

Other than the healthy snack in the morning which primary schools dish out, and lunch if you've paid for it, I'm wondering why they're giving any of the children anything at all?

I've never heard of this before

Where is the information coming from, your ds or his teacher? I'm not accusing him of lying but 6yo's generally have vivid imaginations...

If you think sugar/additives affect his behaviour a quiet word with the teacher should be enough to reassure you :)

With the behaviour treats he usually comes out the class door eating them teacher sort of shouts over it was his reward, with the cakes in class he told me they go for a walk to local shop as part of their group to get them he wouldnt have any reason to make it up so i do believe him and he often comes out with chocolate on his face/clothes or left over sugar on his jumper etc, its been confirmed by others i know in his group but i seem to be the only parent bothered by this it is a school in a high poverty area and their response is usually 'well it is xxx area its just what happens' (we are not locals to this area) i have thought of taking it up with school but if noone else is bothered not sure what reaction i will get and i dont want them to say well we will just leave ds out because that wouldnt be fair on his ifyswim

Ah, OK. If you're concerned, talk to the teacher. You don't have to be bolshy, just quietly ask why this happens. If it's a reward, surely it's better that you know what he's being rewarded for so you can reinforce it at home. Or, you could provide a small toy (like the army men that come in packs of 100 for about 3 quid) for him to have instead of sweets?

Schools sometimes do some weird things with regard to food.

Dd's school used to pride itself on its 'no chips' stance, but stuffed them with things like potato faces that probably contain much more fat than good thick-cut chips made from potato rather than all the reshaped/knitted/processed crap.

YANBU. I get called precious for bringing this up about my DS. He came home the other day saying he couldn't have full fat milk anymore as it would make him fat! (He's built like a whippet!) Full fat milk is good for children! But the sweets they send him home with is unreal, 3 easter eggs ffs I know the teachers are very generous and buy them out of their own money but why not club together, one per child instead of one to each child from each of them!

Are you sure he's telling the truth? I can't imagine many schools routinely provide breakfast for the entire class

Its not for entire class sorry should of made that clearer its part of the group he goes to which is in class next door to his full time class, he goes there first thing they give breakfast then back to class then they have sessions he goes back for an hour here and there later on

a few years since dds were in primary and they used to do this too I was okish with it but dd2 also went to an extra support class and i wasnt really happy with her coming home with haribo or a funsize mars bar for getting her work right or not wandering which she was prone to doing , when the healthy eating policy came in . they stopped giving sweets and gave little prizes of a scented rubber or a little notepad , which i thought was better , really if you are concerned about his behaviour and what he is eating (are they allowed to eat the sweets in class or does he bring them home ? ) then you should say to the school about it ,

Surprised he's allowed to eat the sweets. We always tell the children to take any sweets they have won,or biscuits/cupcakes etc they have made to their parent/person collecting , and ask if its ok to have. (foundation to LKS2 - UKS2 it's not worth trying as most walk home on their own!)

I'm quite surprised at this...some schools won't even allow kids to give out sweets on their Birthdays anymore.

However, if you feel what your child is given isn't suitable for your child, ask the school to stop giving it to him and they will.

If you don't like the school dinners, send him with a packed lunch.

Can you not make him a healthy pack lunch?

check if the school has the healthy schools award, if so contact the coordinator for this (via local authority) ask them to follow it up as a school with a healthy eating policy should not be using sweets as a reward. if they aren't a branded healthy school ask local authority their opinion anyway as schools have certain requirements to OFSTED against health and wellbeing that they might be going against here.

It sounds like nurture group at dd's school, dd's friend goes and food does seem to feature highly as she very often comes out of class with cakes, biscuits, chocolate, sweets.

I would be incensed if my ds was getting sugary treats several times a week!!!! How is a massive sugar high going to get him to sit still and concentrate? There are dozens of rewards they could think of instead. ffs!!!!!!

The OP only has to tell them to stop it if she doesn't like it.