To think these school rules are OTT?

[greenandcabbagelooking]

The Tesco store on X road is out of bounds to pupils in uniform, including before and after school.

Pupils may not eat or drink in school uniform on public transport or whilst walking.

So DD can't grab me a loaf of bread in Tesco on her way home, or have a banana on her walk home. Are schools allowed to dictate what pupils do in their own time like this?

On the Tesco thing I think it's unfair. What if a girl had started her period, and needed painkillers or sanitary protection on her way home from school?

oh, come on. i went to school in the middle of nowhere and had to get the bus home from school everyday. there was no way of getting to the shops without a vehicle because of where our school was situated, and guess what, we coped. the school nurse had painkillers and pads/tampons in her office, and otherwise, we just either planned ahead, borrowed off a friend or waited until we got home.

nobody ever died from waiting an hour to take painkillers or eat a biscuit. obviously, children with illness are different, but i'm sure the school makes allowances and lets those children bring a snack to eat after school.

atthewelles, I haven't mentioned abuse of human rights at all, don't make it more dramatic just to prove your point. If you ban a whole social group, any social group, it IS discrimination. Just because it's for some reason socially acceptable doesn't make it any less discrimination.
And the fact that we had the same rules 30 years ago does not make those rules any more reasonable since at that time we had many other rules that we find completely unacceptable or even illegal now.

I don't use tesco any longer as they banned children from my DD's school from going in there. If my custom isn't good enough via my daughter then it's not good enough from me and I shall shop elsewhere. Food shopping is done for the convenience of the customer, not the store

I see the eating from a different point of view? if the rule is just eating while walking or on public transport then I think it's quite sensible, but sad really the school feel the need to point it out though.

We have a lot of distractions nowadays and you see many people walking around looking at phones etc and not concentrating on where they are going. This increases their risk for an accident or being mugged/attacked. Perhaps by not walking and eating it is helping promote not bring distracted?? Just a thought (I'm trying to teach dd at the moment about being "aware" in public).

On public transport should they be eating then anyway? I'm not really convinced about that one, but I think it should come down more to parents teaching appropriate manners not the school dictating.

Surely if they have a long trip to make and are hungry they could have something at the bus stop or if sitting quietly on the bus etc?

Buba, I wasn't just referring to your post in my comments. The human rights issue was made up thread by another poster and that was what I was referring to.

And Tesco isn't 'banning' the school kids, they are simply not allowing them in there while wearing school uniform to avoid a situation of hordes of noisy, pushy, self centred kids all descending on the store at the same time and annoying the other customers, causing long queues while they each pay for one item and, more seriously, engaging in shoplifting. I think it's you that's being dramatic.

My point is that school age is the time to learn to behave correctly when out on your own in public. If you don't get to practice using your own discretion you will learn it (or not!) when you leave school. Being given that responsibility is how you learn the difference between eating a KFC and dropping your chicken bones, and eating your choice of food without mess and responsibly... no?

HerLordShip
Yes, and it is inconvenient for other customers to have a load of school children in there at the same time shouting, messing around, egging each other on and generally causing chaos.

It sounds like utter bollocks to me. There were some shops that didn't allow groups of teenagers in when I was growing up, but it's up to Tesco whether they let anyone in or not and not the school.

I can understand Tesco being out of bounds during school hours, obviously, but not before and after.

Also it's up to the public transport company what the policy is re eating on the bus or train. And it's not up to the school to say whether a child can eat walking down the street outside school hours.

I've noticed that KFC are starting to do a roaring trade in Boneless Banquets youllneedallthisfish.

It may strip young people of their essential air of responsibility by removing the chore of gnawing round a chicken bone, but it makes the pavements a bit cleaner, no?

Schools seem to think they can dictate what a child does 24 hours a day, and that they can dictate to parents too! My DD's school sent a letter home warning parents, ie grown adults, to be careful what they write on Facebook.

Wow, I don't remember my parents getting this het up about school rules when I was a child. It really didn't bother them that I wasn't allowed eat a bag of crisps while waiting at the bus stop or nip down to the shops during my lunch break. They probably had more important things to worry about.

There are always going to be social groups that some other parts of public may find annoying or dangerous or something else. However, no one would ever dream of banning those entire social groups just because their behavior might be annoying to someone else. We cannot ban social groups just because those groups are more or less likely to behave in certain way. Not even if we can prove that behavior statistically, let alone if the impression is based on anecdotal evidence.
As for the shoplifting, yes Tesco with more than 30% of the UK grocery market share is really not in position to invest in security systems, but has to apply the rules to ban children from shops just to keep its head above the water. Of course it's easier for them to just ban children, they don't spend that much in the first place, so no opportunity costs there. If Tesco and alike would be left to their own devices, they would probably ban some other less profitable or less presentable social groups as well. Luckily they can't.

We weren't allowed out at lunchtime either atthewelles. Not that there was anywhere to go in my school's boring suburban residential area.

I used to think the people who lived near the school were moany gits. But having a load of kids sitting on your wall and dropping crisp packets in your garden as they waited for the bus was probably a bit wearing.

You have to wonder though herlordship exactly what parents are putting on Facebook for the school to have to send a letter about inappropriate comments. Obviously derogatory stuff about either the school, teachers, other parents or children.

I'm sure they'd rather spend their time doing something else

YANBU that's rediculous. What happens when a child who is a young carer, needs to buy tea for the family, and the only time he can manage it is after school.

What if the parent goes with child to tescos?

This is a worse rule than the one we had which dictated parents when to send children to bed.

Have any of you actually been in a supermarket with 200 or so teenagers?

No, but I made the mistake of going to a McDonald's at about 4pm once.

Never again.

Honestly OP, I think you're making a fuss where no fuss needs to be made. I went to a school where the nearest supermarket was miles away, we were allowed to eat in uniform in the street and we had to behave on the bus home and do you know what? Absolutely nothing bad happened at all, no child ever fainted on the way home, as far as I know no familt went hungry as a result and none of my school friends blame any problems in later life on having to abide by school rules.

I've never heard of masses of teenagers descending upon a supermarket. I've been in Sainsbury's which is less than half a mile from a secondary school school at 4pm and there were none in there, at all. McDs across the way can be quite busy though.

Wow Bubamara

And you accuse other posters of being dramatic. Tesco have 'banned children', really??

Filly you should go up to my local supermarket at lunchtime. There are mile long queues of kids, all paying for one bag of crisps or one can of coke each. They also sit on the wall outside the supermarket in huge gangs, shouting, pushing each other and generally getting in people's way.

NYANBU I agree with WorriedTeenMum There's good and bad behaviour in all sections of society and I've seen many adults throwing chocolate wrappers away in the street why should school pupils be picked on? It's also unsafe not to be able to have a drink of water in the summer on a long journey home.

They're not being 'picked on'. The school is just not allowing that sort of anti social behaviour while the children are in school uniform and representing the school.