Lunchbox suspension..

[JunoMacGuff]

here

It's from a DM article apparently though I refuse to investigate that.

A school have really suspended a child based on his parents actions? And those actions were to give him mini cheddars?

What sort of head writes "Following the meeting with you, X and myself yesterday..." ?

That would worry me more.

This whole lunchbox thing freaks me out, and I've only just entered into this world with my oldest. I try not to send him into preschool with rubbish but I have qualms about the over-emphasis on healthy eating because:

A) DS is a difficult eater, and I would rather he eat something during the day rather than be in tears from hunger at pick-up time. So I include oat-heavy snack bars as I know he'll eat them.

And B) I grew up with extremely healthy eating parents, with neither the inclination nor money to indulge us with many treats. I began sneaking junk food and bingeing/purging in my early teens and have had struggles with disordered eating patterns since. As far as I'm aware my friends with daily lunch-box treats have no such issues. I don't blame my parents approach - it's not straight cause-effect - but it interesting how that worked out.

So now I'm entering the school world with leaflets about lunchbox do's and don'ts and what teachers will be discussing with my 3yr old and I have alarm bells ringing in my head because strangely enough it's rephrasings of the beliefs that have caused me such trouble and I've been trying to unlearn. Over-reaction or accurate intuition? No idea - but it gives me the heebies.

See, I remember my packed lunches when I was at school, I got a ham or chicken sandwich (on white bread! With no salad!), a bag of crisps, a bar of chocolate and a carton of fruit juice. Hasn't done me any harm, I always had a healthy dinner, so it balanced out.

This ridiculous idea that parents don't know how to feed their kids needs to end. The kid in the article looked like he was a decent weight, he certainly wasn't fat. Again, thinking back to when I was a kid, the only kids who were fat were the ones who didn't play outside, go on bike rides etc. Perhaps schools should be encouraging exercise to stay healthy rather than policing lunchboxes?

Crowler I thought that too!

"School forced to get rid of pupils for spurious reasons due to rising cost of toner…"

Some friends and I were discussing this a few weeks ago and all agreed what really makes us cross is that sometimes you run out of the fruit/veg your child likes and you're are forced to put something in you know will end up in the bin when they bring it home all battered, covered in juice or yoghurt dregs and now inedible. All just to keep the school off our backs!

Yes, dontgiveaway, agree re the exercise! Unfortunately my DD in reception still hasn't started doing PE at school because a main hall slot isn't available??!? (Daps will be too small by the time she gets to wear them!)

Riley’s lunch usually consists of a sandwich, yoghurt tube, Dairylea Dunkers cheese spread snack, a packet of Mini Cheddars, and water.

That's from www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/sixyearold-schoolboy-suspended-for-having-mini-cheddars-in-his-lunchbox-9101236.html 7

QueenQuinine

You'd have to send her with that for a month to get the week off.

No "chocolate, sweets, crisps and fizzy drinks" sounds fairly standard to me.

What a stupid fuss about a bag of mini cheddars!
The parents could have chosen something else - easy. Chose not to, created problem.
The school could have let the mini cheddars slide (they're not actually crisps) - less easy but do-able. Chose not to, exacerbated problem.

Then we have 2 sets of adults at loggerheads, neither prepared to back down until school Head pulls rank and basically suspends the parents; but in the meantime there is a 6yo boy in the middle of the adult squabbling who is the one who will have the suspension on his record and miss the days of school.

And no one could apparently think of a better solution...

I still doubt this is just about the mini cheddars.

Quite right Thumbwitch

Thumbwitch I agree, it's a perfect storm of unreasonable people.

And now I have a craving for mini cheddars

sibling I make flapjacks without sugar. If you whizz up dates or prunes in a food processor and then mix with oats, butter/marg and sultanas and about three tblsp apple or orange juice then bake, they are great.

I also often give cheese scones, or homemade oatcakes with cheese, instead of a sandwich. Apart from the salt content they are probably nutritionally similar to Mini Cheddars.

The kid has been expelled now due to the actions of his parents, as far as I can tell.

"The school also said the decision was taken because of: 'The parent school relationship suffering an irretrievable breakdown that would have put two pupils in an unacceptable position.

'This breakdown was due to misrepresentations in the local and national media that were both wholly inaccurate and grossly misleading, abusive language being used towards staff, and other inappropriate actions being taken that were designed to damage the school’s reputation.'

Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2552081/Boy-six-suspended-school-taking-packet-Mini-Cheddars-lunchbox-EXPELLED-parents-vented-outrage-press.html#ixzz2sSVGGfJP

"The statement said: 'We have not excluded a pupil for just having Mini Cheddars in their lunchbox, but where there is a persistent and deliberate breach of school policy, such as bringing in crisps, biscuits, sausage rolls, mini sausages, scotch eggs and similar, and all other avenues have been exhausted, the Governors would expect further action to be taken."

WTF is wrong with Scotch Eggs, sausage rolls and mini sausages?

Not only the boy, but also his preschool brother.

Interesting one 'boy expelled because his parents answered the teachers back'

Proper scotch eggs are fairly nutritional, I thought? It has egg and meat in...

There's nothing wrong with any of that food. What do they expect parents to do, make sandwiches every single day? When you have more than 1 kid it's impractical, it takes too long. Especially if you're in a rush to get to work.

I assume none of them have ever run out of time or "acceptable" packed lunch food, so sent there kids in with whatever halfway decent grub they could rustle up?

What food do they expect to make?

Bread - full of salt.
Ham - processed, salt in.

The school has felt fit to translate its statement on this boy into Polish.

www.colnbrookprimary.com/Polish%20Letter%20Colnbrook%20Feb%202014.pdf

That says quite a lot about a school.

OMG, they have that poor boy doing the DM sadface already.

What a mess. Poor kid.

There's one part of me that's thinking that, if he does eat a healthy, balanced, home cooked diet at home, as his mum says he does, then things like the sausages, scotch eggs etc are probably not that terrible, even if he is having them for his lunch every day.

But then another part of me is thinking, how difficult would it be for his parents to put him together a lunch that wouldn't fall foul of the school's rules - looking at the article, they don't seem terribly strict - all it does is ban chocolate, sweets, crisps and fizzy drinks - which does seem to leave plenty of room for the parents to find things to put in his lunchbox.

And a third part of me is jumping up and down and saying that sausage rolls, mini sausages, scotch eggs and similar are not even banned under the school's policy, so they are being bloody picky by objecting to them!

On balance, I think the school has been a bit heavy-handed, though it does sound as if the relationship between the school and the parents has broken down pretty irretrievably.

I wonder if he had a poncey Waitrose Scotch Egg £2.99, it would be ok.

They teach you how to make scotch eggs at cordon bleu academy. Quite skilled actually.

The Dad sounds like a bully. That's why the boy has been expelled.