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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To be annoyed with what happened to DC at school today!

257 replies

SpagBolgs · 10/02/2014 21:40

DC have packed lunch and usually their lunch consist of Water a cathedral city snack, sandwiches and some sort of fruit usually apple slices. I packed DD lunch which was water, cheese snack bites, apple slices and sandwiches. When DD went to lunch the dinner ladies look in her box and told her she couldn't have her sandwich as it was unhealthy it was a BLT with cheese as they deemed it to be unhealthy it was confiscated!!! DD came home in tears and was pretty upset. AIBU to complain? Angry DD has allergies so the school meals do not suit her that why she has packed lunch.

OP posts:
MerylStrop · 10/02/2014 23:00

Complain

Formally

HollyMiamiFLA · 10/02/2014 23:01

Thursday

Thursday

BLT (grilled bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich)
Mixed seeds
Grapes
Dried apricots
Drinking yoghurt

Grapes and Apricots!!!

maybefaraway · 10/02/2014 23:03

My kids have PL some days and school dinners others. For SD they choose (little buggers) pizza, chips, bread and then cake and custard. Or similar, involving burgers and ice cream. Allegedly there are healthy options there but my kids don't take them.

In PL they have a brown ham roll, cucumber/cherry toms/carrots, a frube or cheese string, hula hoops or a fruit string, a smoothie or juicebox and a piece of fruit.

Noone has objected to their PLs yet and I would tell them to GTF if they do unless they're going to start policing their SD choices more adequately.

Sorry, just moral support here. You dcs lunch was fine and schools need to wise up.

HollyMiamiFLA · 10/02/2014 23:04

I wonder when common sense went out of the window in schools and they became little Hitlers in charge of their personal empire responsible to nobody?

HollyMiamiFLA · 10/02/2014 23:05

I do worry about our children. There is so much emphasis on what foods to eat and avoid. We are going to suffer a generation obsessed by their food as well as their body image.

mistermakersgloopyglue · 10/02/2014 23:08

Sorry but I am struggling to believe some of the stuff on this thread. In 2013, seriously? Without a hint of exaggeration?

A child had their sandwich confiscated and was then told they were greedy and to sit down as some kids get no lunch?

A child had a wrap confiscated because it was white? A yoghurt confiscated because it wasn't low fat and grapes because they were too sugary? And was literally left with carrot batons for lunch?

If these things really are true then LEA/newspapers/ofsted seriously need to be involved, but I am a bit Hmm

Peekingduck · 10/02/2014 23:13

Oh come on, some of these just aren't true.
Anyway, if you're unhappy about what's happening to your child's lunch deal with it. Make an appointment to speak to the class teacher for a start. If you're not happy then... as I've said before... get a copy of the complaints procedure and follow it. Know what outcome you want at the end of the process.

LadybirdsEverywhere · 10/02/2014 23:15

They can't force your daughter to have school dinners without you agreeing to pay for them. I've never heard such nonsense.

QueenStromba · 10/02/2014 23:22

It's ridiculous stuff like this that makes me very glad that I don't want children.

hoppingmad · 10/02/2014 23:25

Mister maker - it's 2014 Smile

I've never had any problems with pl although mine are mainly school dinners. I would be furious if someone tried to tell me what to put in their packed lunch though.

Pipbin · 10/02/2014 23:26

I think part of the problem could be the 'healthy schools' program. Here is the criteria: www.salisbury.anglican.org/resources-library/schools/schools-every-child-matters/be-healthy

Now I don't think that it's in use anymore but I think some schools have got their knickers in such a knot over OFSTED that they will do anything to try and help get that 'good'.

Nearly every child in my class has some kind of cake, chocolate or crisps in their lunch box. I have only ever been concerned enough to report one child's lunch and that was when he had two iced ring donuts and a chocolate bar, and that was it. Then we got mum in and had a chat about it. I would never entertain taking a child's lunch from them.
I would go to the local paper.

breatheslowly · 10/02/2014 23:27

What rule is it that has been broken by that sandwich?

HollyMiamiFLA · 10/02/2014 23:28

I'd be more furious if someone with no nutritional knowledge told me not to give something in the lunch box because they said it was unhealthy.

pigletmania · 10/02/2014 23:31

I am Shock be assertive and request a meeting with the head, if not contact the LEA and ofstead. This is unacceptable, what is bad about a BLT, doing this to a 5/6 year old, awful absolutely disgusting.

Hogwash · 10/02/2014 23:32

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

thinking101 · 10/02/2014 23:33

I cant believe this shit actually is happening in our schools.

Piscivorus · 10/02/2014 23:33

I'm shocked at all of this. Mine are older and a standard packed lunch in their day was:

ham sandwich on white bread,
packet of crisps,
petit filou or yoghurt "choob"
apple, Satsuma or grapes
chocolate biscuit
bottle or carton of juice or pop

That's how you do a packed lunch! Grin

I honestly feel like a dinosaur these days when I hear this sort of shit.

Pipbin · 10/02/2014 23:37

Pisc. Sounds like packed lunches in my class. The only thing I ever say no to are fizzy drinks, child is asked not to bring again, and energy drinks, yes some people do send 5 year olds in with Red Bull.

HollyMiamiFLA · 10/02/2014 23:37

OFSTED guidance

On 12 September 2013, Ofsted released new subsidiary guidance supporting the inspection of maintained schools and academies. This guidance states:

Inspectors should consider the food on offer at the school and atmosphere of the school canteen. They should:

1) consider how lunch time and the dining space contribute to good behaviour and the culture in the school, including by spending time in the lunch hall, and
2) ask school leaders how they help to ensure a healthy lifestyle for their children and, specifically, whether their dietary needs have been considered.

This completes Action 9 of the School Food Plan.

Piscivorus · 10/02/2014 23:37

By the way, on this high standard nutrition they not only survived but have grown up healthy and their brains have not been fried or depleted. They both got good GCSEs and A levels, good degrees and now are doing well as young adults with work and further study.

It was not just mine either, that was almost like a regulation lunch for all their friends too. They fuelled themselves through the school day and often after school sport on that and they're all fine! Smile

MidniteScribbler · 10/02/2014 23:38

The day that I'm expected to police lunchboxes is the day I quit my job. I'm a teacher not a dietitian.

HollyMiamiFLA · 10/02/2014 23:42

What a school should do for OFSTED

www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/subsidiary-guidance-supporting-inspection-of-maintained-schools-and-academies

renlo · 10/02/2014 23:42

This stuff makes my blood boil! How dare anyone think it's ok to confiscate food from a child and let them go hungry? On what planet is that even remotely justifiable? If this is genuine, I would seriously report it as a theft to the police just to shit stir! My husband worked with someone who reported his lunch being stolen from the fridge in the mess room. Disbelief all round that he actually did it but the police had to investigate. It never happened agin though.

I think if schools are going to start getting silly with daft rules, them it's about time parents got just as arsy and daft back. I am beyond cross on your behalf OPAngry. God help my DD's school if they even think about implementing some policing of lunch boxes. Madness!

Mrsantithetic · 10/02/2014 23:43

I would go bat shit.
I have no other words on the subject as I need to sleep and these threads have me ranting for hours.

Poor child. Hope she's ok.

HollyMiamiFLA · 10/02/2014 23:44

"sk school leaders how they help to ensure a healthy lifestyle for their children and, specifically, whether their dietary needs have been considered."

How do school leaders know about dietary needs?
How do they know what a healthy lifestyle is?