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

[SpagBolgs]

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? DD has allergies so the school meals do not suit her that why she has packed lunch.

The temptation to march into the staff room and bin all those unhealthy caffeine based drinks, biscuits and have a rummage through their lunches must be massive....

If schools want to encourage healthy eating why don't they try being a bit more fun about it - carrot stick Tuesday, Apple Friday etc. give some proper direction about what's healthy. Young kids lap up that theme crap - chuck in some stickers and you've got them eating out of your hand! Heck buy a load of cheap paper crowns and you could have a positive influence on their dietary habits for 0. of a penny.

Given what you've been told OP (especially with no clear reminder of what they do consider accepetable) I'd be tempted to bin off the rest of their complaints process as they're so uncooperative and go straight to Ofsted myself.

I complained mojang but got nowhere, was told I wouldn't understand. I had been considering moving dd's school due to other reasons (mainly I now lived miles further away) but I had been wavering about the upheaval. This helped me decide. The only packed lunch rules at the new school are no cans, glass bottles or peanuts. In my case I believe it was a stupid, new and insecure head trying to make her mark. The previous, very popular head had retired at Christmas. The term between Christmas and Easter was hell with lots of stupid rule changes implemented without warning, children coming out crying because of the punishments they'd received while bullies got away with it. Etc. Dd went to her new school after the Easter holidays that year so I don't know details of other things that have happened but according to gossip a lot more children have been removed and some parents have been banned from the playground for being aggressive towards her.

I'm not anti school and I don't think they're evil.

To complain effectively use the school complaints procedure, keep everything in writing, keep them to the deadlines in the procedure and follow the process through.

OP are you going to pursue this?

Holly, our (excellent) head has interpreted that guidance to mean the dining hall should have a happy atmosphere with reasonable table manners on display, that school meals should meet guidelines and that allergies are catered for. We only "complain" about pl where the child isn't being given enough to eat and then it would be directly to the parent. Sadly we have a number of hungry children.

Head seems to have a decent handle on what OFSTED want as he's taken the school from the verge of special measures to "good" in just under 3 years

Name and shame, grumpyoldbat. Can't do any harm- your child isn't there any more.i'd love to know more about the grape banning school...........

I've seen some really awful packed lunches. Cold McDonalds just chucked in. Sweets and chocolate spread sandwiches. These are the same schools where children sometimes turn up, their parents don't make an effort to collect them on time and their parents don't get involved in the child's education.

That's the issue. Not BLT sandwiches. Or grapes. I think Heads worry too much about OFSTED and take their guidance to the extreme. I bet OFSTED would not want BLT sandwiches banned and I can absolutely guarantee that most OFSTED inspectors are not qualified nutritionists so can't really discuss healthy eating along with all the other stuff they have to think about in schools.

Cold Macdonalds .

The laugh is we're in Scotland so not even subject to Ofsted.

I can see the Daily Mail article now.

Grapes - banned
BLT - banned
Fulll fat yogurts - banned.

I think I'd have children posing with sad faces holding each item, an article by a qualified child nutritionist and a comment from the DFE stating that schools are supposed to encourage healthy eating so we're going to ignore what professionals say because we know more than professionals (like educationalists, nutritionists etc)

It would still out me curlew with the 2 schools being in small towns.

Gosh the lunchbox mafia are definitely alive and well

Holly- and it would hold as much water as most Daily Mail sad face stories.

Bacon (and ham, and other cured meats) aren't good for anyone, as a rule. Still think this story is utter tosh though.

I can't help but wonder if there is something missing from this story as it seems so extreme. Was the BLT in question a grilled bacon sandwich with lots of fresh lettuce and tomato on wholemeal bread? Or was it a bacon cheeseburger still in the fast food wrapping with a scrap of wilted salad? Had the OP been repeatedly warned or did this come out of the blue? Either way, calling a child greedy and leaving them with nothing to eat is totally unjustified and very bizarre practice which really needs to be pursued formally in writing.

It astonished me that there is this pressure on primary lunches when kids arrive at secondary school having bought a load of energy drinks on the way in which they consume in lieu of breakfast. I think those drinks pose a far greater health hazard (not to mention the catastrophic effects on learning and behaviour) than a less-than-perfect lunchbox and I do really worry what damage teens are wreaking on their bodies by glugging them in such quantities.

A little bit of bacon never hurt.

Now a lot of bacon everyday - that's an issue.

I'm surprised the school doesn't do food tests seeing as how it seems a lot of our food isn't what it seems anyway.

And yes - what does the Head eat at school? The teachers?

Why has an adult got the right to eat what they want but a parent does not have the right to give their child what they want?

School near me. Lunchtime you see secondary pupils going to Greggs and eating sausage rolls and coke.

When I was teaching, my heart used to sink when I was driving in and I'd see members of my tutor groups walking towards school swigging from 2 litre bottles of coke. That was 10 years ago, and I'm sure the problem has got worse since then.

Those of you who can't believe it are just lucky. We had a v overweight LTS telling dd2 off for having jelly in her lunchbag as it had too many calories- she is on 0.2 centile for weight and hardly drinks anything at school (so jelly gives her some fluid) as their water bottles are taken away from them and they aren't allowed to go to the toilet except at break. They can have jelly every day with a school lunch. dd1 was told that frozen jelly would give her food poisoning. If they have a problem then they should contact the parents - telling children off for their lunchbag contents in infants is just likely to cause anxiety around food as the child can't always alter their lunch and may not even tell their parents if they think they were told off because they were naughty.

The school said rules are rules. What rules? You've been asked several times on the thread, but have declined to say.
Sensationalist nonsense, IMO...

The rules are probably - bring in a healthy packed lunch.

But how do you interpret that?

And I would love to see the staffroom at lunchtime. I fear we are going to have a generation who are obsessed about what they eat leading to food issues.

I am lost for words.. I can't believe they would be so bloody mean to a child to make them go without their lunch. Considering we have had stories like Daniel Pelka, the little boy who had been starved and nobody intervened, they have a damn cheek and taking away a child's lunch.
Even if a child came in with pure rubbish they should still not take it away, if they deem it necessary they should put a note in the child's book bag for the parents.

"I am lost for words.. I can't believe they would be so bloody mean to a child to make them go without their lunch."

Neither can I.

DD told the lunch lady that my mother had packed it as a treat and the lunch lady told her she didn't care and snatched it of DD! DD then asked if she could have the school lunch and was shouted at and embarrassed and told her she was greedy and should sit down as some children get no lunch!

I am aghast.

I find this to intrusive.

I am amazed.

I would be hitting the roof.

• DD told the lunch lady that my mother had packed it as a treat and the lunch lady told her she didn't care and snatched it of DD! DD then asked if she could have the school lunch and was shouted at and embarrassed and told her she was greedy and should sit down as some children get no lunch!

This woman sounds like she is on a crazed power trip and I question her suitablilty for the role.