To think they should be allowed to eat fruit from home?

[PrepperInTraining]

In ks2 we have to pay for fruit as snack. I can get fruit considerably cheaper so dint really want to pay school for it.

We sent in an extra piece of fruit, apart from the one eaten at lunch, but apparently they are not allowed to eat it!

So half the class get a (paid for) snack at playtime but the children who have a snack (fruit in,y) in their bag get nothing.

AIBU to think they should be allowed to eat their extra fruit? They could make them put it in a box at the start of the day to save scrabbling in bags and restrict it to fruit only?

Yanbu. why would you pay for battered manky fruit that's pot luck at school when you gave a fridge full of fresh fruit that is the kind your kids like. crunchy apples not wooly or black instead of green grapes etc.

It's crazy, isn't it! They get whatever fruit, some which dd won't eat and yet she isn't allowed to eat fruit she will eat from home :/

YANBU, your school has a strange ruling on this. I'd go in and ask what the policy is to clarify, and point out how crazy it is if it's true.

The profit from selling fruit at school will help to pay for school trips etc so yabu. As for putting fruit in a box can you imagine the arguments about another child taking your child's apple.

Just another example of schools being ridiculously inflexible!

These are children fgs!! If they are eating fruit, why the hell does is matter where it comes from!

YANBU. But perhaps it's easier to have a blanket policy rather than having to argue with the salad dodgers everyday over the difference between fruit and fruit flavoured sugar.

Fine to sell fruit to raise money, really not fair at all to make money out of kids by operating what's effectively a monopoly with controlled prices.

YANBU. Kick up a fuss. All very well to use these things to raise money but to some people the extra few quid is important.

That's ridiculous! I am genuinely shocked, what a bizarre rule!

Ah, so it isn't all school, just ours? I might have a word.

Our school gives free fruit in KS1 and the kids can take a snack in KS2 which must be healthy (eg fruit) Mon-thurs.

Yanbu. I would speak to the school. If fruit snacks are allowed they should be available for all with the option of whether to send in or buy from school.

I can understand that it seems ridiculous but it's probably for certain reasons such as jealously (one child eating a nice tub of strawberries/blueberries/raspberries/whatever) while the rest have an apple.
Fruit time may be limited and so it could be to stop mass movement while everyone goes searching for their fruit/complains that mum forget to give it. Yes, you could have a rule that you stick it in a box at the start of the day but that could also be a faf.

You have to see things differently, schools are under such tight time controls that they do things in a different way to you would at home or with a small group of children and no time restrictions.

I should add that my child takes in a healthy snack each day as recommended by the school, there are none for sale, just the milk. I am not aware of any issues but perhaps there have been in your school and they felt that selling a piece of the same fruit would be easier?

You could always just ask if it has always been that way and their reasons for having the rule?

I think there could be a combination of factors here. The major one being organisation. Making sure the child who brought fruit, have it because someone will always leave it in their bag or forget where they've put it. Tupper ware going home /lost. Someone eating someone else's fruit. Having one box with one fruit is much easier to deal with.

That's before you even start on potential allergies for the other children.

I really doubt they are making much money from it, if at all.

By all means ask but at the end of the day they have no duty to allow fruit. In the old days of tuck shop at school, you didn't get to bring your own sweets in instead of buying them.

This is KS2. The children should be more than capable of organising getting their own snack out of their bag without adult help! Even the neediest of Y3 classes I've had have managed!
In our school children can bring in their own healthy(ish) snack or buy one. We wanted to ban crisps as they don't constitute a healthy snack but head decided against it because it's significantly cheaper to buy a multi pack of crisps that fruit.

Didn't make it clear... I think OPs school policy is ridiculous!

You have to pay for a school snack? That is utterly ridiculous, even if it is to raise money for school funds. Whoever implemented that must have massive blinkers on, and no real clue about budgeting in these tight times for families.

So glad my children's school is a lot more inclusive.

We let all children bring in a piece of fruit for a snack, if they want to. KS1 has the free snack, but if they would rather have home fruit then that's fine. Sometimes they eat the school snack and then look in their bag for something else and announce in a puzzled voice "I have an apple in here?" - depending on time I either let them have their additional snack or I send it home.

KS2 can buy snacks in school, but we would never refuse them fruit from home during break.

In the juniors department of the school DS1 and 2 go to they can bring anything from home for morning break. The tuck shop only sells fruit now though, it used to sell fruit, cookies and toast.
They have fruit break in the afternoon where they can eat a piece of fruit as they work, this has to be from home.

In the early years you have to pay £1.50 a week for fruit and milk or water. Occasionally they have other things like pancakes on pancake day.

Year 1&2 can bring their own fruit or pay for school fruit.

Wombat plenty are but many aren't. Even much older. What works in one school may not in another.

I think it's really important for children to have the opportunity to get a snack at morning break - if they haven't had breakfast (or haven't had a 'good' breakfast) then it is a long slog to get through to lunch time.

I disagree soapbox. In all the schools I've worked it I've never come across a child in KS2 (apart from those that may have addition needs) who isn't capable of remembering they have a snack and getting it by themselves. I've known plenty who can't put their coat on because someone has already done it for them but who learn pretty damn fast how to be independent at basic age appropriate tasks.

To clarify, we don't have a tuck shop, the school is too small. Only around 200 pupils. Ks1 get free fruit and milk. In ks2 we are given a letter to day we may purchase milk for the term at x price and fruit for the term at x price. If you sign up they must eat/drink what they are given.

I can see what seem of you are saying re logistics though so thank you for another perspective.

We also have a no sweets rule but they happily give out the packets at the end of the day if it is a birthday. We are also nut free. But strangely not chocolate spread free which also contains nuts and is a risk to at least two children, including one being mine....

Wombat your telling me that every child remembers? That nobody leaves it in the cloakroom, lunch box with a sibling because mum 'thought they could share'. That nobody has brought a pomegranate and needs help (I joke not).

If cloakrooms etc are inside or just outside the classroom then it's less of an issue. Mine used to be down two flights of stairs and two corridors away. I can guarantee that children would regularly forget and there'd be children traipsing down to recover their food or off to the lunch Hall to get it out of their lunch box.

I'm not really against children bringing in their own fruit at all. I'm just trying to give a possible, reasonable explanation as to why the school have said no because not all schools have the same set up.

Yanbu, ridiculous situation. Sometimes schools seem to dream up what ifs that may never happen (if the organisation bit is the reason) and that wouldn't be the end of the world if they did.