To expect school to communicate a nut allergy?

[BelindaBlinked]

Prepared to be told IABU.
DC was reprimanded for bringing almonds in his lunchbox to school today as a child in his class has a nut allergy.
Not bringing nuts in is fine by me, but AIBU to think they should let us parents know first? How am I meant to know if they don't say? Or do you always assume someone might be allergic so steer clear?

I'm unfamiliar with school rules as I don't have kids. But bollocking your child for having nuts when you weren't aware that they are effectively banned seems unreasonable.

Every school i know is nut free. It's usually in the bumf they give you when they start.

Ds's school has several children severally allergic to nuts . It also has a no sharing food policy for lunch boxes etc

Yeah, it should be made explicitly clear if nuts are banned as a lot of kids lunch products have nuts in (peanut butter, cereal bars, etc) and anaphylaxis can be fatal.

Our school is nut free. There is information in the handbooks and a reminder in each terms newsletter.

I think it's something that's largely assumed. That said, they should have communicated the fact clearly. But just as a matter of course children don't really bring in nuts.

Arnt all schools nut free now

I think the majority of schools have a no nut policy these days.

Hmm, maybe it was in the bumf.
He's just moved to Y3 though and every child was on the free school dinners until this school year, so I think a reminder would have been a good idea.

YANBU, they should have told you. Lots of schools are "nut free zones" but that's considered bad practise. Ideally, each individual school should look at who is allergic to what and how badly and draw up their policies in response to that. Ds1 was anaphalatic to peanuts but he didn't need a whole school ban, just not to be served them himself. Another child might require a ban - but not necessarily to nuts. I once worked in a building (Open plan offices) where citus fruit was banned from the second floor due to someones allergy. Dogs are banned from my office due to my allergy to them, but can be brought into other rooms in the building.

My kids school isn't nut free so I definitely don't think it should be assumed - especially as the consequences are potentially so serious. A child in year 3 doesn't actually have much say over their lunchbox anyway so reprimanded them rather than speaking to the parent seems harsh regardless

citrus fruit

I'm going to tell them that it needs to be better communicated, I just needed to know if I was massively out of touch first. I can't see it anywhere on their website.

DS was told off due to other ongoing issues too so it's hard for me to see objectively sometimes.

I'll eat my hat if they haven't already told you but you've missed it.

They definitely haven't told us since the switch to packed lunches thatdearoctopus.
If they told me in reception then a reminder should be given IMO.

I have no idea if my DC school is nut free tbh, its never been communicated anyway if so. I hope not I regularly give him homemade peanut/cereal type bars!!

I should say I hope not because Id hate to think its a risk to someone, not I hope not because my little Tarquin can only eat nuts

Most school policies have a nut free environment have you checked the school policy and rules?

Tbh if there was an allergy that required a nut ban I would hope to be getting reminders every few weeks!
I have absolutely no idea if my kids schools have nut bans.

I have children in 4 different schools - only 1 is nut free....
Most schools are not nut free as it goes against the current advice for severe allergies

Can I ask, what would you expect the consequence to be if your child had encouraged a child with nut allergies to try an almond?

I'm searching the website but if it's on there it's not obvious. Nothing in recent letters.

Did he know the child had allergies??

if he knew about the allergies then pretty severe consequences.

From what I can gather the child told him she was allergic to peanuts. He wanted her to test to see if she was allergic to almonds.
He does have undiagnosed SN but I'm not sure this really makes much difference in this scenario.

What would you expect the consequences to be? Would you expect to have a role in the consequences or let the school deal with it?
Sorry for the million questions but I really would appreciate honest answers

My DS at that age wouldn't really 'get' the consequences of mithering someone to have an almond if they said they had an allergy as we havent been around anyone with a single allergy and its never came up tbh, he'd prob have no idea what the implications could be and think it just results in spots or something.

If he was just pushing in the normal way kids do "go on try it" "do it do it" "go on" etc Id expect the school to deal with it but not to make too much of a drama out of it, tell him how serious it could be as a nut allergy can be anything from a rash to full on anaphalytic (sp?) shock. I think in year 3, especially if your DS has SN, thats all thats needed.

If he was bullying and sinister about it rather than just being cheeky then Id expect a bit more action, a detention or having to do some research homework about the dangers of severe allergies etc

I thought all primary schools were nut free? but not secondary?