To think the school has a point about packed lunches

[Rebeccaslicker]

I'm not sure about banning parents from the premises, but is it a bad thing to say no chocolate, sugary drinks etc in a primary school lunch?? (My DD is only 2, so I haven't had the lunchbox decisions yet, v interested in people's views!)

www.google.co.uk/amp/www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-on-trent-news/now-mum-48-banned-school-1108690.amp

Fucking links!!!

www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-on-trent-news/now-mum-48-banned-school-1108690.amp

No child needs chocolate or fizzy drinks so I think it’s fine for schools not to allow them, the children will survive without them!

Whilst I do agree that lunch boxes should be monitored, I kinda agree it’s a bit hypocritical when you look at School dinners. They get apple juice and milkshakes, chips, chicken nuggets, cake, custard, biscuits for school dinners. Send a chocolate chip muffin and a bottle of juice in the packed lunch and you get a snotty note 🙄

I agree with the ban but I see the mums point that if kids aren’t allowed to bring cakes in as part of their packed lunch then the children having school dinners shouldn’t get to sit there eating cake

Children generally don’t need sweets in packed lunches, but I do agree with that mother that it’s a nonsense to enforce this whilst also including cake in the school dinner menu (as our school also does)

I know children that have haribo for breakfast, not sure it will actually help them these changes

I thought most schools had some sort of acceptable lunch box policy (no nuts, no chocolate, no fizzy drinks). But then merrily plug the school fund raising cake sale without a trace of irony!

It does discriminate against children who have packed lunches. many will go packed lunches because they can't afford to pay for a dinner that their children won't eat.

It was a bugbear of mine when my DD's SEN school changed to Jamie Oliver's menu. There were days when I wouldn't have eaten anything on the menu.

Fizzy drinks are an absolute no-no but some of the other rules are nonsensical.

Our school is one like this. My DD had a school dinner today of pizza and chips, chocolate cake and chocolate custard. The note I would have got if I'd sent similar in a packed lunch box!!!

I agree with the healthy eating but it has to be the same for the school meals. I have just had a look at the schools menu and there are a lot of muffins, cakes and crap on the menu.

The woman wants her child to be able to have sugar free squash as they won't drink water. Not fizzy pop - a drink of squash...

Sounds perfectly reasonable to me.

I'd rather them focus more.in getting kids active than the one meal they eat a day. I used to eat crap in my lunchbox but healthy food at home. I did a lot of sports and activities.

I know it’s a cliche but honestly we never had fizzy drinks as children and very rarely had squash or even real juice. No child will suffer from cutting out squash.

Notice the moms complaining all look overweight or obese. So either send water for your child’s lunch drink or moan about nanny state and send Vimto. The school is trying to help, but I do think they have their work cut out. It makes me think of the old expression “you can’t educate pork”

The school's cake, pizza etc won't be made to the same recipes as the cake, pizza etc one might put in a lunchbox.

Usually when a school bans things, it's a last resort after appeals to common sense have failed. IIRC one of the problems at this school is squash and flavoured water - which is sticky when spilt, unlike plain still water. If you're banning all chocolate it's not because of a weekly two-finger KitKat but daily 100g Dairy Milk (later smeared on Maths book). If you say no sweets it's in the hope that Jack in Year Two will get something other than a grab bag of Haribo and a Mars Bar.

If you ask MNers what a packed lunchbox should look like, there's a conversation about wraps v sliced bread, about ham v cheese, about remembering to slice grapes for younger children, about pasta salad and bento boxes and whether there's too much salt in hummus. It isn't these lunches that are being targeted.

So yes maybe it would be better if the school said "cake: only if less than 15% refined sugar" or "cold pizza: only if wholewheat crust and contains one of 5 a day" which would mirror their own standards, but (1) who would adhere to that and (2) how could they check anyway?

in slight defence of the cakes in school - the ones in my area are made on site, are pretty low in sugar compared to bought cakes and often have fruit/veg in them and tend to be wholemeal flour.

but I agree on the whole that a sweet treat is included everyday and its a bit hypocritical to stop parents doing the same

I agree it's a good idea to have a sensible food from home policy to prevent the stories all teachers have of kids being sent in with two mars bars and a can of red bull, or leftovers from a happy meal. But equally as people say above it's one rule for some and one rule for others when the school dinners provided don't seem to comply with the same guidelines.

The schools always seem to say the catering suppliers follow healthy eating plans and provide balanced nutritious meals blah blah but when you look at some of the menus how can that be the case. Are they assuming that because a "salad bar" and fresh fruit are offered, that covers the healthy bases? How often are small children picking that when there's also pizza and chips or cake and custard on offer.

I know it is also so variable from authority to authority and school to school. Just from a quick google I found found one council website with menus where 2/5 days dessert was just fresh fruit, one day yogurt and fruit, one day ice cream and fruit and one day crumble and custard. But then there's another with chocolate cake and custard, crumble and custard, arctic roll and cornflake surprise all in the same week.

I get really angry at how inflexible DS1 school is about food. DS1 has a self restricted diet to only a few foods. None of the food they serve is on his approved list so at snack time cannot have anything. They wont allow a dry breadstick. At lunch he does not eat any food on the menu now so his pack lunch includes crisps and an oat bar/biscuit. If they banned those he would have to go hungry as that is literally all he will eat.

I don't know why schools can't just apply some common sense. For (an extreme) example, child A has a ham and lettuce sandwich, an apple, a few cherry tomatoes, couple of choc digestives and bottle of water - reasonable; child B has a bit of last night's pizza, a bag of crisps, chocolate bar and can of redbull - time to have a word.

Cancelling a meeting and then banning a parent from the premises is OTT and has just resulted in a very public spat. No need at all.

many will go packed lunches because they can't afford to pay for a dinner that their children won't eat.

Won’t those families be entitled to free school meals though?

This is from a local school menu - now I love cake and custard, but crumble or cake and custard three days in a row then a chocolate cookie the next day then shortbread and fruit, when you can bet they won't be encouraging cake and biscuits to be sent in from home seems a bit off.

We have parents who tell us their child “won’t drink water”.

Would they seriously drink nothing if it was a baking hot day and only water was available?

My kids school are sensible so far.

Lucky really because I have the menu in front of me for school meals. In a 4 week menu cycle, cake or biscuit every day except 1. Chips twice. Pizza twice. Burger, sausages all on the menu.

Does this school provide fridges so children who won't drink water can store their milk safely?

Won’t those families be entitled to free school meals though?

There's quite a gap between "poor enough for fsm" and "comfortably able to spend £2.30 per child per school day for lunch". English infants (4-7) all get free school dinners so you're only looking at Y3 onwards.

mushypeas

Have you ever tried school dinners? I went into our school kitchen because I had forgotten to bring any salt to put on my lunch and they said they don’t have salt in the kitchen! I’ve had their cakes before and they honestly taste like they have no sugar in them at all.

Yes, I know you have to earn less than £16,000 to be eligible for FSM, I just thought it was a bit of a generalisation to say that “many” can afford packed lunch but not school dinners.