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

At my DC's school packed lunches are banned, the catering company even provide them for trips. They're control freaks.

My kids don’t have fizzy drink in their lunch and not really chocolate but chocolate covered biscuits. They have juice and fruit aswell, that’s a personal choice. If I wanted to I would send my children with what I want to send them. The school is their to teach not to dictate how you bring your children up. They already say how you can have your hair. It’s fraustrating enough that at my sons school their is a child with a banana allergy which means no one in the school is allowed bananas. I understand that it’s not the boys fault but it’s not the other kids fault and considering bananas are one of the most popular fruits among children it’s a pain in the arse. The same goes with Nutella. 2 of my sons faves which it makes harder to give him stuff he likes that is suitable for lunch. I just think schools are getting to bossy about what your kids can and can’t do,

and yet parents can't send in their child with a low-sugar cake

Are you referring to the OP or to your DC’s school? Just that the school in the OP hasn’t banned cakes as far as I can see.

But anyway it’s very hard to know how much sugar is in a cake without tasting it.
Ours looks lovely but taste awful.

No, Suburban, we're not entitled to free school meals because we're on WTC. It's supposed to cover school meals. In reality, it barely covers the bills.

I just think schools are getting to bossy about what your kids can and can’t do,

You could always send your children to a different school if you don’t like the rules.

I know what a pain that is, perfectly, as many of our parents have exactly the same issue.

It’s even worse when it comes to not being eligible for the reduced rate for the residential.

I wonder if there is more to this, I work with a couple of autistic children who would go without a drink rather than drinking water.

There are some parents who just feed their children complete crap and they are the reasons we have these rules, I don't mean children with sensory issues/medical reasons that mean they would starve themselves and I've no problem with any child having a treat with their lunch but I've had a child sent in before who only had a bag of wotsits, a can of coke and a mars bar before, no sandwiches or anything to go with it!

@suburbanrhonda
It’s not just my kids school, actually their school is the best in the town It’s all the schools, I know parents from the other 2 schools in the town and they say the same. The banana boy moved from one of the other schools. My son is on the autism spectrum and trying to explain to him he ain’t allowed his fave fruit is hard. They are allowed to take water to school as an extra for the classroom, but as he doesn’t like plain water which he used to drink when he was a baby. We give him flavoured water. I totally agree with the fizzy drinks. They are there to learn. They have a uniform which I’m game for but it’s things like the tiniest little white bit on shoes and the school throw a fit. My sons school is pretty good with the shoes thing but the high school where my lil sister goes is proper strict on anything.

You lost me at “banana boy”.

You lost me at “banana boy”

However it does then make it difficult to uphold the “no sugary drinks” rule with the rest of the children

No it doesn't, the kids in my school just have coloured water bottles, the only way anyone else would know what they are drinking is if they drank from their bottle, which no one should be doing anyway.

Suburban mine drink nowhere near enough water, I'm liaising with the school nurse about DS2 because the knock on effect is that his bladder hasn't expanded and he's still in Dry Nites.

Being a lunch time staff member I am surprised that the school management actually know and have an opinion. Usually they are absent from the hall or having lunch themselves, leaving a few people in charge of ensuring everyone eats and don’t kill each other.
That packed lunch you made - usually on the floor, in the dustbin or swapped for someone else’s ... school dinners? Usually in the waste bin or on the floor -please don’t kid yourself that they are eaten or inspected.
And school secretaries love having their time taken up listening to parents demands and complaints about somerhing they can’t do anything about ...
And for £2.30 or thereabouts for a meal it isn’t great

Well maybe our children are different but we found out a child was bringing in squash because he told everyone about it!

Many people blame the schools for this but they should be looking at those who have caused the ban. The parents who send their children in with cold McDonalds Happy Meals, the parent who sent in a single family sized dairy milk bar only, the parent who sent in a tube of pringles and a box of fondant fancies. People have had to ban things because some parents do not know what the words 'moderation' or 'balanced diet' means.

perfectly

I asked our school nurse about this and she said health advice is that’s it’s better to bring in dilute squash than drink nothing all day, even if it’s worse for children’s teeth.

Isn't the point though that schools ought to leave decisions on food and drink to the parents, even if they are bad decisions?
And having worked in a primary school, the hypocrisy does get me- biscuits ALWAYS in staff room, chocolates, if taken in, disappearing within SECONDS...

I think schools should stick to teaching tbh. Any appalling lunches so eak to the individual parents.

No nuts no sweets and no fizzy are probably standard sensible rules.

Besides that the usual suggested alternatives are often as bad as or worse than the banned items. As if a penguin is that much worse than a yoyo bear.

Ban a cake but serve a flap Jack with school meals? Yeah whatever

Warm water stood all day in a classroom wouldn't appeal to anyone. Squash would at least make it drinkable.

Either provide a fridge or put up with it.

purring

It would make everyone’s life’s so much easier if we could guarantee that children would be sent in to school with a healthy balanced meal. But unless you’ve worked in a school and seen what some children are given, (and yes, we’ve also seen a cold Happy Meal and a cold cooked breakfast), you cannot turn a blind eye. We have a duty to ensure children are safe and happy in our care.

Sorry just seen you said you’ve worked in a primary school.

Oir children are fine drinking out of their water bottles. We also have two water dispensers in case anyone has forgotten theirs.

I hate this. We have recently just had this discussion as FS1 get snacks of which they are allowed chocolate milkshake, carton of orange or apple juice...biscuits, a bagel, a cookie, some cake. But if they take their own snack in they have limits. Thankfully their lunchboxes aren't so scrutinised!

We also have the water only rule which we have spoken to them about. It isn't just children with SN who won't drink water; my now 5 year old went three days one summer without drinking. Because i was advised by GP & HV she 'should be drinking only water' instead of squash. She ended up on a drip. Yes it's my fault she won't drink water but i won't drink it either because i don't like it...there are some 'rules' i'm not enforcing when she is learning off of me!

Actually, the school I worked in had pretty compliant parents.
But who are we (as in society) to judge? So if a parent is finding things really tough financially, and knows that their child won't eat a sandwich, but will say eat a reasonably balanced meal at home that evening, maybe it is better for them to spend money on that rather than spend it on food which will be wasted.
I went to a pretty decent primary school, and can still recall numerous assemblies in which we were told off as reports had been received of children chucking their sandwiches into neighbouring gardens.
Children can be random IMO.

Not meaning to be a GF but adults who don't like water - please can you explain what it is you don't like? To me it doesn't taste of anything?!

SusannahL I think there's a lesson here for all mums of babies - make sure you give them small drinks of water from a very early age, then perhaps there will be no more of this 'he/she won't drink water' nonsense.
Ah, SusannahL I would weep at your naivety, if I could be arsed.