aibu or is the school

[LilQueenie]

I paid for a school trip (not expensive) and ticked the box for the school to prepare a packed lunch for DD. this was optional but we choose it.

On the day DD was recovering from a sore throat. (had little if anything to eat the day before only managing soft fruit) The trip would last the full school day so I popped a banana, 2 small oranges and a couple oat bars (dds request) into her bag. They all have water daily. This was to ensure she had at least something she could eat if whatever was in the packed lunch was hurting her throat and also as a breaktime snack. Again if the oat bar hurt her she had a choice of fruit.

DD came home upset as she had not been given the packed lunch by school as she already had food in her bag. aibu to think school should not have withheld the packed lunch that was their duty to provide. DD's throat was fine. The back had been pre-packed the night before and we were not even sure if she would be attending the school trip at that point.

I do not think what I put in her bag could be seen to be a 'packed lunch'. No way would I have sent her with that if it had been.

Okay, firstly your DD didn’t get the sniffles from being out without a sports jacket. That’s not how colds work, they are a virus and she probably picked that up from another child.

Secondly, yes they should have given her the packed lunch but there are a myriad of reasons why they might not have done. Oranges, oat bars and a banana is a pretty good packed lunch (good amount of food) and I can see why the school staff might have got confused. Why would she need a packed lunch on top of what you had already packed?

You just need to ask them why...but my betting is that they thought you’d already given her a packed lunch.

"The lunch should have had her name on it, on the bag and she should have been given it."

That's what I think.

If parents have requested, why aren't kids just given the pack up irrespective of what may or ay not be in their bag?

This happened when i helped as a parent volunteer on a school trip, as we were allocated children to look after, but not told that some were having packed lunch provided by the school.

One poor boy in my group had a very small lunch box with some Haribo in. I only realised later that was his snack and he probably should have had a school packed lunch.

It was a very badly organised trip, and I did feel bad that a couple of my group went without a proper lunch, but to be honest they seemed perfectly happy and enjoyed the day.

Ok so had your DC still had a sore throat the snacks you packed would of been adequate but as her throat was ok the food then wasn't?! It was your job to tell the school you had packed something as a 'just incase' yes she should of had a lunch but Jesus Christ you're turning this into a drama.

And the only time weather can effect health is extreme heat or extreme cold.
And neither causes a cold. That's a virus.

Seriously your child is 6. You're in for a long road of the schooling system if these ridiculous things get you riled up.

You need to relax. And next time you think your child is shivering find a way to way over to her and give her a jumper or jacket!!!!

No wonder good teachers are becoming harder to find with parents thinking they can run their mouths over silly things

It was your job to tell the school you had packed something

No it was not.

OP had already told the school her child required a lunch. Regardless of whether she said anything on the day the fact remains she filled in a form that said her child needs to be given a lunch.

Regardless also of what ops dd said on the day the fact still remains that OP filled in a form that said her child required a lunch.

If the school then decides to just ask a 6 year old or expect a parent to tell them AGAIN before the trip that the child requires a lunch, what was the point of the form exactly?

What is done is done but the school need to know this happened in order to put in place a better system to stop it happening again.

I don't get everyone piling on the op to be honest. I think I'd be a bit upset if my 6 year old came home from a school trip and told me they hadn't been given any lunch.

Myotherusernameisbest
The thing is we don't know the child wasn't given any lunch. We know they didn't eat any lunch.
The school may have told the class to collect their packed lunch & the student didn't (because they were quite happy on their spare lunch)
The student may have been given their lunch, but done what is common on trips & discarded most of it in favour of snacks
The student may have told staff they didn't need the lunch.
The member of staff might have seen the student eating and thought that home had changed their mind
There could have been a communication issue.

The OP says that their own DC isn't sure what happened.
Based on that the OP is wildly unreasonable in assuming that school have been some sort of awful establishment who left their child to go hungry.

They would be reasonable to have a chat and find out what happened.
They are unreasonable to decide that school decided not to give a lunch brcause they are crap because there's no evidence for that at this stage.

I think some of the hard time posts are because subsequent posts from the OP do give the impression that they like to blame school over encouraging responsibility (e.g. every other child wrapped up except their child so obviously school aren't doing theor job properly and getting cold caused the sniffles)