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Original poster

School dinners. Can staff really do this?

224 replies

SoyUnPerdedor2 · 14/09/2018 18:46

Trying to keep it vague as haven't been able to get a meeting yet.
My dd returned to school after summer holiday. Same school she has been to, for a couple of years. Since she a tarted age 4.

Same staff. Same head. Same catering team.
Small village school. Single class intake.

Dd is key stage 1. So gets free dinners. All ks1 get them.

Dd has a dairy allergy. She has had this since birth. School are fully aware and kept her dairy free in the previous years.

Yesterday, I got a phone call after lunch. Asking me to collect dd as she had got an upset stomach and had pooed in the classroom.
As soon as I got near her, I could smell poo. Not normal poo, but the awful smelly stuff she made as a baby, before we got her allergy sorted.
So I asked what she had eaten. Macaroni cheese. Normal macaroni cheese. With real cheese.
Apparently, she has been taken off the allergy list, due to a paperwork issue?
School haven't updated her care thing, so gave her normal food. Knowing it would make her poorly.

Who is my issue with here?
School? Teacher? Office staff? Catering staff?
Dd is not old enough to fully understand food restrictions. She usually asks if it's OK for her. But with new kids starting, lots of noise.. I would not put the blame on her.

OP posts:
ArtisanBaps · 15/09/2018 09:33

Teacher here. To all the people saying it’s parents’ responsibility to inform a school ‘anew’ about allergies etc every year: it’s not. Your child is permanently ‘on roll’ until they leave that school and all their/(and your) information is too!

All the info lives in an IT system. 99% of schools use a system called SIMS which does everything from registers, storing parental phone numbers, pupil timetables, logging assessment data and behaviour incidents, phone call and meeting logs.... There is a space for every possible type of info apart from shoe size. So you can generate reports of children who have allergies etc within about 20 seconds.

This information is CARRIED FORWARD from year to year. It is not re-entered. In September parents are merely asked to update information ALREADY HELD in SIMS so there is no excuse for this school not knowing this pretty bloody critical information. Even if you’d suddenly ‘unticked’ a box as important as allergy, I’d be ringing home to check ‘why’ and what this meant for school procedures as I’d want to know more.

So it is probably not a ‘paperwork’ issue but a procedural issue.

Sirzy · 15/09/2018 09:37

We have a care plan for ds (actually must get school nurse in to update)

The school nurse met with me and the senco and class teacher before ds started at the school, we went through his health problems (in this case primarily severe asthma). The school nurse had a set proforma which all the information went on, what impact it may have say to day, what action is needed day to day and then a big section on what to do it case of different levels of problems when to Give medication, when to call me, when to call ambulance etc.

In theory the school nurse comes in each year to update this unless things change before, in reality I just let School know if anything has changed

Bobbybobbins · 15/09/2018 09:40

Definitely go to the head. One of the kids at my school almost died last year when he ate something he was allergic to (secondary school - something he had eaten fine before, turns out he had developed a 'new' allergy in addition to nuts he already had). It was awful - air ambulance, cpr, the whole range of treatment.

In this case the school didn't do anything wrong but we have still reviewed all the procedures.

So glad your daughter isn't too seriously ill but the school didn't know this would be the case.

I must admit I didn't really realise how serious allergic reaction could be til very recently.

Anniegetyourgun · 15/09/2018 10:35

I can't get my head round the idea that parents are encouraged to contact the caterers directly. An administrative nightmare, surely? Given that school hold the information it must be a lot easier to print off a list from their system, and immeasurably easier to consult that list rather than a load of post-its of phone calls which may have been picked up, or lost, or misheard, by various members of the catering organisation. Multiply this by the number of schools the company may serve and it's going to be chaos.

One central point for the data in and out, with the school as a buffer from a whole bunch of separate parents, all with different ideas about what it's ok to request in school meals, whether or not allergies come into it. Doesn't that make sense? It did to every school I've attended or sent my children to, but as we know, times change.

myrtleWilson · 15/09/2018 11:21

Based on this contributions to this thread the 'contact catering direct' policy doesn't appear to be widespread Annie (thankfully)

Eliza9917 · 15/09/2018 11:48

If it's that bad, send her with a packed lunch. That way no matter stakes will be made again.

Eliza9917 · 15/09/2018 11:49

Matter stakes? Mistakes!

Atalune · 15/09/2018 11:56

A care plan is just a short doc that you help the school write and they will carry all the relevant info
Name
DOB
Allergy
Medicine
Emergency contact
Protocol for all food and drink
Risk assessment information- this would be as simple as-
School caterer has been informed and no dairy products to be given to xxxx. Severe dairy intolenance. This includes xxxxx Suitable substitutions can be used instead. These are xxxx
Key named staff is xxxx

Tomorrowillbeachicken · 15/09/2018 11:59

My sons food issues have always been on file and he’s now in year two. It gets past down every year.

Tomorrowillbeachicken · 15/09/2018 12:00

Tbh they could possibly kill the next child by losing these details.

Nomad86 · 15/09/2018 12:07

Our school does it electronically. You enter your child's allergies, halal etc on their profile, it only shows meal options without those allergens. You preorder the meals online, then the child chooses their name from the screen before they're served.

My DC don't have allergies but it must be peace of mind as human error can happen.

sashh · 15/09/2018 12:08

The school has a duty of care to your daughter. This needs to be taken seriously.

CrispbuttyNo1 · 15/09/2018 12:22

As a chef who feeds groups of children on residentials I am supplied with a list of dietary requirements at the beginning of the week, and I cater for those accordingly but when I have a long queue of children being served I need the child or their teacher to tell me who they are.

If the catering staff who served this child wasn’t told who the child was then how can they ensure the child gets the correct meal. I make a point of asking the teacher at the beginning of service to tell me, but I can see how this would happen if there was no dietary list that included this child. The blame lies with the administration that left her off the list.

It’s bloody hard at times though. For example this week we had a dairy free child staying, however the child informed us that ice cream was perfectly fine for her to eat 🙄🤨

Stopandlook · 15/09/2018 12:25

Poor thing :(

Unacceptable by the school.

Tomorrowillbeachicken · 15/09/2018 15:43

Tbh at our school they would get to the front of the queue and the computer would flag it up.

ilovechocolate07 · 15/09/2018 17:23

That is awful! Hope she is ok now. As long as you have always returned updated allergy information the the fault lies with the SLT who inform catering and lunchtime staff. Even if lunch time staff knew about allergy before, children are often taken off allergy lists by parents so in theory they aren't to blame but I'd always check if I knew the child had an allergy previously. I once panicked when I saw a hotdog on a vegetarian child's plate so queried it only to be told that it was meat free. Better to be safe than sorry.

Lostinlondon999 · 15/09/2018 17:27

You have the right to be furious. But all you will get is an apology. There will be no further action.

CraftyGin · 15/09/2018 17:30

Do you think the school deliberately gave her dairy to be mean. Of course it was an administrative problem. It was a human error. None of us are perfect, including the OP.

Wheresthel1ght · 15/09/2018 17:36

If she has been there a couple of years but still ks1 then she is 6 coming up 7...sorry but that is plenty old enough to know what she can/cannot eat if you have educated her correctly on her allergies.

My dd is was on a restricted diet by the hospital when she started school, she turned 4 less than 2 weeks before her first day and she was fully aware what she could/couldn't eat. There is no excuse for her not knowing at 6.

Yes the school are at fault, they should not have removed her without confirmation of alteration to her care plan but actually I think yabu also for not making sure your dd knows what she can/cannot eat

Gersemi · 15/09/2018 17:41

"Wheres", she could just as easily be only just 6. And it's ridiculous to generalise - you cannot sensibly or rationally say that every 6 year old is the same.

hihello · 15/09/2018 17:45

Do you think the school deliberately gave her dairy to be mean. Of course it was an administrative problem. It was a human error. None of us are perfect, including the OP.

However in well run schools there should be rigid processes that protect against this type of human error. If these processes are not adhered to the school is accountable. Just like hospitals are, just like workplaces are in terms of health and safety.

HenryInTheTunnel · 15/09/2018 17:46

It's not good enough. I work in quite a large secondary school and our dinner ladies know the children who have food intolerances by sight after they've been there a couple of weeks.

In a primary school i'm surprised by this.

Wheresthel1ght · 15/09/2018 17:47

She has had this since birth, it is not new. If she has been educated at home correctly she should know what she can/cannot eat.

Just as I would expect parents of a child with a known peanut allergy to have taught their kid about not eating peanut butter or a snickers bar from a very early age

Everyoneiswinginit · 15/09/2018 17:51

I work in a primary setting and in KS1. That would be a major concern for us. Even if we were in doubt about whether the allergy still stood(lots grow out of dairy allergies) we would never knowingly give dairy unless we had written permission from a parent.
We had a child who wanted ice cream and pleaded that her allergy had gone, that she ate it at home. The cook asked us and we said no.
Your first port of call is the Head Teacher and if you're not happy with th response then the local authority.
My DD has a nut allergy and that kind of mistake could be catastrophic and the reason I have never given her a school dinner.

riceuten · 15/09/2018 17:51

"School haven't updated her care thing, so gave her normal food. Knowing it would make her poorly"

The school have been neglectful, and they need to

a) deal with your complaint properly
b) assure you this will not happen again and that systems and procedures have been put into place to prevent its recurrence

They didn't "know it would make her poorly". They didn't know, because they were neglectful. Doing something despite prior knowledge is one thing, being neglectful is something else.