Lunch box police

[BackToBeingMe]

Just had a phone call from school and asked if I could go in for a chat regarding dd lunch. She is 6 and in year 2, being in key stage 1 she gets universal free school meals which she has everyday apart from Wednesday. Wednesday is always a roast and the gravy the meat is cooked in gives her an upset stomach. I am irritated as the teacher has looked in dd lunch bag this morning which I feel is out of order if I'm total honest. So the offending item which she has had the last few Wednesday's as there is 10 in a pack is a mini Pick Up Bar. Photo attached for size she has just the 1 biscuit not the 3 that is the actual serving size. Along with the pick up she has a cheese and ham mini wrap with lettuce, cucumber and red onion in, 6 cherry tomatoes, carrot sticks, a pot of hummus and grapes which are cut into 1/4s. I was a bit taken aback just now on the phone so didn't say much at all, now I need to know what to say at by meeting this afternoon. I would seriously think the school had more to worry about than a flamming fun size biscuit. For back ground we moved into this area recently and dd has only been at the school since the September and such rule was mentioned during induction day in July.

@MemoryOfSleep my dd wouldn't of had any of lunch the school phoned just after 9am today lunch isn't until 12:15ish for year 2. Opening and rummaging through a 6 year olds wrapped lunch is rude and uncalled for in my book.

Seems ridiculous to me. I'm a head teacher, and in my school (and every other school I've ever worked in) the rule is a chocolate biscuit bar (which this clearly is) is fine, but a bar of chocolate is not. When people have asked me how I distinguish between the two I say that if it came from the biscuit aisle in the supermarket it's fine as a general rule. No nuts or nut products though as we have seriously allergic children. So to me this is absolutely fine and the school ABU. If most of my children had lunchboxes like this I'd be over the flipping moon!

Lol YourMilkshakeIsBetterThanMine dd never picks them for a snack at home says they are a bit small!

So they've rootled through her lunch box as soon as it's brought in in the morning?

Who the hell do they think they are?

My meeting is at 2pm which they say will tie in with collection, I don't see how a discussion over a pick up bar will take an hour and 15 minutes. I think I am just winding myself up with it now because the more I think about there was absolutely no need to open her wrap to check the filling, the Pick Up Bars was individually wrapped nothing to do with her wrap at all.

Yes SneakyGremlins it is so bloody rude isn't it.

Maybe they thought you'd sneaked a forbidden food into her wrap, like chips or something? It wouldn't surprise me.

Blimey OP no wonder you're pissed off.

It's not like she had three slices of dominos pizza, a can of coke and a share bag of haribo.

My DC's school don't trust us to feed our own kids properly. Their official reason for compulsory school meals is to ensure that each child gets one hot meal a day. So now I'm neglectful? Fuck off, school.

I thought teachers were expected to fuck about providing proof that their lesson plans were differentiated to every single student and doing personalised marking. Why go to the trouble of having a whole meeting?

I'd tell then that my dd doesn't want to eat food that's been mauled about and to keep their filthy hands off it

@PhilomenaButterfly Well when else would they have a hot meal? Are you suggesting they get a home cooked, healthy, delicious hot meal at night? obviously that could NEVER happen

Certainly not in this house Grems.

They obviously only get bread and butter at yours

I just throw them in the general direction of Domino's with a fiver between them.

Our school will do spot checks on the packed lunches and they send out reminders every term about what shouldn't be in there.

They will allow a biscuit based bar, like kitkat or penguin or pickmeup, but they won't allow chocolate bars like mars, double decker etc.

They also strongly encourage water not squash, but do have to back down on that one as some kids will not drink water without squash in it.

The school is BU about calling you in for a meeting on it, when a letter will do.

Regarding the dessert, I have a friend who is head chef at a primary school and each meal has to be very carefully balanced with calories and salt/sugar content etc, so it doesn't matter if it is cake and custard, it will fall within the overall guidelines of each daily meal.

Stand your ground. The world is going mad. Suggest you take them out of the packet in future and rough them up a bit so they look homemade.

Ugh this annoys me so much. Our school keeps sending back anything thats slightly unhealthy. Apparently we aren't allowed to send anything sugary. However, during class they sometimes give out cake and biscuits, and a fair few days they have given out little haribo packs to the kids on the way out of school! Makes no sense to me at all.

Goodness gracious me! Is this the first time her pack up may have "broken the rules"?

Honestly at my kids school theyd have to be sent in with a tub of cold mcdonalds fries and a battered sausage to be even looked at.

Our school have a published 'no chocolate or fizzy drinks' policy - perhaps yours are the same?

I'd be stuffed if I would agree to meet them over a measly chocolate biscuit though, overkill! 😂😂

Tell them to piss off and to concentrate on what is actually important, teaching your child! That is a very healthy lunch by the way OP.

It's rather unusual for them to have opened it at 9 a.m. From that I can only presume that they'd flagged what they consider to be a concern on previous occasions and have opened her lunch this morning specifically to check. Though being as they haven't scheduled a meeting with you until after lunch anyway I can't see a point in them doing that!

I’m afraid I’d be sending my DC with a lockable lunch box to prevent teachers rifling through it with unwashed hands. How disgusting!

I also wouldn’t accept being summoned to a meeting without being told what it’s about. If it’s about the biscuit then they’re being ridiculous for all the reasons already mentioned.

I would have understood 'chocolate and sweet free' to mean no sweets or chocolate bars, not no biscuits! It's absurd that they are serving chocolate pudding with chocolate custard but one tiny biscuit is banned.

DDs school are trying to clamp down on this. Whilst still offering dubious snacks & drinks to be purchased at tuck. DD was told from the start if anybody says anything about her lunch she is to tell them to call me. If i found out someone had removed items from her i would go batshit.

Be interesting to see what they say to you at your meeting OP