To be feed up with school telling me what to do and how to do it?

[ivykaty44]

Had a letter home from my dd's school last week telling me that they would be sending a booklet home telling me what I should be giving my dd for her packed lunch. I do know how to make a healthy pack lunch, including three portions of fruit each day in the pack lunch.

This week they send me a letter telling me that it is tantamount to being a criminal if I so much as dare to even think about taking my dd out of school during term time - I havn't even asked (standard letter to take home)and my child may be excluded from school if I go on holiday in term time.

The letter really does seem to have this attitude of "we have the power to make you" and I really don't like it I am not a child, I can look after my dd and give her healthy food and take her on holiday during school closures. I just want them to leave me alone and get on with teaching my dd........ rant over

It's just a standard letter not personal.

I detest this also and is a large part of why Ihome Educated for a year. Can't now as I'm a lone parent these days but I truly abhor this nannying attitude. They do not seem to understand the concept of healthy food meaning everything in moderation and that there is no real set of 'healthy foods'. Healthy for body and mind is a concept that is alien to them.

Chocolate is good for depression for example.

I guess some people are not aware of this stuff adn they cannot just target the crisps and mars bar lunch bringers so it goes out to all.

Letter -> recycling box

and B R E A T H E...

Oh for goodness sakes.... if it doesn't apply to you, then ignore it!! Unfortunatley some parents need that info and how else are schools supposed to disseminate information - too many parents take kids out of school.

So yes you are being unreasonable... support your school instead of complaining.

Chocolate is also good for high blood pressure ( 70% coco sort - not sugary milky chocolate)

I know its not a personel letter - everyone gets treated the same, as some kind of moronic parent.....

I do find that letters from the head etc are often a bit, um, strident in tone. I guess this is what happens if you spend all day in charge of children. (I just spent the morning in an infants class, a very happy, busy class, but it was like sitting on a volcano. You just felt the whole thing could explode at any moment )
That said, no point in taking it personally. Not all parents are as conscientious as you. That's all.

The letters are aimed at parents whose children climb the walls every afternoon after a lunch of crisps and a generic orange squash drink

Get over it....

It's just standard stuff. Filter out what applies and what doesn't. Lots of parents are quite happy to book term-time holidays or send in crap food - school office can't discriminate so everyone gets the letters.

But they are making it a set of rules if I understand correctly, not just making the info available. and they already knowthat the ahrd to reach in these areas do not reading the sodding letters anyway. Same with nits

I know that there are some parents out there that seems to need to be given this kind of information.

However there are ways of communicating this information so that the receivers of these letters do not immediately feel a need to defend themselves.

Schools are institutions. As such they set rules which at the end of the day are best/easiest for the institution as a whole, ie the teachers and other staff and the pupils in general.

Most rules come about not because the majority need them but to inform/educate/control the minority who don't conform.

Whether you agree with those rules or not is a different matter but these kinds of letters are standard.

Plus, what place is it of the school's. They barely cope with the academic worload never mind going overboard with the pastoral stuff.

why would you feel a need to defend yourslf unless it applies to you? It's silly to get worked up about it.

I think there are new rules regarding holidays in term time.

Imagine how awful it would be without the rules

I imagine that taking holidays in term time is one of those things where a reminder makes parents think twice.

newlife - the taking out of school thing though, that IS a rule. If you don't follow the procedures correctly (getting permission, max number of days etc) then it is an offence.

totally disagree with schools interfering with this kind of stuff......they have so much stuff to fit into the curicculam as it is,you would think they would have enough to to with making more work for themselves...... these issues are important but it is not the schools reponsibility to teach your child every last little thing...thats what parents are for. I see the argument that some parents dont bring up their kids to eat a balanced diet etc etc, but frankly that doesnt then mean the shools have to take on this reponsibility.
and for the record, when my ds starts school I will have no issues with taking him out on term time.... we love travelling the world and its taught me far more than school ever could. so NO i dont think u are being unresonable!!

The whole holidays in term time is relevant to the school as it's the teachers who have to spend additional time with the students who've missed work through going on a jolly.

Everything that takes place during the school day is relevant to the institution

I'm not saying that the kids don't benefit from having great holidays and travelling - but I just wish parents would see that there are consequences....

Parents often claim that the holidays are educational. And I daresay some are. But most people opt for term time holidays to keep costs down. That's all. Understandable but not necessarily good for a child's education.

It isn't the rules that bother me, it is the attitude within the letters that really isn't needed and rather sad.

I would like to know what kind of lunchboxes the teacher bring in . Should the same rules not apply to them as well?