Are these school lunchbox rules particularly nonsensical? Or are they all this bad?!

[Nevertimeforcake]

So according to my (primary) schools ‘healthy’ lunchbox rules I can give my child a kitkat (biscuit based chocolate bar) but I can’t give them a small chocolate coin or some cubes of chocolate as these are solid chocolate. It seems to make no sense to me - indeed the whole policy seems to be a box ticking exercise so they can be considered a ‘healthy school’ by County. Does anyone know of guidelines/ rules that make more sense? I’d like to make a suggestion on improvements rather than just complaining!

I think they're just trying to let you have a variety whilst being able to say 'no confectionery'. Yes, nutrition wise it is nonsensical. I'd play along. Far easier. Don't give it brain space.

Are these school lunchbox rules particularly nonsensical? Or are they all this bad?!

Yes to both questions.

Whose idea was it for schools to be the lunchbox police anyway?

How would you feel if the school provided a lunch of donuts and chocolate coins for lunch? It's a pity that schools have to step in to police what children are eating but the shit that some parents send in for their children to eat is shocking. Wouldn't you rather that the school was keeping an eye on what children are eating and encouraging at least one meal a day to be more healthy? I'm sure you understand that everybody has to have the same guidelines; a letter sent out to everyone at the start of every term, rather than pinpointing which children aren't having appropriate lunches, writing a list, sending separate letters home to their parents, who may then take umbrage at being singled out, etc. It's just one of the school rules to try to give children an equally good chance, like uniform for example.

It’s the Wotsits that get me.

@Aroundtheworldin80moves

They are trying to stop mars bars and the like. Fixed rules are easier to enforce.

Exactly. Not saying it's not a source of annoyance, but because people are people, what one person determines is a chocolate bar and what another does whether they are trying to get round the rules or not is something the schools, or any authority take into account. It extends to covid too, as you can see. Call me philosophical, but when does a breakfast bar, e.g. Belvita which probably has a heap of sugar in and can probably be bought covered in choc become any different to a rocky road with fruit like raisins in. A bit more ambiguous; but is a a jaffa cake a cake or a biscuit?... or is it neither They make useless rules sometimes to hopefully stop people from making their own. It doesn't work perfectly, because no methods of control do. Humanity against rigidity shrugs shoulders

@Tararararara

Yes it seems ridiculous. Thankfully our school doesn't allow pack lunches so we don't need to worry but I do find it a bit ridiculous that parents can't decide for themselves what their children eat and take it on a case by case basis.

In an ideal world a case by case basis would be good but would still involve opinion. Who has time or money for a case by case basis anyway?

I don't like the fact that they are promoting high salt foods as ok for a treat, when most of us already have too much salt in our diets. Too much sugar has effects such as obesity and tooth decay that are obvious even in children, but the problems to health of a high salt diet are much more insidious, generally occur later in life an are
often much more serious.

Agree with @Ohtherewearethen.
Parents send their kids in with shit.
Don't know the percentage but it's true.
Parents would get offended if pinpointed and I'm not sure that's really a good idea anyway.

It's not always a choice @HallieKnight I know kids who go an independent school where there's no option to take a packed lunch.
It's a fair list although i'm not sure dried fruit should count as one of your five a day, especially if it's the only portion that's included.

How strictly do they police it? Or are these guidelines? Because I think they do broadly make sense and as a PP has said, these are really for the parents who genuinely don't know this stuff. Do they strictly police it? eg, at Christmas time I will put the odd small chocolate coin in the kids' lunch boxes. But I am not shoving huge chocolate coins in there every day. Our school has similar guidelines to yours but certainly I've never had them complaining or sending the box home or whatever. I assume because they take a relatively holistic view?

Thanks for all opinions - it's great to get some different views. I wouldn't be considering querying it but that my daughter was sent home with the small chocolate coin she'd been given by me. So firstly the 'rules' are unclear as it's not just chocolate bars they're saying no to but also I can give her a kitkat but not a small bit of chocolate!

Also the school have just asked the PTA to fund all children being given chocolate selection packs for Christmas!

That list is just a bit chaotic. I can well imagine some parents getting very confused over it, lots of brand names but what about stores own brands for example. I also resent being told what to give in detail and I suspect most parents will glance at it and ignore.

The dc school has said no fizzy drinks, no sweets or chocolate and no nuts. Nothing beyond that. Seems fair enough to me. Ds wouldn’t touch fresh fruit or veg if it was put in front of him and I’m not throwing money away on it either. In my 8 years of dealing with this school, nothing at all has ever been said about lunch. I think maybe someone is getting a bit overzealous op, maybe they’d like something more serious to consider making rules up about...

Oh cross posted, if you’re involved with the PTA be very careful over selection boxes. Most of the big names can’t guarantee nut free. Nice easy way to shut that nonsense down. Bung ‘em all a mini bag of haribo and walk away 😁

Its a failry easy list to follow and as previously mentioned when making guidelines you need to keep them simple.

It makes more sense that the school of one of my kids, kit kat and chocolate are banned.

Jam however isn't

I would understand a complete ban on processed craps and shop bought biscuits, but any "non chocolate" biscuit is absolutely fine. So are jam sandwich on cheap "bread".
Biscuit based chocolate bars are just as bad as chocolate bars.

Impose consistent or stricter rules, don't ban random items but allow others who are just as bad!

I really dont think thats nonsensical. The amber are all around 100kcal, they are all what i would have if I wanted a treat.

Obviously you arent sending your child info school with a 250kcal donut over a 100kcal pack of baked crisps?!

A biscuit bar is much more satisfying, has less sugar/calories than chocolate for what you get. If your that desperate to send your child in with chocolate send them in with a kitkat or a penguin?

Its just a simple way of portion control

How us kids of the 70s survived on a Mothers Pride sandwich with fish or chicken paste, a Blue Ribband and a packet of crisps I’ll never know.

Ours is a pretty straight 0 tolerance on anything deemed to be a treat, no chocolate/crisps/sweets/cakes whatsoever. I know it's better for the kids and I wouldn't be giving that 99 times out of 100 anyway but it does slightly bug me that the school decide what can and can't go in a packed lunch.

The list seems inconsistent. You can have wetsuits or other equally bad crisp type things but not squares of plain chocolate which are generally considered to be good in moderation.
You're supposed to cover each of the green items every day.
Cakes are OK but doughnuts are not?
Madness.
And difficult to follow without having the list in front of you.

@sabrinaq

I worked in public health for a while and a senior public health person told me that health 'rules' are made for people with the lowest IQ/ common sense. Hence no drinking at all in pregnancy rule. Also a midwife told me some horror stories about people blending up MacDonalds meals for weaning. So I think / just go with it.

The blending of McDonald meals makes me feel sick.

I hear you OP, in my day there were no such 'rules' and we sent whatever in the children's lunchboxes (sometimes horrendously unhealthy), but unfortunately that approach nationally has led to the most obese generation of kids ever so you can see why schools feel the need to have some kind of guidance. And then once you put any kind of 'rules' in place you have to drawn a line somewhere, you might think 'all sugar is bad' but then you get into silliness of 'what about fruit, apples surely good but what about raisins? what about fruit juice? what about sweets made from 100% fruit? what about sweets with 'natural sugars'? etc etc. And then actually some refined sugar is quite a good way of getting sufficient calories into growing children (why school lunches still provide hot puddings) and if little Timmy has chocolate sponge with his hot lunch why can't little Tommy have a kit kat in his pack-up etc etc.

As others have said I would hope school aren't too rigorously policing it and if you really want to give a small amount of chocolate as an occasional treat within overall healthy diet then I wouldn't expect a huge fuss to be made (but you can see why they don't want certain children having sweets and chocolate every day and others not...)

I don’t think Iv ever seen my daughters schools list...

She normally has a ham wrap/sandwich, strawberries or grapes, a pack of crisp, frube or some cubes of cheese depending on what we have in the fridge.

@Nevertimeforcake

Thanks for all opinions - it's great to get some different views. I wouldn't be considering querying it but that my daughter was sent home with the small chocolate coin she'd been given by me. So firstly the 'rules' are unclear as it's not just chocolate bars they're saying no to but also I can give her a kitkat but not a small bit of chocolate!

Also the school have just asked the PTA to fund all children being given chocolate selection packs for Christmas!

I can understand that it's simpler to say "no chocolate" than "only very small amounts of chocolate".

But that last bit is the ridiculous thing - if the school is promoting healthy eating, why give out chocolate? There's no need for schools (or teachers) to be giving out presents at all - far better to use PTA funds for something educational. I bet they don't say "please buy a raffle ticket so we can give your child chocolate at Christmas".

My daughters school also don’t really police it. I sometimes replace the crisp with a rocky caramel/cake slice etc

Wetsuits!!!!! Wotsits of course