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!

Our primary school packed lunch rule is:

• One source of carbs (bread, wraps, sausage roll)
• One meat or protein (Meat Based sandwich filling, lentils)
• One source of dairy (Cheese sandwich filling, cheese string, yogurt)
• One piece of fruit or vegetables
• One none chocolate biscuit
• A drink that is ok to be drunk at room temperature (heavily diluted squash, water etc.)

It's not heavily policed though as long as you're being sensible. DD aged 6 takes a packed lunch sometimes and I put a piece of birthday cake in her box in June and it wasn't taken off her and she regularly takes in penguins or mini rolls and no-one says anything to her or me.

I like our rules tbh, very reasonable.

It's idiotic. A good portion of solid, real chocolate is better than a flipping kitkat bar.

In any case, it's kind of none of their beezwax. If they want to cook lunches that's great, if I have to send them they can butt out.

@CrazyPigeonLadyMarried2Trans

"pretty much all schools have banned nuts.

Nothing to do with healthy diet, it's about allergies."

I just find it ridiculous. If people know their kid isn't allergic to nuts what's the big deal? Tell them no sharing. I see milk and dairy aren't banned, but people are allergic to that. It's like a class detention, just because some kids are misbehaving, everyone suffers. I'm really glad I chose to be childfree, all these rules and high expectations are too much for me. Expectant mothers get bullied on what they can and can't have too. I was weaned on peanut butter, guess who isn't allergic?

And studies on nut free schools suggest that it makes no difference to the number of allergic reactions kids have, anyway.

So it's eliminating a really healthy group of foods for no real reason.

I think it's deeply concerning that schools are telling parents how to feed their children, overriding any wish they might have to give them a sweet treat on occasion. I'm more concerned at how many are happy to be told what to do and what to feed their own kids. I'd be in favour of suggested foods to have and avoid, but giving parents rules the way you would children seems like overreach to me.

Ours is much stricter than yours , we can’t send things like KitKats or crisps .. they have to have rules due to some parents sending extremely unhealthy lunches it can be a pain but you just have to get on with it really xx

I'm in Scotland and we don't seem to have this type of bollocks going on.

The obsession over uniforms and food in English schools absolutely escapes me. What a fucking massive waste of time and energy for all involved.

@InTheLongGrass
It is single use plastic free. Everyone uses beeswax wraps and bento-style lunchboxes. No-one is allowed chippy packets etc. Parents decant chips and yoghurts from large containers into small, reusable tubs.
This is a high income area in New Zealand, with a very high proportion of Green voters.

Having a plastic free policy means that the less-healthy processed crap like bars, lollies, crisps and sugary drinks stay away from school, so it's a win-win.

@PinkandYellowUnicorn

Our primary school packed lunch rule is:

• One source of carbs (bread, wraps, sausage roll)
• One meat or protein (Meat Based sandwich filling, lentils)
• One source of dairy (Cheese sandwich filling, cheese string, yogurt)
• One piece of fruit or vegetables
• One none chocolate biscuit
• A drink that is ok to be drunk at room temperature (heavily diluted squash, water etc.)

It's not heavily policed though as long as you're being sensible. DD aged 6 takes a packed lunch sometimes and I put a piece of birthday cake in her box in June and it wasn't taken off her and she regularly takes in penguins or mini rolls and no-one says anything to her or me.

I like our rules tbh, very reasonable.

What the fuck?

That's some next-level meddling that just doesn't need to happen.

I'd kick up shit if that was the rules we were forced to live by. Especially when school meals are mostly revolting unhealthy crap.

How is this even a question?

Don't feel your children crap. There. Done.

@BoomBoomsCousin
thanks for that. Does the thermos keep the food warm enough and are there any issues about food safety? I've always been a bit hesitant about sending hot food to school because they have lunch so late - it's at least 5 hours from packing to eating.

[quote IwishIwasyoda]@BoomBoomsCousin
thanks for that. Does the thermos keep the food warm enough and are there any issues about food safety? I've always been a bit hesitant about sending hot food to school because they have lunch so late - it's at least 5 hours from packing to eating.[/quote]
Wide neck thermoses seem to be quite variable. We found some good ones at a camping store, but they were the third or fourth ones we tried and they were pricey. The kids claim the food is still hot, not just warm, after 4 hours (they don't need it for longer), but their idea of hot is rarely my idea of hot! Ymmv.

We haven't had any issues with illness and tbh it never occurred to me, I've used thermoses all my life without issue. I do pre-warm the thermos with boiling water before I put the food in and I heat the food very hot. Then the lid has an airtight seal. So that may keep problems at bay.

@IncludeWomenInTheSequel Right with you about uniform too. I still hate uniforms and I've been out of school for 12 years now. My school uniform looked so formless and unflattering I have self esteem issues to this day despite having a nice body. They're so redundant and reduce people to drones and automatons, caught in a sea of conformity. How does having my top button up and my tie near chocking point help me to learn? It does nothing but fill me with the feeling my sense of self and identity are being smothered. It doesn't help with future employment when I'm bathing and grooming dogs neither. Attended my job interview/practical in a pair of old jeans and a t-shirt; we'd take the piss out if anyone ever turned up in a suit.

Teaching children after they've eaten a load of refined sugar is hard.

@CrazyPigeonLadyMarried2Trans

Everyone is different. Wearing school uniform was a life saver for me. Non-uniform day was bad enough in terms of being mocked for not having stylish clothes or designer gear. We couldn’t afford it.

Teaching children after they've eaten a load of refined sugar is hard.

Well-behaved children are not turned into badly-behaved children by a chocolate coin in their lunchbox. Besides, based on the OP's dc's school lunchbox restrictions, a gazillion foods with a load of refined sugar in them would be freely allowed.

We moved them onto dinners as I was sick of being told off and made to feel quite shitty about packed lunch choices. I was once told off for giving both strawberries and grapes (cut..I still cut them when they are 6/8 as I think I will always be worried about that, maybe overdone!) as apparently they should have one fruit source That was the day I gave in and switched them. It annoyed me being told about little biscuits or homemade cakes..but being told off for giving too much fruit?

The school dinners are mainly along the lines of fish fingers and chips, with cake and custard for desert too it appears from the choices We get a chice of meal (which is something and chips/smileys, or pizza), jacket potato with various fillings, or sandwich. Mine tend to go for the potato everyday..but desert is almost always some sugary crap. I don't care about them eating some sugary crap really but, it seems really odd when you compare it to the packed lunch rules. This is ontop of (sometimes daily, usually every few days) haribo packets for good work.

The fast food one is interesting. I make my dd chicken burgers sometimes for her lunchbox...I grill a plain chicken breast and put it in a brioche bun...wonder if that would pass the test?

They don't do this at secondary school and their canteen is full of junk, too

@angrysquirrel73

Why are they advertising kiplings cakes?

What I was going to say! Why does a slice of cake have to be Kipling's? I can make a much healthier home made cake.

Ah come on angrysquirrel73 MeringueCloud, they're obviously not advertising or recommending Mr Kiplings . They are just using the brand name as short hand for a 'individual small portion of wrapped cake' - for most people if you say 'Mr Kiplings' they know exactly what you mean just like if you say 'KitKat' (as OP did!) you immediately envisage a small-ish wrapped chocolate coated biscuits, even if personally you prefer Penguins or Tunnocks or you can't stand chocolate biscuits or whatever. It's perfectly understandable as a shorthand phrase. If they'd just said 'a small portion of cake' you definitely have had arguments/confusion about what constitutes 'small' whereas saying 'Mr Kiplings' gives you
a very clear idea.

I mean maybe if we want to be pedantic the author perhaps should have said 'Mr Kiplings -style' cake or a 'Mr Kiplings size portion of cake' (amongst correctly other grammatical and stylistic errors, get the red pen out ) to cover homemade cakes, supermarket rip-offs etc but no person in their right mind would interpret that as Mr Kiplings brand and Mr Kiplings brand only is allowed, surely?

I suppose so Maxelly....perhaps I should know what they meant.

I'd love to see my DD primary school try and enforce this - the school provided hot meals consists of burgers once a week and donuts as the pudding at least once a week !! 🤣

It is totally a box ticking exercise because they want ‘healthy school’ status which goes down well with OFSTED

To be fair, Meringue, I can see the odd draconic dinnertime supervisor interpreting it the way you did and throwing out some hapless child's Aldi brand cake 'because it says right here on the list Mr Kipling only' but I don't include such letter-of-the-law-followers as being in their right minds