School withholding food as punishment

[catgirl1976]

DS is due to start high school in September.

I’ve just seen a highly alarming thread about the school in a local Facebook group.

Massive disclaimer : Obviously people can write any sort of garbage on social media and it may well not be true and I will of course be speaking to the school at the earliest opportunity to gain clarity before taking any action but enough people have confirmed the allegations to make me a bit worried.

The issues raised are

1. Toilets are now pretty much all gender neutral. I can deal with that - I know enough about the law to be confident I. Challenging and ensuring sufficient single sex provision is in place so whilst I’ll be challenging if true I’m confident in my ability to do that.
2. Kids are getting a detention for being one minute late. I can live with that. Late is late. Important lesson.
3. Classrooms are 29 degrees (new building has thermometers in each classroom) and kids cannot have water during class or in the playground at breaks. Seems a bit mad. Willing to listen to the rationale and alternative arrangements if this is true.
4. This is the big one for me…kids are routinely being denied lunch as a punishment for bad behaviour. I am totally fine with appropriate sanctions for bad behaviour. E.g. mess about in the lunch queue eat lunch in isolation or miss break. But actually not he allowed to have lunch? To be denied food? Surely that’s illegal? I would have thought this was nonsense but at least 10 people have commented that their child has been denied lunch. No other arrangements or food just no food. So breakfast at home and nothing to eat all day. Surely this cannot be legal?

as said before I’ll check with the school about the truth of this and points one to three I can deal with but if point four is true and good is being withheld as a punishment…what would you do? There’s a transition evening coming up where I will have chance to ask questions and I’m gong to email the school asking for their response to these comments but surely a school can’t deny a child the opportunity it y to eat as a punishment?

Even googling I can’t find any incidences of this. It seems barbaric. AIBU or is this a thing?

Oh go on! Nothing like seeing a school squirm because they've been dickheads.

Alternatively the kids have managed to twist this so they don't get told off for the crap they got the detention for in the first place and have fed their parents a proper load of crap.

You can't miss your lunch because you are in detention, if you aren't in detention...

It never ceases to amaze me how gullible people are when it comes to things their children say or have heard about what happens in school.

I had a parent steaming in to say her daughter had been made to go outside to play in a torrential thunderstorm . It hadn’t actually rained at playtime, there had been a few puddles on the floor from an earlier shower but that was it, she still didn’t believe me so I reminded her I had personally been on playground duty and had an aversion to getting soaked myself so there was no way they had been out in the rain.

Goes both ways though, I believed the little boy who told me in great detail ( even to the size of the chicken wire they bought ) how he and his grandad had spent all weekend building a cage for his pet squirrel.

No. 4
my son has previously had a lunchtime detention and no time to buy lunch…
perhaps this is what it refers to, rather than them withholding or denying?

If a story is consistent, and there are other issues as well, I would be concerned.

A teacher of my DC in the first class,was reported by several kids (including mine) that she was withholding food when the children were misbehaving or hadn't finished their work. It was a consistent and reocurring story, which, coupled with a few other concerning issues, made me think this was more likely true than not.

By the time it was confirmed, the teacher had just finished at the school.

YABU

None of it is true.

Issues schools do have:
-No toilet allowed in lessons.
-During breaks the toilets being occupied by older or more intimidating students.
-Hot or cold classrooms and sometimes not being allowed to remove/add extra layers.

-not having time to queue and eat lunch properly/not having somewhere to sit.

The only time I’ve known them to be refused food is when they’re in the minus on their account and the parents refuse to pay it.
This still really upsets me and I’ve often bought lunch for students with no dinner money but I’ve stopped after finding out that their parents earn more than me because I simply can’t afford to do it.
Of course we ring them constantly and report it as a welfare concern and some staff members usually end up paying for it but it is a really challenge.

I wouldn't believe any of it, it would be a safeguarding issue to deny kids any food at all. Heads would have rolled

No water during class sounds like a sound educational policy. No water during break times sounds like a lie.

In hot weather I give children regular, whole-class breaks (like every 20 or 30 minutes). But I wouldn't give them unrestricted access to water bottles at all times.

There is a corollation between late to class and gender-neutral toilets.

Just ask them what's up about the no-food rumours. If it's true, name and shame. That is not ok.

She would immediately be sacked in my school. That's gross misconduct

Right so all the other dinner ladies went along with this knowing it would get them sacked? Surely must be way more to this story. Did the child end up with lunch in the end? Was the dinner lady sacked?

Correlation. My phone and I went on a strange auto-correct journey via coronary. ?

All senior school students that I know eat most/all of their food at break, so even if it is true it isn't very long without food.

Children may be unable to get food because the queue moves too slowly. More often it will be kids messing around sent to the back of the queue and not liking what is left or the canteen having run out of anything they can eat. Teachers have been known to miss the time slot the children should have for lunch when these are staggered.

Five years ago I had similar concerns about one of my dc going to a strict school. With just one day left I am happy to report that there have been no detentions so all the dire warnings did not happen. If your child behaves themselves and makes a good first impression then that will go a long way to ensuring that they have a good time at secondary school.

Agree with this.
Parents can be v naive believing their little darlings - l bet it wss nothing like the way you have heard it

If you read it off a Facebook group I guarantee that there is very little truth in it.

I'm a teacher and also follow the local FB group where the school is, and almost pee myself laughing with some of the rubbish the parents come out with.

One was moaning that her daughter had been put in isolation for phoning her mum during the day. Reality: the rule is no phones, she refused to hand it over when caught using it so the consequence was isolation for the day. Pupils can phone home from student services so no need for phone.

One was a similar one about being refused food at school. Reality: they had food but chose to throw their food in another pupil's face, so were removed from the canteen. Did they go hungry? Probably, but they HAD food, they just chose to throw it and not eat it!

That would be terrible for a dc that does not eat breakfast! I never ate breakfast as a dc (out of choice, was just never hungry until like 11:30am) so just waited for lunch. Thankfully, school never withheld lunch!

Sounds like the kids have been telling their parents a lot of absolute rubbish to try and get themselves out of trouble.
I'd maybe email the school with what had been said and ask for some clarity to put your mind at ease.

My classroom today was 29.1°c.
It's dreadful. They're allowed to drink water of course.

It is obviously crap. I would probably avoid getting my info from ranting facebook pages.

I suspect it's a case of detention, and then find the catering department have run out of food. Happens quite a bit at DD's school, she was late for lunch the other day, as she offered to help clear up after art class, got to the canteen to find nothing left (there probably was something but she's very fussy so nothing for her to eat). She won't be offering to help clear up in future

It sounds like a load of bollocks. A lot of people who complain about strict secondary schools don’t realise that the alternative is Lord of Flies.

Thank you all

i am sure it isn’t true and is either just Facebook nonsense or kids distorting things

I will contact the school when I get back to check and I’m sure it will turn out to be claptrap. And yes I could email them now as a PP has said but I’m on holiday and have had a few cocktails and would prefer to send a considered email without mojitos or initial reactions influencing the wording

Toilets are now pretty much all gender neutral. I can deal with that - I know enough about the law to be confident I. Challenging and ensuring sufficient single sex provision is in place so whilst I’ll be challenging if true I’m confident in my ability to do that
This would concern me. Are they legally compliant with being gender neutral, or have they just relabelled doors?

Kids are getting a detention for being one minute late. I can live with that. Late is late. Important lesson
there are two bells in my school for the two lessons after a break. One if to move to class. One is to start the lesson. So I student might think there are one minute late, but if it is one minute after the start the lesson bell then they have missed parts of the intro to the lesson and now the whole class suffer.

Classrooms are 29 degrees (new building has thermometers in each classroom)
yes. School buildings are terrible snd not fit for a hot summer or a cold winter. Schools needs investment and proper design.

and kids cannot have water during class or in the playground at breaks.
absolute nonsense. They more likely arent allowed the disposable bottles, and the school is pushing for the more environmentally friendly and behaviour friendly reusable bottles. Check the policy on water bottles.

kids are routinely being denied lunch as a punishment for bad behaviour
again, this will be nonsense. Far more likely those kids are getting detentions and then not liking the choices that are left.

and finally, from my experience, those parents ranting about the school on social media are the entitled parents of poorly behaved children. The ones who frequently have short lunches due to detentions. The ones who are not allows to have their bottle put in class because they will squirt people with it.

@PaigeMatthews - spot on 👍