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?

You got lunch (even if you didn't enjoy it) plus the use of water fountains and drinks outdoors at breaks so that is not what the OP is talking about.

She said withholding lunch and not allowed water bottles even at break. Water fountains aren't a thing these days.

@catgirl1976
You should clarify with the school exactly what the message from the school actually means.

This should also prompt all parents to have discussions with the children about behavioral expectations within the school.

So they can't have water at all in school?
Or only at lunch time maybe?

I can understand not being able to have a water bottle out in class time, but break times and lunchtime seems odd.

That's the one thing I can definite;y believe. This week it must have been at least that in the computer room I teach in at points of the day. Some small windows that only open a small amount, no external doors and 30 computers all turned on, along with 30 children in a fairly small room - very hot and sweaty. The trick is to not have to leave it and return too much - otherwise the smell in the afternoon is not pleasant!

Mine was like that without computers going, @Qilin ! It's what schools are like now. Built cheaply, hold the heat, windows open only a fraction.

In the past I would have said this is all bollocks, but my kids' school has gone totally mental for draconian military discipline this year and honestly nothing surprises me anymore.

Isolation for all kinds of petty mistakes, restricted lunch breaks, no free time, no access to toilets, children with SEN punished etc etc.

It's unlikely in many, if any, schools tbh, The teaching staff need a break to go to the toilet, collect photocopying, eat lunch, follow up messages from other staff, etc. Not a chance I'd be giving up my full lunch break to supervise detention.

This.

I would have been be fine for my DC to learn a lesson, no different from my upbringing. I would rather behave then go to bed hungry.

however, statistically speaking, I suspect the children that may be more likely to be denied lunch are those that are vulnerable, in care, free school meals, or lunch is their only decent meal of the day.

Just check with the school OP. I also think it’s not as you have been lead to believe on Cringebook.

Yes, hot even without turning them on.
Got to love old Victorian school buildings - too hot in the summer, freezing in the winter!

Dh goes to work in an air con car into an air con office. He has no idea why this weather is amazing when not working, but so hard when you work in the average school!

Hopefully they were allowed to eat and have a drink though?
my son leaves school tomorrow but he'd was diagnosed with Diabetes a few months so has to have lunch otherwise it plays havoc with his blood sugars
there will.be other diabetic kids or other kids that need to.eat or drink for other medical reasons

My kids' school doesn't withhold food as a punishment, but it has cut down the lunch break so much that practically it's not possible for all children to buy and eat lunch within the time limit. I'd imagine that is especially likely if they have a lunch time detention.
I have gone and collected my kid in the afternoon before when he hasn't been able to get lunch.

Before making sweeping judgements I would ask the right people, not Facebook, the school is the place to ask. As we know from this site some parents believe every word out of their darling's mouth ! If I wanted answers to questions about a school Facebook and MN would be the last places to look!

Where do the students fill up their bottles if water fountains aren't a thing?

(They've been a thing at all 3 of the schools my DC have attended).

There are points on each corridor to fill bottles, maybe they meant those old fashioned water fountains you got in parks.

This and this.
Brilliantly written.

Yes my so s svhool.was the same so.He took sandwiches.

But now have a big think about WHY this has happened. Don’t focus on the micro details and look at the big picture instead. Look at society. Read the news. WHY are schools having to impose such strict measures? Is it really because teachers and educational leaders get a kick out of it, as implied?

What a load of rubbish. You actually believe this op because a lot of people have posted it!!!
As if!!!!

I'd have thought it is because of the profit-taking mentality of some of the companies running multiple academies in England. Which seems an atrocious and messy approach to education.

This wouldn't have been fine for me. I don't eat sandwiches. I can't do the squishy bread so I would have gone hungry and it would have been viewed as a choice. It's oddly controlling and passive aggressive.

Denying a child food at lunch time as punishment for bad behaviour.

If this is not a breach of the childs' human rights, then I don't know what is.

One school punished a child in this way for failing to have pride in their appearance by not wearing a blazer. So appearances are more important than nourishment.

There are kids with metabolic disorders such as diabetes and other conditions whose welfare would be put at serious risk.

Any parents with concerns about schools denying food to their kids, needs to involve their local MP because its a serious breach of their human rights.

Maybe it was something like him throwing food and that is why he wasn't allowed to finish it?

Write down all of the questions you have and check with the school carefully.

If they genuinely deny kids food because they've misbehaved I wouldn't be sending my child there and look for another school.

It’s bollocks

This has happened at a local academy, its like a young offender unit not a mainstream school. One 15 year old boy actually pissed on the floor because he was prevented from going to the bathroom to make a point. Naturally this ended up on Facebook the poor teacher was sobbing

Couldnt agree more. To the academy trusts, pupils and teachers are just numbers. It’s morally repugnant.
I am dismayed that so many parents of school age children can’t join the dots between what’s happening on a national scale and what’s happening on a personal scale. The system is on the brink of collapse with teachers and pastoral workers fleeing from education. Under -staffing and constant staff change has a devastating impact on the behaviour of today post-Covid children, who desperately need consistency and safety. In turn, schools are having to make exceptionally draconian rule systems to paper over the cracks where staff-student relationships and rapport used to be.
Isn’t this obvious or is the average parent really so cut off from the reality of education in 2023?