selling poppies in primary school

[Mercedes]

I was really surprised today when my dd asked me for money to buy a poppy at school. The school has never done this before and it wasn't done at my or my dp school.

Is this normal practice? What happens in other schools? Does anyone get the opportunity to present an opposite view or even buy a white poppy?

DS (Yr1) said they made all made a poppy yesterday. Quite a nice idea I thought. Okay so the charity gets not a bean, but it's an inner city school with a majority of parents on the breadline, so a good spin I thought in terms of making the kids aware, but not putting pressure on the parents to pay out when they can't afford it.

They don't sell poppies at my daughters' primary or secondary schools 'in case they offend someone who was affected adversely by a war'. They also don't do a nativity at the primary, despite it being a CofE scho, in case they offend people of alternative religions.

I'm proud to buy poppies to help those who fought for us in any war, and my children have been brought up to be the same.

I read this as selling ponies! There's an idea!

If white poppies are about education which reduces casualties then for our childrens sake we should know more about them