Dear Jamie
Congratulations on the birth of your son.
I hugely applaud the efforts you have made to fight for soemthing you beleive in- a trait I admire.
I only wish we were part of the school dinner rules, as my ds's are given such delights as hot dog and chips at their Welsh school but they now take sandwiches so that is solved at least.
When the campaign first started I wrote to you about children with autism who had really restricted diets (very common with autism) and for whom school had achieved real success in tiny, unimaginable baby steps and then the work had been undone becuase the special units were bing forced to cut their special diets out of the day. The rules were great for most chidlren, but there will always be exceptions.
I had a letter from a staff member saying 'all chidlren deserve a good diet'; well yes, that's what people were working towards, but if ti takes six months of feeding your child alternative foods on a crisp then telling them they must eat X and Y now won't cut it. Indeed, I had to get teh council to write in a statement (at a no doubt ridiculous staff cost) that my autistic son was indeed allowed to have squash becuase he has never and would never drink water- he simply spits it.
It's not a question, not really; just soemthing I always wanted to say in response to a pitiful reply really. Schools need to be able to combine an excellent diet as you promote with the needs of the few whose needs are different.