In a hypothetical situation...

[hmmmmmmmmm]

Where a DS has a health problem which requires a restricted diet and parents have separated..

Boy lives with mum,but stays with dad 2 nights pw and alternate weekends. Mum is refusing to make a packed lunch and instructing boy/school that he should have a normal school dinner. Dad is insistent that boy should not have a school dinner, sends a packed lunch when he is with him and has asked the school to keep a diary of when he's having a school dinner (as requested by the hospital)

What should the school do?

What should the school do? Why should the school do anything ?
Apart from tear their hair out/roll eyes and feel sorry for the child whose parents cannot agree for the good of their child what type of dinner he would have.

This is not the school's responsibility at all. Poor boy.

Some people amaze me!

Sorry, probably not a helpful post at all - but I fail to see why the school should do something.

Well the school can't do "nothing", it has to deal with the poor boy who doesn't know what he's supposed to do at lunchtimes. If he doesn't have a packed lunch, is he fed a school dinner or made to go hungry?

School can't really do anything if mum is ordering and paying for the school meals. Dad would seem to have the medical professionals on his side though. Would a case conference with all parties be possible? Could dad go and see the head, with all his medical evidence, and ask what the school can do? It's not as if we can help you here tbh, you need to deal with the school, but I suspect their hands are tied on the non-packed lunch days.

Ok - if this were my DS's school, I could guess what would happen.
Our very scary strict Headteacher would ask for a meeting with both parents and tell them off for not having the child's best interest at heart and agreeing on the lunchtime situation. Even though there is nothing she can do, she would ask parents to do the best for the child.

She would make sure we knew how much damage we were doing to the child by making him nervous at lunchtime and how it would affect his confidence etc.

I don't see what else the school could do.

Could the school ask for clarification as to what the boy can and cannot eat and provide a school lunch which fulfils his medical requirements? I would have thought they would be obliged to do this on the days he requests a school lunch.

It also depends on whether the boy's diet is actually based on the doctors advice or whether it is something that the boy's dad heard about, say on the internet, could help and the mum disagrees.

Restricted diet in what way? If he is eating school dinners and surviving the afternoon, then it can't be that bad.

If mum has majority custody, then I'd say mum's opinion over-rules dad's. The courts have made the custody decision based on something, surely.

As a school, it's not up to the lunch time staff to get involved in family disputes.

Both mum and dad are adults (I assume...) and need to act like it.

and I would be massively surprised if schools were obliged to fulfil all and any dietary needs.

School dinner is a choice. If you don't like it, you go else where.

If there is a real medical need and the mum wont make a packed lunch then what's he eating at home with her? Sounds like the school lunch is a small part of a complicated issue.