school bans ALL snacks in after school club. Is this unreasonable?

[Layla82]

Morning,

My daughter goes to a small independent prep school. School finishes at 3:40 and they have after school clubs and after school care until 4:30 and an additional after school care from 4:30-5:30. In the newsletter yesterday they have stated that they will no longer be providing snacks to anyone in after school clubs or care 3:40-4:30 AND children will not be permitted to bring in snacks from home. However, children in the 4:30-5:30 provision will be provided with a snack.

My daughter is in after school care until 4:30 twice, netball until 4:30 once a week and another after school club once a week. Is it unreasonable that she is not even allowed to bring in an apple to eat before embarking on a club? She is starving the one day that I pick her up from school at 3:40. Lunch is at 12pm.

Would appreciate all views on this. Thank you and have a lovely day :)

My DC (and their peers) have never had snacks between the end of school and completing after school clubs, so I can't see this as an issue. More lunch on after school club days?

My DS's school always provide a snack (biscuits and fruit) between school ending and after school activity (3:30-4:30). Then a more substantial tea (toast, cheese & ham etc) for the ones staying later (4:30 - 6:00) They're not allowed to bring their own snack as far as I know. It works well. DS would survive without it but would probably be grouchy at after school club without something - they finish lunch at 12:00.

But the school won’t provide food either :(

They should either provide a snack or let them bring their own. They could have rules on what sort of snack if they wanted, similar to healthy break policy.

I don't see the problem. Decent lunch should see them through til 4.30. It's no different to everywhere else where the go straight to a club then home.

The ones who arent picked up til much later get fed . If you are picking up at half 4 she can eat them if you are worried

Presumably they have dinner between 12 and 1 so it’s not that long to go without food! None of the after school clubs at our school offer snacks or ask you to send one in!

It's all very well saying they should have a decent lunch but if you have a fussy child with a small appetite it's not great. I don't get why they are doing this, have they said? I would want to hear a well-thought out reason.

It sounds similar to the policy at my DC’s school - pupils aren’t allowed to bring their own snacks for after school clubs.

There’s various after school clubs that finish at 4:30pm, and the school also has on-site wrap around care till 6pm.
Children going to after school clubs don’t get a snack. Children in the wrap around care get a light meal. I’m not totally sure what time they’re fed the light meal but I believe it’s timed so that kids going from the after school clubs to the wrap around care get included in the light meal.

It all seems to work well enough for most kids

At our school they can bring a snack when going to after school clubs if they like and some of them provide snacks sometimes.

Kids often tend to rush their lunch and leave some of it so they can get out to play especially if they have quite a short lunchtime as ours do.

The other issue with snacks is it eats into the club time. School finishes at 3.40 so by the time they get everyone there it is 3.50 add in a snack and they aren’t even starting until 4 and then need to finish at 4.25 in order to be ready for 4.30. Gets to a point it’s not worth actually starting!

Are you paying for this? Our after school club provides endless fruit for children to help themselves to and more substantial toast and beans etc at 5.

I don't see how she is starving in less than 4 hours after eating her lunch? I am sure the children will be fine I would understand it if there were no snacks at all but those staying later get food.

It seems sensible to be not to give snacks to those only staying for the hour, by the time they have eaten a snack and tidied away they wont actually have too long to enjoy the activity.

Sounds like my DDs' school. No snacks for clubs; if you stay for the 4.30-6 session there are sandwiches, biscuits and fruit provided. I presume she's able to have a hot lunch at school?

My DD stays for after school activities a couple of times a week until 4.30 and the question of snacks has never occurred to me.
Has your DD complained of being starving or are you just worried she is going to be, based on her hunger when you pick her up at 3.40? I wouldn’t mention anything to her and see what she says. I do think often kids get conditioned to having a snack.
If she does feel faint during netball she should let the teacher know and maybe the school will relax their policy. But making a fuss before it’s even an issue will just irritate the school and I doubt you’ll get anywhere.

I had a child who was very affected by not having had food between 12 and 3.30pm. Hormones start kicking in at around 9 for some and they just need a top up of something to carry on. I always provided cheese and an apple or a banana for the journey home. At times it felt like she had eaten a wasp. It is therefore not suitable for all children to have in excess of 4 hours between meals. Netball is also physical so I would expect an independent school to provide the snack.My DDs attended independent schools, and they did have healthy snacks available before clubs started. They certainly did not expect their lacrosse or hockey teams to train on an empty stomach!

Never heard of this. Both my kids go to state schools and done various clubs and there has never been any mention of snacks. Water bottles if it was a sport, yes, but no snack. No school mine have been to had after school care past 4 ish so can't comment on that.

At our school, the after school activities are from 3:15 to 4:15. They never have snacks.

If it were my child, then yes, this is unreasonable. While I can appreciate some kids can easily go 4 hours without food, there are some kids who can’t. My kids are used to small frequent meals and are usually famished at the end of the school day. Personally for me, no after school snack would be a problem!

It’s only an extra 50 minutes!

My gannets survive till after school clubs at 4. But woe betide me if I don't have a snack for them then!

That’s fine. After school club until 4.30 with no snack is acceptable. If my DS is doing a club he wouldn’t have a snack. 4.30-5.30 is childcare and should have a snack.

my kids couldn't go from lunch until 4:30, one gets reflux and feels sick if she hasn't eaten for more than 3hours due to stomach acid and the other oneis tiny and can't eat a huge amount in one go, she has to have 6 meals a day of a high calorie diet so after a few hours she needs feeding again. They do activities after school but not at school so eat in transit. The one after school club at school that they did for a while allowed them to bring in a small snack and the club was timed for them to have about 5 minutes at the start before the club started. They all seemed to take different things and I don't recall ever hearing of a problem that mine had a cereal bar, someone else had a banana and someone had a biscuit. I think particularly with a physical after school club they should be able to have something.

My boys attend a lovely after school club feeds them jam on toast, fruit or any lunch left overs! They stay to six am grateful as they do a lot of sport activities.

There is a difference between ‘after school club’ = childcare (they should be fed) and a club (activity) that is after school (no snack).