Nut free school

[Don04]

I'm looking for some advice. I visited a good ofstead rated local primary school Albert Pritchard, to have a look around in March with a view to my daughter starting nursery with them this Sept, informed them of her allergies dairy and soya so drank hazelnut milk was told that's no problem. Great.

We accepted the place offered turning down an outstanding other school place as we felt AP after seeing child teacher interacting this was more nurturing environment. All going great and was invited to take my little one the other week for a visit to see her new school and on leaving was given an information pack. Included was information about this being a nut free school, totally not aware of this untill then. I called them and they have not been helpful, telling me no she couldn't have her milk, we could either change her milk or she could have water.
I'm getting really stressed as we've tried her with oat, coconut and rice milk numerous times. I totally support that they may have a child or teacher with a nut allergy and in no way want to inflict any suffering on anyone but is a school able to serve a blanket ban? Now, not having this information earlier I'm stuck with either withdrawing her, forcing her to change milks or worse her being singled out having something different at snack time.

I'm totally furious we were not given this information well before making a decision.

Op, there are a lot of people here with child with allergies. Your Op sounded somewhat selfish, saying should there be a blanket ban. Yes, there should be, if it endanger anyone. Maybe that is why you received some not so nice responce. There are many different kind of severity. My child has multiple allergies, from just getting rash to violent vomit to potential death.
Another advice is, even though you are annoyed about the misinformation, try to be civil. They are the ones who will be looking after your child, and you will need their support.

All of a bit of a storm in a teacup surely. You're new to the school system and hadn't realized they many many schools are nut free now. Mildly annoying for you but surely that's all. Your dd can have milk before and after school and water while at school. Definitely not worth all the angst.

2/3 of kids at my school don’t drink milk - they have water. As previous people have pointed out most schools in the UK will be nut free as there will be someone with allergies

None of the nurseries that my young kids attended were nut free and none of thier schools either. I always assumed they would only be nut free if a child there was allergic and not as a general policy.

So you haven't complained to the school but you have publicly named and shamed them on the internet?

It's annoying the policy wasn't made clear to you but as others have said, so many schools are nut-free that they probably assumed you were aware of it.

No one has personally attacked you.

You could change schools to a different one, but then that school might become nut free in the future too if a teacher or child with a severe nut allergy joins that school. It’s annoying you weren’t told but I assume that if they knew a child had a nut allergy they would be sure to reassure those parents and not necessarily give that info to other parents 🤷🏻‍♀️

Tbf, the outstanding school may not be but free because there isn't any pupils or staff with life threatening allergies. The fact that this one are not prepared to be flexible indicated that there is someone with a serious allergy. Their life is more important that your DDs milk

So you haven't complained to the school but you have publicly named and shamed them on the internet?
Hardly named and shamed when virtually if not all the responses have been that the OP is over reacting and everybody agrees that schools should be nut free .

I don't think that was quite OP's expectation when she started the thread though Floral

If she's only in the nursery she may not even get a place at the main school so that would solve your problem!

Another thought. Maybe the school has just become nut free after you have visited, because there was a child with severe nut allergy joining?
My child has life threatening allergy to certain fruit, which is very popular lunch box fruit. The nursery dc went to banned it, as soon as we have talked to them the severity, and told them what will happen if someone eaten the fruit touched the toy, and my dc touched it, and licked his finger. Luckily, my child's fatal allergy is not airborne. So they can manage better as they got older. But some are not that easy. That is why many school are nut free these days.

Like others, DD1’s school and DD2’s pre school are nut free. It was on the literature we were send after being allocated the place. Also like others, neither of mine have drank milk at school/pre school (they don’t like it).

I am far from convinced that making schools nut free is a good idea in the first place. The world is not nut free and there is a case for getting kids into the habit of managing their own allergies from an early age rather than assuming that the world will change to accommodate them.

School nut policy has been researched properly and the evidence is not in favour of banning nuts. Avoiding sharing food and hand washing does make a lot of sense, as does giving staff proper training in the use of epi injectors. I suggest people read this sensible summary:

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5638466/

OP I suggest you challenge the school based on the evidence.

My son is lactose intolerant @WhyAmIPayingFees and by the end of primary, he self-managed very well. In the nursery he could not have managed at all, he needed adults to help.

What was your reasoning behind naming the school in full? Are you trying to publicly shame them? This could really backfire on you if someone made the school aware of this post. It's obvious who has posted it.

This is a very good point. Perhaps consider getting your op edited?

You could complain about the misinformation so they are more careful in future but, personally, I would let it go since you are beginning a relationship of many years here and it’s not significant enough to set off on the wrong foot.

Neither of mine drank milk in the Nursery class ! Water is fine. Such an odd thing to be furious about. I too thought all schools / nurseries / childcare settings were nut free. It's common sense.

or worse her being singled out having something different at snack time

Also why the drama around this? None of her 3 year old classmates will notice or care a jot even if she is singled out and if our school is anything to go by she will be in the majority having some kind of intolerance!

The difficulty is that even a previously non nut-free school could become nut-free overnight if a pupil or member of staff with a nut allergy joined the school

My kids' school is nut free as is the school I work in. I'm pretty sure most schools are as kids with nut allergies can die if exposed to nuts (what school wants that responsibility?). I think you'd struggle to find a school that allows nuts. Like others say she can just have water at school. My children choose not to have milk at school. They are not singled out in any way. Loads of kids don't want milk.

They should have told you and I find it odd it was not mentioned when you brought up her allergies. You have 2 choices really. 1 go searching again for different nursery. 2 have your dd have water for break. Depending on how strongly you feel about the m not telling you should tell you what option to go for.

My son is dairy free so he has water at snack time with many of the other kids! It's really a non issue.