Alcohol at the school Christmas Fair

[MaggieW]

Not sure which forum to put this in but...Call me an old humbug, but I was very shocked to see the amount of alcohol being consumed and sold at our my son's school Christmas fair, held last night. As soon I walked in it was like going into a pub with men grouped around the entrance drinking cans of lager. Then I bumped into the nursery assistant in my son's class who had obviously had more than a few. I wouldn't have minded so much if the children hadn't been there - but I feel it's such an awful example for them on what's supposed to be a family occasion. I know schools have to raise money but surely there are more imaginative ways to do so. What do other parents think?

Dragon, the bottle tombola is always one of the biggest fundraisers at school Fairs. Whenever a child won a bottle of alcohol I made sure that they handed it over to their parent immediately, or I kept it till the parent came over (easy to do in a small school).

I went to DS's prospective school fair on Fri night - there was beer on sale to adults in the refershment room, but not to be drunk elsewhere. There was a bottle tombola, but the one with aldohol was for adults only.
I think this was all frine. I do agree that it is OTT for teaches etc to be seen drunk in fromt of kids, and scandalous / lilegal for kids to be given alcohol in a tombola.

Also, technically, drink for donations is not legal either! (best to separate it out by charging admittance and then giving out mulled wine, but without a specific connection, iyswim)

I think the rules are slightly different on private premises Blu, like for instance a private members club where children can be in a bar area ?

Perhaps its an English thing but none of the Scottish school fairs or other events have had anything other than bottle stalls and glasses of mulled wine. I have never heard of a school having a bar of any sorts. Summer Gala days and Highland games sometimes have beer tents and teenagers hanging about with bottles of bucky hiding from the police.

No-one would bat an eyelid in Spain or France about a bit of wine at a school do would they?
We Brits are so hard on ourselves.

mmm

Had dd's 'Fete de Noel' on Saturday at her french school, and the mulled wine was certainly flowing, which I think was lovely. There were lots of lovely yummy home made cakes, and all sorts for sale, as well as a beautiful (if long...) show.

Nothing wrong with alcohol at school events I think. In fact I always think it's a shame we don't get Pimm's at Sports Day.... just bl**dy tea!!