School refusing a child dinner at lunch

[r0ckst4r]

My girlfriends sons school works on a card system which is topped up by the parents and is used in schools for kids to purchase food in the canteen.

Today her son come home claiming to feel ill dur to not being allowed to go get dinner at lunch time due to being in isolation and claims all the teachers offered him was a cucumber sandwich and wouldn't let him enter the canteen to purchase food (basically either eat that or go hungry).

Sceptical that it could be a teenager type thing we checked the card system account to fi d he had spent £0 today on break or lunch kind of making his alligation somewhat believable.

Has anyone had any similar situations like this or could give there opinions on how to address this with the school? He claims he wasn't the only child In the isolation room where this occurred and therefore I am going to chat to some of the other parents before taking this up with the school as to why they are starving children who are in isolation by not letting them get any lunch

Thoughts would be appreciated as I'm sure you can understand as we are fuming right now

Maybe it was afternoon tea? In which case I think it's the law to have the crusts cut off and there needs to be cake too. Was there cake? M&S are out of scones which has impacted their afternoon teas. This was due to a fire at the bakery/factory. It's a sad state of affairs when there's no scones for afternoon tea.

Daily Mail sad face

Secondary schools actually have cucumber sandwiches on their menu?

As the school what happens about lunch when D.C. are in isolation and next time he can take his own crips and mars bar

I can't believe how sanctimonious people are here.

The reason the boy is in isolation is irrelevant to this thread, and might be being dealt with by the parents. The issue is does he have access to sufficient food and drink during the day.

Just casually commenting here about nothing in particular

I want a cucumber sandwich now.
As you were.

DtPeabodysLoosePants ah, you could be right. It must have been high tea if they offered cucumber sandwiches. Which would be why the poor lady reckoned he had missed his lunch/dinner. And you definitely need cakes, little ones, on one of those tiered platter things. I am sure any decent school isolation unit would have several of those for their guests.

Lad. Not lady. That would be a whole different thread.

But was it dinner, or lunch though?

"The issue is does he have access to sufficient food and drink during the day."

No, that's not the issue, because it says in the opening point st he was offered a sandwich. So we know that he does have access.

He wasn't starving, he wasn't denied food.

He is not the OP's DC and fundamentally it it none of her business (she doesn't have any standing in this so cannot ask the school) and she is going solely on what her DD's BF has said. I wouid add a large pinch of salt to the cucumber, and either ignore thewhooe taradiddle, or put it all back to the real issue 'why was he in isolation and how will he improve his conduct from now on'

I'm now fancying a cream cheese and cucumber sandwich ...

@GooseFeather

You are not from the North are you?

Up here, we normally work on a breakfast, dinner and tea basis. So dinner would have been the midday meal, or lunch to you.

Deciding not to eat what is on offer is not starvation. End of fairly short and boring story.

Oh good, another "how to get people annoyed about isolation" thread.

He was taken for lunch. He was offered lunch. In every school I've known students in isolation are taken for lunch early and they eat out of circulation as part of being in isolation.

This has a whiff of the tuna sandwich mam about it. Mum goes to the press fuming about her child bit being fed, only offered a tuna sandwich... Only for it to turn out the school had offered other food and her child turned it down www.hulldailymail.co.uk/news/hull-east-yorkshire-news/hull-mum-tuna-sandwich-row-3434334

In fact,the while talking to other parents about it stinks of trying to whip up outrage

@Littlemeadow123 I cannot lie, I am a southerner. But given the thread title, I am not sure the OP knows if they are from the North or South. Which was the point of my pisstaking about what meal the child was missing out on, and that it would derail the thread.

People on here are incredibly naive about schools' use of isolation. There is an increasing number of academies using isolation as a tool of extremely rigid discipline policies which they use as a means of easing out pupils they think may dent their league table results, and because they think it impresses parents. Pupils can get put in isolation just for failing to have pens in lessons, or having uniform shoes that aren't quite the approved colour. Most seriously, they can get put in isolation effectively for being disabled - highly disproportionate numbers of pupils with ASD, ADHD, dyslexia and similar difficulties end up in isolation.

Sure, OP's girlfriend's child may have richly deserved to be in isolation. But the assumption on here that he has to have done something dreadful to be there isn't one that can safely be made, and in any event it's irrelevant to the point at issue.

GooseFeather
A debate about meal names would probably be significantly more entertaining and interesting than the inevitable path of this thr and though

Bets on for bingo:
Human rights abuse
Solitary confinement
Starving / deprived of food and water
My child wouldn't lie
Other students said...
Demand a meeting with the head
Complain to the governors
Use the word safeguarding and it'll get you in the door
Traumatising

Not sure what happens at secondary but at our primary kids used to eat lunch in the isolation room - DS is ASD and used to voluntarily put himself in isolation as it was a quiet place to eat.

I'd be surprised if they only offered cucumber sandwiches, sandwiches possibly and would imagine he refused. I don't think ours even do cucumber sandwiches though you could e-mail the school and ask what food is available as he appears to have not eaten. I would also want to know why he was in isolation and maybe look at ways you can improve that. Isolation isn't given lightly at our secondary, it's quite a way through the punishments list.

He could have had the sandwiches.

More importantly, why was he in isolation??

No need to talk to other parents. Just ask the school politely what happened.

I would probably email the school and ask what the school policy is on food and drink for a child in isolation without bringing up any possible issues raised by your girlfriends son. Once you have that information I would sit down with him and ask again if the policy was followed.
Depending on what the policy is and if it was followed or not then you contact the school accordingly.

Presumably this is a secondary age growing boy so if the cucumber sandwich tale is correct then that definitely needs addressing. Depending on the information you find out depends how much you need to delve further. A healthy balanced meal at lunchtime is required for many reasons and in particular behavioural. If someone in isolation is denied a normal lunch it's likely to impact negatively later in the day.

It wouldn't surprise me if there were massive contradictions in place - waxing lyrical about how important a good lunch is and then denying the very group of students who probably need it the most after all.