Children without snacks

[Lauren15]

I’ve been feeling bad about this all night. We’re a small school and if a junior child has occasionally come in without a snack, it’s been possible to give them something from the infants free fruit and vegetable allowance. A new pupil joined in September and their dps have proven to be CFs eg insisting they drop their dc at school 10 minutes early due to work issues. This term, their dc has started ordering school meals but haven’t brought a morning snack. They’ve come to me asking for something so I’ve got a fruit/vegetable snack from the infants and asked them to tell their parents to send in a snack. Money is not an issue. This has happened repeatedly and the infant staff are getting annoyed. Today, the foundation teacher told me she wouldn’t give anything as ‘the parents need to provide something’. The child went without but I think she’s right. However the child made me feel awful and I’ve been thinking about it all day. What’s the right thing to do?

Well the foundation teacher is an arsehole. The poor child can't help having feckless parents! I could not deal with that if I were you. I would just buy a cheap bag of apples and keep them in my drawer in your shoes. How much is that? A pound or two? I would also speak to the heat teacher about the issue.

Speak to your SLT about a reminder to the parents. They may have more info about the situation. They can also ensure a snack is provided if needed.

Our juniors don't have snacks and the parents may not be used to providing any snack or have decided one is not needed.

Phone the parents and talk to them about why there is no snack. If its an organisational issue, suggest they buy a big box of something that gets stored in school.

Can you write a note in the homework diary to say that inc are they don’t know, parents send a snack for break with their child, but if there is an issue with it, to get in touch. You can approach it as a reminder becaue theyvwere new and might not have realised.

It needs to be raised by someone. It can be done sensitively, but if no-one mentions it, it’s not going to be solved by parents sending a snack or if there is a genuine issue, it having a chance to come out.

Another thing is to ask for a reminder to be out in the newsletter about the expectation...however not everyone reads them and they might not come out every week.

If you don’t expect there is an issue in supplying one, simply write a reminder in the homework diary. You can say the school can supply one of the odd occasion a child comes without one and forgets, but the expectation is parents provide it.

What does the school do for those on FSM etc?

Do not start spending your own money on this stuff. It is not your responsibility to finance it. If there are children going without, the school needs to sort provision for them out.

Do they need a snack? I never send one with my DC, they get breakfast and lunch so don’t need to be eating in between.

And I’d be really annoyed if someone in school was giving them snacks when I’d chosen not to send anything in.

Yep, I'd say half of my year 3/4 class don't have a snack. I don't find them anything either. Most of the kids who are FSM don't even have their milk allowance. Sometimes one will complain of being hungry, and I just say that milk has probably more calories for energy than an apple does, so maybe have that. They always turn it down.

I really don't understand why you're making a big fuss of this? If the parents don't send a snack, the child will just have to wait until lunchtime.

I was wondering whether it was just me.

My children are now in their early twenties but I never sent them to primary school with a snack either when they were juniors or infants (no free fruit for infants in their day).