General Chat

Doesn't matter if you give children choice of healthy lunches or packed lunches .........if they don't want to eat something, encouragement or not, they will not eat it! and force feeding is not allowed.
.........cakes,crisps or chips are what they are likely to eat at senior school level imex if they choose to....but of course we shouldn't generalise.

I did Hayley . Although I didn't have any food allergies myself I'd been very careful because some family members did to extreme ( eggs especially ) so I certainly wouldn't have risked peanuts ( actually I don't think I've even eaten one myself lol) . I could have slapped the teacher, nice though she was she just didn't think...or didn't know perhaps.

No alligies with mine either Rose but I watched a 2yr old fight for his life and I mean fight, as a teenager when he had inhaled a peanut and it scared the bejayus out of me

TBK. there is a religion for those people so inclined, :-D Its Called" Cadburys inc" :-D :-D :-D

Merlin Cadburys are on the dark side. :-D

i think you can fill a lunch box with healthy food all day everyday
but only a parent will know what their child will eat
sometimes you just have to give the child things they will eat
or worry all day they have eaten nothing :-(

Chocolate isnt welcomed in lunch boxes,crisps or potato snacks.sweets,cake.

it still leaves a fairly good choice,

raw veg,
fruit,
sandwiches,
thats if the child likes it,,,,,

allergy foods ,peanut butter,eggs,or anything containing fish should be barred as a child doesnt have to eat these to have a reaction as residue can be passed by hand touching......

its a hard task everyday trying to balance a lunch box ,especially for young children.

Kay, are you saying that you think eggs and fish should be barred from a packed lunch,surely not? If you are then schools best stop serving fish and eggs for school dinners.

my son when at school was a very small eater
would only have 1 butter roll no filling
1 small cake OR 1 pack of crisp and carton of fruit juice
every day for 4 years



school moaned once about him haveing a cake in his lunch bag
so i ask if thay served cake and custerd
head said yes we do

there you go his cake is his cake and custerd
and one red face head teacher

:-D @ Shelley

School dinners must be a big headache for teachers. They go to University to learn how to teach our children, and are given the job from whoever it is, of telling parents how to feed them.
I wonder if a child goes home for lunch, if a note is sent with them, telling the parent what to give there child to eat, worlds gone bloomin' loopy


:-D

Unrelated but relevant i think.........last year my youngest was absent from school for 3 weeks.........

She was in and out of hospital and very poorly.

I kept the school fully informed and even asked for work to be sent home so she didn't drop behind.

Imagine my fury when a letter was sent to me at the end of that term explaining that my daughters attendance that term was unacceptable..no sh** sherlock :-D :-D...they also KINDLY went on to explain the importance of school attendance to her education..despite her being a student with attendance over 98% since reception !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They went on strike not long after.......... :-(.......oh the irony !!!!

Needless to say on file there are a couple of stinking letters telling them just what I thought.

Ah...but are they still on file Muffy.?....I have known many a letter to conveniently 'go missing'

When my children were at school, all but one had school dinners. The one wanted a packed lunch, which I gave in to. I don't know about anyone else but at the time I thought a packed lunch was much more expensive than school dinners.

I am on the fence with this one as I can see both sides.

I must say I loved my school dinners :-D

Good point that Susan Wiv........I have copies and Post office recorded delivery receipts.......however.......I will check that out.......would hate to have my views drowned out by a bit of sloppy filing......can quite happily resend :-D

I'd almost forgotten this.........

Mum used to pack lunches for us.

My brothers took their lunches to school, but if they didn't like what they were given they would sell them! Many kids didn't have packed lunches, and were fed up with the food available at the school canteen. My brothers were often fed up with their "healthy" lunches, and sold them to get money for things like pies, sausage rolls & cream buns.

I know one of my brothers sold his lunches to workmates!

:-(

I can see both sides of the coin.

As a parent I would question why I am being dictated to regarding my child's lunch.

But as a MDA. I can see why these restrictions have been put in place.

We are a primary school with a healthy schools certificate. In the 8 years I've been a MDA & before these changes, I've seen lunchboxes full of sweets, cake & crisps. All empty buzzing foods which for some kids lead to their behavior for the afternoon teaching to be challenging, or leaving them with poor concentration especially if they have not had a breakfast before school.

Our school bans sweets, also those fruit winder sort of things which are full of sugar, and any fizzy drink. Chocolate bars are not allowed but as a compromise cake, or biscuits not covered in chocolate are atm allowed as so is choc chips in cake. Most parents are ok with that & rarely do we have to intervene. If a child has something not normally allowed, we normally say to them eat it today but tomorrow can you ask your adult not to add it in your lunch.
We never try to upset a child & will pop a note in the box if this happens frequently in case the adult at ome has not been passed the message from the child.

Oh, we have varied meals too, and our children get a ssay in what goes on the menu.

Dealing with parents as a teacher I would find extremely stressful.

No matter how a letter was worded or a group of parents addressed - most parents fly off the handle why, because they take it as a personal attack on their capabilities as to whether they are fit parents.

Anyone who watches the TV will see the result of excess sugar and salt in our diets over the last forty years.

We all pay for this via our taxes.

As parents we should be open to learning something new and also learn that saying no to a child will not harm them.

Soap box now back under the stairs.

I wouldn't want to be a teacher for the world...I really wouldn't...and I don't blame THEM...as they are just doing what they're asked to do from higher up.

I totally understand that fizzy drinks.....excess sugar etc have a detrimental effect on a child's behaviour........but I agree with Lynda.......a quiet word with the parents concerned then escalate it if it doesn't change......

I also drop a cake or biscuit into my daughters lunch box for the same reason as I think it was Shelley said.......they have pudding when they have school dinners...so why not on packed lunches....

I think I'm getting old tbh........i've never been a fan of the *nanny state* and it's peeing me off more as time goes by lol.

@ Susan with numbers. I am so glad you said that you liked school dinners, I thought I was the only person in the world that did so. :-D :-D :-D