Can school force my child to stay in during lunchtime

Zoetoes

I would put in your letter that your son has always gone to Grans for a healthy meal etc but will accept the new school policy re kids leaving the premises and will provide him with a packed lunch.

Explain you cannot afford to provide money everyday and unless they are willing to provide the meals free of charge your son is unable to have the school meals.

There is not much point focusing on trying to get them to agree to him leaving the premises as they are not likely to and they can enforce this more easily than not allowing packed lunches.

They have good reason for not allowing him to go off site and you have good reason for him taking packed lunch so I would concentrate on that.

minxtress

zoeleigh wrote: »

I would put in your letter that your son has always gone to Grans for a healthy meal etc but will accept the new school policy re kids leaving the premises and will provide him with a packed lunch.

Explain you cannot afford to provide money everyday and unless they are willing to provide the meals free of charge your son is unable to have the school meals.

There is not much point focusing on trying to get them to agree to him leaving the premises as they are not likely to and they can enforce this more easily than not allowing packed lunches.

They have good reason for not allowing him to go off site and you have good reason for him taking packed lunch so I would concentrate on that.

I gave all reasons for him being allowed off the premises and she was having none of it, so packed lunch argument is my only option.
I have told her that if this isnt resolved in a week I will be taking my video footage to the press, to show how good her multi million pound school is with over 300 kids queing in corridors for a cold meal!

Katie-Kat-Kins

Personally I'd persist with both arguements, you may well not be alone, and a workable alternative could be reached. Perhaps leaving site could be a privilidge for older children that can be revoked if they misbehave. It would be no extra work to simply check that the children leaving have the appropriate pass compared to stopping any leaving at all costs.

juliescot

minxtress wrote: »

I have had a meeting with the Head Mistress this afternoon, she was arrogant to the point I nearly lost my temper completely I am ashamed to say.
She vehemently refuses to let any child out of school with or without a letter on the grounds of its one rule for all and will not be swayed on the matter.
She says because my son is at an age where he can make his own decisions regarding fingerprinting and did so without a fuss he has agreed to it, and my argument of well if he's old enough to make that decision he's old enough to choose where he eats his lunch but this isnt so in her eyes.
As for pack up, she says it is impossible to vet what all children are eating if pack ups are brought in and as she wants the whole school to partake in healthy eating she wont be allowing this as an option.
I said I couldnt afford to give my son in excessof £3 every day for his meal and bus fare so what would my options be then? She said buy a cheaper sandwich and have a large meal at lunchtime. My son is 6ft2 and very lean but eats like a horse and I just dont see this being a viable option.
I asked to see the menus and prices which she didnt have to hand but said she would forward onto me so I can see what I am getting for my money.
Today my son has video recorded on his phone the chaos that is lunchtimes and my god!!
He entered the dining corridor at 12.03 and got served at 12.39, he bought a portion of pasta which was sat in water, all captured on video, that was £1.80, a bottle of diet coke was 95p, there looked to be a lot of fast food choices and not many wraps, jacket potatoes or soup options which he would ordinarily have.
I have left it where I am contacting the Governors of the school, and then the Director of Education if I get no joy there as I am far from happy with either the Heads answers or down right negative attitude.
From what I can see the whole exercise is aimed at putting money back into a school which has gone way over budget with a new building.
Any children caught leaving the premises will be excluded in her words!

I don't understand the bit I have put in bold

Give your son a packed lunch and tell him not to go to the canteen.

See what happens.

(interesting about the diet coke - all fizzy drinks are banned in my DS school - they took the vending machines out)

Zoetoes

Good point. If it's all about the healthy eating then why are they selling coke??

my_gorgeous_ellie-belle

The coke and fast food options were my fear - take it further in writing and i'd also go above her head to the board of governers, generally they are parents of students at the school too.

If that gets nowhere deffiately make the local press aware. It does very much sound like the hyped up canteen they brought in when we were in our last couple of years which is still there. At least they didn't ban packed lunch!

£1.90 for a plate of pasta is worse than was at my school - albeit 7 years ago. 95p for any drink for a child is ridiculous in my opinion. This is clearly a money making opportunity - that needs to be highlighted when going to the press.

I wish you the best of luck though!

my_gorgeous_ellie-belle

I'd also say get everything here forth in writing! Or take a tape recorder in and let her know you are recording the convo

The head sounds very much like one that took over our school - bullied parents and teachers as well as students. She was soon rid of, but not soon enough, we had to endure about 3yrs of her.

mrcow

Send him in with a couple of rounds of sandwiches.

I wouldn't be happy either to be forced to pay to feed my children cold slop at lunchtimes.

Good luck with the governors. Just keep your cool and stick to the facts.

juliescot

Did you mention to the Head that a member of staff verbally abused your son and threatened actual bodily harm?

Raksha

Sounds like a restrictive practise to me - similar to when schools only allowed uniform to be purchased from certain stores.

Wishing you all the best OP, hope you get this sorted.