is this inappropriate behaviour by a head teacher?

jamespir

id write a letter back explaung where to stick the letter they sent me and that if they took stuff out of my childs lunchbox id have them for theft

aliasojo

esmf73 wrote: »

.................(meat/cheese/jam/peanut butter) ...............

I believe they do flak jackets in kiddie's sizes these days. He may need one judging by the reports of over zealous teachers. :D

Millie's_Mum

Loz01 wrote: »

They do this in my nieces school too (she's 6) and it really peeves my bro and SIL off. Anything not 1000000% healthy and pure isnt allowed in lunchboxes and they are constantly lectured about healthy food and exercising even tho 99% of the kids in her school are a normal weight and get plenty of exercise at break/dinner times and after school on the playground! Now when we're eating she'll ask if its "healthy" food all the time.

Exactly the same as my 6yr old DD, it drives me crackers.

seven-day-weekend

Millie's_Mum wrote: »

Exactly the same as my 6yr old DD, it drives me crackers.

Don't they have a lot of fat and salt?

Loz01

mum-of-two wrote: »

Does anybody else think that it's very UNhealthy for a 6 year old to be thinking in this way?

Loz01
has your brother & sister-in-law done anything about this?

Are schools actually allowed to do this?

I do think its forced upon them too much, esp at a young age. SIL mentioned it at parents evening I think and they just said they were keeping in line with new recommendations about promoting a healthy lifestyle, which is fair enough but they need to be told sweets and crisps are ok as well IMO. Like I said, 99% of her class/year are all average height/weight/shape so its not like its a fat camp.

gratefulforhelp_2

Mum-of-two as a schoolteacher and a governor of a primary school, I understand where this is coming from, since schools are under pressure to gain a healthy schools' award, and these activities form part of their efforts.

That said, I think I would write to the chair of the governors, expressing your disquiet, and asking teachers to be more circumspect in their nutrition advice.

For example: cheese is not an "unhealthy food". It is a valuable source of calcium, protein and is energy dense. Kids do not need a low-fat diet. It is hard to say that any food is unhealthy in moderation.

There are also the issues of eating disorders as has been mentioned.

So sorry that your school is causing you this hassle, we have addressed "Healthy Schools" by asking parents to send the child in with fruit in their packed lunch. Much simpler.

eta I have a degree in nutrition, if it matters.

smk77

gratefulforhelp wrote: »

Mum-of-two as a schoolteacher and a governor of a primary school, I understand where this is coming from, since schools are under pressure to gain a healthy schools' award, and these activities form part of their efforts.

It's some of the parents that need educating though and I wouldn't be surprised if those that need educating on healthy food are the type would see this as interfering (as in how dare you tell me what I should feed my children) rather than those that see it as not needed (as in those that feed their children well and will give them an occasional snack).
It doesn’t sound like a very good attempt to promote healthy eating because it will annoy parents who give their children healthy food and those that don’t.

gratefulforhelp_2

Yes, its counter productive, and showing poor communication. My DD asks me if this food and that are healthy, I tell her foods are good for different things, and its unhealthy to eat too much of any type of food.

dizziblonde

Lots of this is coming from the Govt unfortunately - schools are caught in the crossfire and to be honest I'm sick of getting landed with cover work from "healthy eating weeks" containing such rubbish activities as writing poetry extolling the virtues of fruit, designing ideal packed lunches etc - they're boring as heck to teach and getting the "balance" part in among the Govt "we're all going to hell in a bucket of cellulite" propaganda is pretty damned tricky to pull off.

The lunchbox policing is getting ridiculous - although I can understand it when I see packed lunches coming in comprising two Jacobs crackers and half a chocolate easter egg - and I'm certainly not raking around kids' lunchboxes - I've got too much to do actually TEACHING rather than picking fights with parents over a penguin or whatever.

To be honest if I ever manage to get pregnant (pushing 3 years and counting) I'm seriously considering home education as I hate how the Govt's "how to live your life" indoctrination tentacles are trying to hook kids in younger and younger and younger - it makes me incredibly uncomfortable.

Had to laugh when my old school was doing the healthy schools award... kids get the job of showing the panel around the school and I had the top class so we got the prefects to do it. Were discussing the places they needed to include on their tour and one of my lads (who could have charmed the birds out of the trees and will be a complete lady killer in terms of looks and charm in years to come) gave the staff member talking them through what to do the biggest grin, wink and said, "We don't want to tell them about the doughnuts the teachers ate last week do we Miss?!"... bless him!

Whole thing's got absolutely ridiculous in my mind - although the school dinners appear to have increased somewhat in edibility (I remember training in a school where they served GREY hotdogs and it was stomach churning just walking through when lunch was being served)... daft thing is you can still tell what day's pizza on the lunch menu - the dinner numbers when you're doing the register double!

If you're ever bored (or sad) enough - go through the past SATs papers and see the clear point where the questions change from being word problems about squash and cakes, to word problems about Abdul buying five oranges and three pineapples for his friends... I'm going to teacher hell - I let kids write poems about chocolate today (I'm sorry - I can't get good motivation out of lettuce)!

Spendless

dizziblonde wrote: »

Lots of this is coming from the Govt unfortunately - schools are caught in the crossfire and to be honest I'm sick of getting landed with cover work from "healthy eating weeks" containing such rubbish activities as writing poetry extolling the virtues of fruit, designing ideal packed lunches etc - they're boring as heck to teach and getting the "balance" part in among the Govt "we're all going to hell in a bucket of cellulite" propaganda is pretty damned tricky to pull off.

The lunchbox policing is getting ridiculous - although I can understand it when I see packed lunches coming in comprising two Jacobs crackers and half a chocolate easter egg - and I'm certainly not raking around kids' lunchboxes - I've got too much to do actually TEACHING rather than picking fights with parents over a penguin or whatever.

To be honest if I ever manage to get pregnant (pushing 3 years and counting) I'm seriously considering home education as I hate how the Govt's "how to live your life" indoctrination tentacles are trying to hook kids in younger and younger and younger - it makes me incredibly uncomfortable.

Had to laugh when my old school was doing the healthy schools award... kids get the job of showing the panel around the school and I had the top class so we got the prefects to do it. Were discussing the places they needed to include on their tour and one of my lads (who could have charmed the birds out of the trees and will be a complete lady killer in terms of looks and charm in years to come) gave the staff member talking them through what to do the biggest grin, wink and said, "We don't want to tell them about the doughnuts the teachers ate last week do we Miss?!"... bless him!

Whole thing's got absolutely ridiculous in my mind - although the school dinners appear to have increased somewhat in edibility (I remember training in a school where they served GREY hotdogs and it was stomach churning just walking through when lunch was being served)... daft thing is you can still tell what day's pizza on the lunch menu - the dinner numbers when you're doing the register double!

If you're ever bored (or sad) enough - go through the past SATs papers and see the clear point where the questions change from being word problems about squash and cakes, to word problems about Abdul buying five oranges and three pineapples for his friends... I'm going to teacher hell - I let kids write poems about chocolate today (I'm sorry - I can't get good motivation out of lettuce)!

My eldest is in Junior school and they've had a vote for your favourite school dinner and that will be on the menu on x date. Chocolate crunch has won the overall vote for the pudding, but for the main meal the majority of upper school (yrs 5 &6) voted for roast dinner, the majority of lower school (yrs 3 & 4) voted for hotdogs and because there are more lower school kids than upper school that won.