Snack table at school

Anacrusis

I think some of the children are going to be hungry while at the school, and when we're hungry we get grumpy + upset etc. especially when we're only 5yrs. I think it's great that the school are providing snacks for the children to have when they're hungry! Although if the snacks aren't healthy perhaps they'll change what they offer, or you could even send her with her own food?

When my daughter went to nursery and would never eat lunch afterwards because they gave her a biscuit! She would always make up for it at the next meal though so I wouldn't worry - as long as your daughter has access to healthy food most of the time she will be fine.

busiscoming2

I have never heard of this before and don't agree with it. Children should learn to have three meals a day and this is undermining the parents IMO. Surely they could just have milk/juice and biscuit/fruit at a break in the session? OP I am sure you can't be the only parent to flag this up. Have you spoken to the other parents?

miss_independent

Well this explains alot. I teach drama and dance to children and I'm finding that the younger children are coming armed with drinks and snack boxes for a 45 minute lesson and behave as if it is impossible to go 10 or 15 mins without eating or drinking! This snack table thing seems bizarre and actually in the long term not that healthy or sensible. The constant snacking and drinking is really disrupting my classes but it must be something that is happening at schools in this area. Im only in my 20's but this kind of thing was unheard of when I was at school. You wouldn't just get up and wander over to get something to eat or drink, we had structured break times. OP when I was at nursery similar to your LO in the same space of time we would get one break for milk or squash and a malt biscuit! I would put it in writing and explain its affecting your child having proper meals and home. I'm surprised its not affecting more parents! I wouldn't be encouraging snacking between meals...

shy-but-need-help

Both the schools my kids have done nursery & reception at have had open snacking on fruit but it's been just fruit and veg, nothing filling. They also have milk and water they can drink.

Have you talked to your daughter about it, I know at nursery age all mine have been capable of understanding if I've told them to wait until dinner time or told only to eat fruit. That being said I'm not sure how well they'd hold out without an adult reminding them and seeing their friends snacking too if they had things other than just the fruit on offer.

I'd also not be happy if the teachers weren't respecting my request to steer her away from it though, surely as a parent if you request that they need to respect it and remind her mommy says no?

moomoomama27

Seems a stupid idea! I wouldn't be best pleased if my children's school adopted this! I thought they were supposed to be tackling child hood obesity, not contributing to it!

1 snack at break is fine, but to have a table they can graze from, a very worrying concept!

happierdaystocome

OP it does sound strange that there is a snack table available to such young children through out the day. Is this maybe due to some children not being provided with proper meals at home, although if this is the case surely a better option would be to provide the children with food when they request it as that way they can be monitored.

If I was ouI would discuss it with the head teacher and explain your how this is affecting your DD but may be for the short time you could give DD her main meal at lunch time by save her a portion of the previous eveing meal at lunch time and a lighter meal at tea time when she sits down with everybody else until you get the situation sorted.

Sorry if that doesnt make sense my brain isnt really working today.

tom9980

My partner (reception teacher) did a a lesson once on what the kids ate for breakfast and over half had just a drink or nothing! this was not a bad school or located in a particularly deprived area. So while you may not like the fact nutritious food is on offer for your child you can bet some of those kids will benefit from it during these very important early years.

If you want to solve this issue go and talk to the teacher in a non confrontational way and discuss the problems you are having getting her to eat food at home as a family. Look to solve the problem with the help of the staff and also realise they are also responsible for managing 30 children (could you do that?) so they cant bend to your will in some cases for very good reasons! (which they cannot discuss with you)

I do agree though that a snack table open all day is not the best idea but this may be because of the mix of reception/nursery.

Alikay

My 4 and 5 year olds have a set time for the snack table. They're all encouraged to sit together at tables and help each other with the food and drinks, so it's more of an informal meal than a general all day graze-athon!

Lots of little ones would prefer to cruise round with a snack in their hand than sit still for a meal, so I'm very surprised your little girls nursery school are encouraging this.

JodyBPM

Whilst an open snack table wouldn't be my choice, it obviously in general works for the school, and you can't expect them to change the way they do things just so that your DD eats the dinner that you prefer each night! Some children may not get well fed at home, and it might be necessary for the wellbeing of the majority of the class for it to be set up that way - better your child has too much food than that some go hungry. Also each teacher/assistant at the nursery will have many children to look after, you cannot expect a whole resource to be following your DD round all day policing what she's eating - its a fairly trivial matter in the scheme of things, especially if you are asking them to make her stick to different rules to the rest of the class.

If she is in nursery, she must be around 3.5/4ish, so surely the answer is to simply tell HER what she is allowed and not allowed to eat. She is old enough to learn to do what she is told. It's not an issue for the school/nursery to deal with, its between you and your daughter. I personally, in that situation, would tell DD that she was allowed a drink, and one piece of fruit only, and I'd expect her to do as she was told. If she then says that she doesn't want to eat dinner because she ate too much at nursery, then she clearly hasn't done as she was told, and you deal with her disobedience in the normal way. If she is constantly being disobedient and not doing as you tell her, then the issue is her disobedience, not the school/nursery's open food policy.

shy-but-need-help

Others have a good point about kids missing breakfast, both the schools my kids have attended that offer the free fruit scheme & free milk have been in areas which the government/local authority have classified as "pockets of deprivation" which is why they offer what they do.

My DH taught at a school earlier in the year where they had a toaster in the classroom that the year ones could use themselves provided they used wooden tongs! (he said it was awful trying to work there as he kept getting wafts of fresh toast whilst working LOL)