Vent - Utter Brainlessness

WestonDave

It can be both! Parents fault for not topping up the account but school responding inappropriately.

Whatever else went on, the school had a choice whether to show a bit of heart and give the lad his lunch with a view to sorting the cash situation out later, or taking the approach it did. (It also had the choice to admit it was wrong and assure parents it wouldn't happen again in that way as it was a mistake). I'm simply not perfect enough to be comfortable trusting the care of my kids to a school knowing I'm one mistake away from them going hungry. Thankfully the school my kids go to, I'd be pretty certain that if all else fails their class teachers would ensure they got fed even at their own expense.

I agree its not life threatening, but it wasn't the kids fault, and using him as a means of leverage on the parents is to me unacceptable - parents fault, deal with the parents - not get at them through the kid.

Zedicus

PILES wrote: »

Can you point me to where I could find this written down, I would be very interested.

Doesn't Google work on your computer? :rotfl:

ThumbRemote

elisebutt65 wrote: »

The fact that they added that statement later also speaks of the school trying to CYA!!

To me it says that the BBC ran the story before the school had a chance to respond.

I also note that the parent was a school governor. As such, not only should he have been well aware of the policy, he had plenty of opportunity to challenge it in advance.

Auntie-Dolly

Perhaps the school have to chase these particular parents every term for dinner & trip money and got fed up? Its not a difficult thing to ensure your child has money in his lunch account. Take responsibility for your own child and as for going to the newspapers - how embarrassing!

Retrogamer

Seeing as the headline says £1.75 debt and it mentions the family owed this, is it not possible that the School have already given the child one free lunch?
Otherwise how would the debt have happened?

If that's the case and the family were contacted to remind them to top up the lunch money account then failed to act on it, i don't see how anyone can blame the school.

TheSaint_2

The parents are clearly at fault, either for not paying their debts, or as accidents happen, for being complete idiots by contacting the media.

How many children in the world don't get to eat anything at all in a day? Now that is a real problem....

I forgot my lunch a few times when I was at school, its amazing I survived to tell the tale!

bylromarha

Such a non event.

Is it fair to point out this school is an academy? Every penny counts!

jackieblack

I've just been browsing the website of the school in question and seen this:

Our Vision

We are committed to creating and maintaining a happy and rigorous working and learning environment where everybody tries to become the best that they can be in everything that they do.

Our mantra is this:

• We work hard.
• We care for each other.
• We have good manners

Not much caring demonstrated towards this child! :eek:

eschaton

Nothing but a non story - the parents are to blame 100%.

If schools are owed money for school meals - it will be lost elsewhere in the school budgets. Imagine if the parents of every child were in debt for school meals because the norm was that they would get fed anyway regardless of making payment.

When I went to school you took money with you if you wanted to eat there. No money meant you didn't eat. It seemed quite a simple situation.

Why do so many people think they are entitled to be in debt these days whether it's to a financial institution or a school dinner fund?

It's easy to follow:

Pay = receive
Don't pay = don't receive

unholyangel

ThumbRemote wrote: »

Personally I'd assume any attempt by the school to contact the parents to be above and beyond what they needed to do anyway. Really it's down to the parents to keep track of this.

Has there actually been an attempt over specific debts though? The way they have worded it, along with other specifics (as someone else said....£1.75 is an usual amount if they have sent out 3 separate notifications that the account is owing) makes me think that these notifications have been nothing more than a newsletter/memo to parents at the beginning of each term.

What would make sense imo is having a £10-£15 line of credit (about enough for one weeks meals). Thus giving school plenty time to notify while not being too harsh if parents have forgotten or even perhaps money is tight one week.

Idiophreak wrote: »

I don't get this at all...Even as OP originally read it, it seems like a total non-story. In the bad old days when kids actually had to carry money around with them, I forgot my dinner money once...so I didn't get lunch...Judging by public reaction to this story, it's some kind of miracle that I survived the harrowing ordeal.

I can see both sides. Most children wouldnt suffer any ill health going a few hours longer without food. However on the other side of that argument is medical conditions and that lack of food will effect their concentration in the classroom.

By medical conditions I mean something like diabetes. Although I suspect (or rather hope) that if there were exceptional circumstances, the school would bend the rules.