Thursday 13 May 2010

H&S Control Freaks vs Barmy Environmentalists: Round One

Who will win?
An 11-year-old girl was told she couldn't bring a lunch box into school because it was a health and safety risk.
Eh? Was it made of plutonium, or something?
Eilonwy Carr came home from her first week at Thomas Willingale Primary, The Broadway, Loughton distressed after being told it was against school policy.

Furious dad Huw, 37, of Whitehills Road, Loughton, has removed Eilonwy and her sister Arianwen, nine, from the school, branding the move "stupid" and "out of touch".
Well, it seems a little extreme to remove your children over such a trivial (if annoyingly control-freakish and stupid) policy. Are you some sort of enviro-nut, or someth...

Oh.
Mr Carr, who describes his family as "keen environmentalists"
This'll be good! *gets popcorn*
…said: "The school told me that all children must take in packed lunches in a throwaway bag.

"But, as a family, we make sure we don't use any disposable or throwaway products and prefer a lunch box which can be cleaned and used again."
Well, it seems the problem is that some other parents aren't as hot on the 'cleaning' bit:
The school told him lunch boxes had caused a vermin problem in the past.
So, the thing to do is to ban all lunchboxes, right?

Just like the time I forgot to put the bird seed in the tin in the shed and found a wood mouse had got at it the next day. So I borrowed a flamethrower and burned the shed down! Hah! That showed him....
In a letter to the family, headteacher Marion Smith said: "The policy on disposable lunches is based on health and safety grounds, which is why there are no exceptions."
No surrender! Never! You keep the H&S flag flying, Marion. Normal people will just watch from the sidelines, OK?
She explained to the Recorder that the school insists on disposable bags so lunches can be collected in a laundry bag and easily carried and stored, eliminating the vermin problem caused by forgotten lunch boxes.

She added: "We have one of the largest primary schools in the area with 15 classes of 30 children and the policy has been in place for at least 10 years".
And what that little fact has to do with anything, I fail to see. Though I suspect it serves the same purpose for Marion as a gorilla beating it's chest or a bull snorting as it paws the ground.

It's a warning that this eco-happy, beardy-weirdy Aussie hippy doesn't know who he's messing with....

10 comments:

Ian B said...

"we make sure we don't use any disposable or throwaway products"

None at all? Rag on a stick in the loo, is it? Any vermin problems?

Uncle Marvo said...

Just tell the Pikeys to stop bring rats in their lunchboxes. Simples.

I have a good relationship with my kids' school. I argue if they dictate to me. They don't do it again. I'm a very persistent, if not good, arguer, me.

Schools, eh?

JohnRS said...

Ah, the unstoppable farce meets the immoveable abject.

subrosa said...

I'm just so out of date. I thought lunchboxes were still all the rage. They make sense to me. Avoids the wee darlings sitting on their meal by accident too.

woman on a raft said...

The school lunches cost £2 a day which, depending on what you get for them, might be good value or it might be rubbish. It can be a close call; if you know what you are doing and are organized you can easily beat that with a packed lunch but having peeked inside some lunch boxes, some parents would be far better off going for the school dinner.

The head doesn't say that all 450 children take packed lunches, but she implies it. That's got to be tosh - a number of them are going to be on free dinners anyway, and some will decide to buy what the caterers offer (which might, for all I know, be delicious).

However, every child who takes a packed lunch represents a loss to the caterer/school who can't increase their customer base. They are stuck with a maxium of 450 a day.

Packed lunches impose a theoretical cost in supervision and disposal which schools hate. So rule is rather like airlines; they want to walk round with a black bag and stuff every thing in it, not have lunch boxes hanging around in class. This also increases the cost to the parents in disposable wrappings as that makes the cost of school dinners more attractive, thus maximizing the sales to the caterer.

Health and safety have nothing to do with it. Her fig leaf is about to be pulled off. Next, find out the exact method of funding catering in the school and the head's administrative or commercial connection to it.

The Filthy Engineer said...

And of course they need to recoup their money after this.

.......and an £83,000 refit of the school kitchen have been completed.

From their website.

maybe I'm too cynical.

JuliaM said...

@IanB: Do anyone's barmy eco-beliefs go that far? Probably!

@subrosa: Indeed, though it seems WoaR has got to the bottom of it as usual!

@WoaR: Very interesting!

@Filthy Engineer: Nonsense! You can never be too cynical ;)

Anonymous said...

Hello there. My name is Huw carr and I am the supposed 'beardy-wierdy' and 'balmy environmentalist' in the article on your site.

Unfortunately, the original article does not go into the full details. We originally tried to reach a compromise with the school, as we don't use throw-away packing products (which saves money as well as resources) but we were asked to leave the school because we didn't fit it with their policy and were being "trouble makers" and had (in the 'head teachers' words) "no right to question the policies of the school. It was this that prompted our decision to leave.

Thankfully, our children are now in a normal school were lunch boxes are encouraged.

P.S. Could you please do me the courtesy of removing my children's name from your article, as the discussion has caused them some distress.

Regards,

Huw Carr.

Anonymous said...

Hello again. It's the balmy environmentalist again. Can you please modify the post and remove the names of my girls. As they are only 11 and 10, all of their friends will be able to look this page up. Our names are not necessary to further the topic of the discussion; the facts alone should suffice.

Please assist.

Mr H Carr said...

Hello again. It's the balmy environmentalist again. Can you please modify the post and remove the names of my girls. As they are only 11 and 10, all of their friends will be able to look this page up. Our names are not necessary to further the topic of the discussion; the facts alone should suffice.

Please assist.