Thursday 15 July 2010

Clearly, Whitehawk Primary School Could Do With A Cut In Their Budget

Why so?

Well, they've pretty clearly got too many staff with much time on their hands, if they've got time for this:
A school has banned chocolate as part of a healthy eating drive.

Pupils at Whitehawk Primary School are being asked not to bring chocolate bars in their packed lunches.
Oh, 'asked'? Silly JuliaM, if they are being asked, then it's not a prob...

Oh:
If the youngsters are spotted with chocolate it is confiscated and replaced with a healthy alternative.
Words fail me.
Teachers return the chocolate to the pupils at the end of the school day...
Ah? Well, that's not so bad then. I suppose. It's not as if they are...

Oh. Wait...
...and then write to the children’s parents urging them to send their youngsters in with healthier food.
I would love to be in receipt of one of those letters. I think the reply I'd send in would put me on the 'Warning! Risk!' register for several lifetimes.

The facts don't seem to bear out the need for this draconian approach either:
The rules were introduced after pupils carried out a survey of lunchboxes at the school after national research published by the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health showed that 99 out of 100 packed lunches eaten at school are unhealthy.

Although the school did better than the national average – with more than half of lunches including fresh fruit and vegetables compared to just one in ten nationally – one in five packed lunches contained sweets, savoury snacks and sugary drinks.
So, Whitehawk was actually a good example? Bearing in mind the nonsensical nature of having surveys of this sort in the first place, they were still better than the average school.

You'd think that would be cause for celebration, wouldn't you?

God knows, the educational achievements aren't much to shout about, not the high percentage of 'disadvantaged' pupils.

But no, it was clearly a 'could do better' for the NuPuritans. How dare some parents sen their children to school with an unnaproved savory snack? Or, god forbid, a sweet?
While all schools must provide healthy school dinners, Whitehawk is believed to be the first in Sussex to ban chocolate from lunchboxes.
But you can just bet your bottom dollar that it won't be the last.

Every petty authoritarian control-freak nanny-statist in the land probably had a massive, shuddering orgasm reading that news article...
The school’s assistant headteacher, Annie Noble (Ed: !!!), who is the healthy schools co-ordinator, said: “We are trying to help with the children’s learning.”
Clearly, you aren't. All you are teaching them is that what you put in your mouth is more important that what you put in your head to the school.
Miss Noble said: “It is all about a balanced diet. Nobody minds if there is a balance between fruit, vegetables, carbohydrates and protein.

“The understanding is there, but in practise it is very difficult not to include surgery things in packed lunches. It is about helping the children and parents to make the right choices. Sometimes it is easy and sometimes it is difficult.”
She seems to think she has a mandate to teach the parents as much as to teach the children, doesn't she?
A spokesman for the School Food Trust, an independent body which aims to transform school food, said: “Trying to bring packed lunches in line with healthy school dinners is a good step and as long as it is done sensitively it seems like the right thing for the school to do. Hopefully the parents will get behind it.”
And if they don't?

16 comments:

manwiddicombe said...

"Whitehawk is believed to be the first in Sussex to ban chocolate from lunchboxes. "

They might be the first to actually ban it but the schools that my kids attend have made it clear that they believe chocolate is an unacceptable part of a lunchbox.

RantinRab said...

Whilst working last night, I noticed something, ummm, peculiar.

Pop into your local Morrisons and try to buy a can of own brand sweetcorn, carrots or peas that are contained in the traditional salted water.

You can't. Or if you can it's the dregs left over.

They only sell 'in water' versions of their own label canned veg.

Clarissa said...

My school packed lunch - although lacking in chocolate - of ham and cheese sandwiches, piece of home made cake and packet of crisps probably wouldn't have gone down well then. :)

It was made up for though with a proper home cooked meal in the evening.

Mrs Rigby said...

Ah, I wrote about the same sort of thing a while ago after learning that a school in Gloucester took pictures of the contents of lunch boxes without the children knowing.
http://mrsrigbysays.blogspot.com/2010/07/packed-lunch.html

Teachers have no business poking their noses into home-provided meals. Too many of them obviously have no real idea how hard it can be to get kids to eat anything at lunch time, when they'd rather be talking and playing.

And, if children live close enough to go home for their meal do they follow them and check it's a 'healthy option'?

Bucko said...

I will never have kids but stories like this sometimes make me want one, just so I can go into the school and give these muppets a raft of fucks.

Anyone who told me they were "Helping me make the right choice" would be liable to get some pain for their troubles.

Weekend Yachtsman said...

An independent body?

Oh yeah, it's really independent.

It was set up by the Department of Children, Families, and Schools (aka the DofE) in 2005, and is funded entirely by that department (£8m last year, plus £3m capital from the same source) and the Big Lottery fund (about £4m last year). ENTIRELY funded by those bodies. It is, of course, a registered charity.

Independent of what, exactly?

Here's another one, George! Get that axe sharpened up; here's another £15m or so you can save with no downside whatever. Why are we waiting?

Anonymous said...

I would love to see someone challenge these fuckers legally.

The school's remit is to educate children, not to make lifestyle choices for them or to undermine the authority of a child's parents.

What message does this send to the kids: "your mummy and daddy are very bad people for giving you this nasty treat. We must take it away and replace it with this apple".

We need to stamp on tyh necks of these interferring busy-body wankers before they start really fucking things up. Are these teachers nutritionalists or food scientists? Have they studied the effects of various foodstuffs on childrens learning capabilities? Or are they just regurgitating so soppy liberal bollox published by some over-bloated quango who just make shit up as part of a job creation scheme. Arrrggghhhh!

microdave said...

"but in practise it is very difficult not to include surgery things in packed lunches."

Blimey - are the parents including knives & scalpels now? The school is right to be concerned!





Pedant mode off.............

English Viking said...

Like almost everything when taken in moderation, chocolate is good for you.

Even if it wasn't, who is a teacher to intervene?

Furor Teutonicus said...

And "teachers" wonder why they get beaten up by parents on regular occassion?

Maybe they deserve it.

deadaccount. said...

So when the child gets their chocolate back at the end of the day, what are they going to do?

Eat it?

George said...

I know this school, it's on the edge of one of the worst estates in Brighton. I am quite suprised the parents haven't burnt the school down. My wife also taught there for a while and said the standard of teaching was very very poor, glad to see they have pulled their fingers out. At least the children will be aware of what a good diet will be for their life on the dole.

subrosa said...

Surely the investigation of lunch boxes infringes the child's Ooman Rights Julia?

Anonymous said...

There is a very simple solution to all this prodnosing.

The parents should tell the headteacher that no member of staff may open the child's luncheon box with washing and disinfecting their hands, to prevent contamination.

They will soon get fed up when they realise they have to wash their hands every time they open a box.

Amusing Bunni said...

I'd put an xlax (choc laxative in states) in the kids box, and then tell the kid to give it to the teacher, as a "present".

Hilarity ensues ;-)

JuliaM said...

"They might be the first to actually ban it but the schools that my kids attend have made it clear that they believe chocolate is an unacceptable part of a lunchbox."

They never heard the expression 'A little of what you fancy does you good' then?

"They only sell 'in water' versions of their own label canned veg."

Yes, you really need to look at the labels. Canned fruit in syrup is gradually being replaced by canned fruit in fruit juice too.

"It was made up for though with a proper home cooked meal in the evening."

I suspect that's a big difference today.

"Teachers have no business poking their noses into home-provided meals. "

It's just another search for something to take the blame for the inability of their teaching methods to actually work as intended!

"Anyone who told me they were "Helping me make the right choice" would be liable to get some pain for their troubles."

Or as anon suggests, a legal challenge? Could be amusing...

"So when the child gets their chocolate back at the end of the day, what are they going to do?

Eat it?"


Yup! :)

"I know this school, it's on the edge of one of the worst estates in Brighton. I am quite suprised the parents haven't burnt the school down."

Yes, the comments were rather vociferous. Surely, then, even more reason for them not to waste time with this nonsense?

"Surely the investigation of lunch boxes infringes the child's Ooman Rights Julia?"

I guess children don't have any?

"They will soon get fed up when they realise they have to wash their hands every time they open a box."

Splended idea!