Six-year-old schoolboy suspended for having Mini Cheddars in his lunchbox

[MyUserName]

The suspension will go on the child's school record. Which may matter in the future.

From when he was 6?

[DirtyDog]

If the parents break rules, it's not OK to punish the child.

Suspension should be a final resort for serious misbehaviour. Bringing a savoury snack to school doesn't, IMO, justify suspension.

<pedant>Expulsion would be the final resort</pedant>

[doodab]

I do not know what the school's policies are or what else was in the lunchbox so I cannot really answer that. For all I know she had nothing but a sack of mini cheddars.

I assumed that they had been warned several times not to put mini cheddars in as the school did not consider them to be appropriate?

The school, near Slough, had implemented a healthy eating plan from the beginning of term, which asked parents to provide a balanced meal and refrain from giving their children chocolate, sweets, crisps and fizzy drinks.

The school, which was placed in special measures after Ofsted deemed it inadequate in 2012, sent a letter to parents in January asking that packed lunches be "healthy and balanced.”

But after a meeting with head teacher Jeremy Meek, Riley’s parents were told that they had been “continuously breaking school rules” and were sent a letter saying that the child would be suspended from Wednesday until Monday.

Doesn't sound like repeated warnings to me.

Riley’s lunch usually consists of a sandwich, yoghurt tube, Dairylea Dunkers cheese spread snack, a packet of Mini Cheddars, and water.

So mini cheddars are unhealthy

Mcvities Mini Cheddars Cheese 7Pk - Groceries - Tesco Groceries

but dairylea dunkers which have more saturated fat and more salt in, as well as fructose syrup, are fine.

Dairylea Dunkers

As I said, completely arbitrary rules based on nothing but some jumped up Hitlers opinion of what is good with zero use of actual facts. If this is the head teacher at work it's no wonder the school is in special measures, he's barely got KS1 critical thinking skills himself.

Lots of talk about how parents don't have the rights to decide which rules to follow but surely those making the rules have a duty to employ a modicum of reason and sense when formulating them?

[d000hg]

Does the school issue a list of exactly what foods one may eat?

[DirtyDog]

So mini cheddars are unhealthy

Mcvities Mini Cheddars Cheese 7Pk - Groceries - Tesco Groceries

but dairylea dunkers which have more saturated fat and more salt in, as well as fructose syrup, are fine.

Mcvities Mini Cheddars Cheese 7Pk - Groceries - Tesco Groceries

As I said, completely arbitrary rules based on nothing but some jumped up Hitlers opinion of what is good. Lots of talk about how parents don't have the rights to decide which rules to follow but surely those making the rules have a duty to employ a modicum of reason and sense when formulating them? Seriously if you are going to ban mini cheddars you'd need to ban at leasy half the other stuff the kids are eating as well.

The only thing that says that the child was suspended because of Mini Cheddars is the headline. The rest of the article (and the statement from the school) says that it was because the lunch was unhealthy, but doesn't pinpoint any particular item in the lunch which makes it so.

[MyUserName]

Doesn't sound like repeated warnings to me.

Hmmm .. in that case a suspension was an over reaction. Not because of the rule being broken just because it seems a leap to hit someone with that level of punishment without it being a result of an escalation procedure (unless the kid does something really bad of course)

So mini cheddars are unhealthy

Irrelevant. They are not counted as healthy by the school rules. If this is not the case (I personally have no problem with them other than they are horrible) then the rule should be changed, not ignored.

As I said, completely arbitrary rules based on nothing but some jumped up Hitlers opinion of what is good. Lots of talk about how parents don't have the rights to decide which rules to follow but surely those making the rules have a duty to employ a modicum of reason and sense when formulating them? Seriously if you are going to ban mini cheddars you'd need to ban at leasy half the other stuff the kids are eating as well.

The school probably thought they were following reason and are just mistaken over some parts of their analysis. This does not mean their rules should be ignored, just updated. There are channels for doing this and the parents, if this was their intention rather than just being stubborn, went about it completely the wrong way.

[DirtyDog]

Doesn't sound like repeated warnings to me.

The school has a very clear behaviour policy, which details the levels of escalation which should take place. I've assumed that the school has followed their policy.

If the school hasn't followed those guidelines, then a suspension is too soon. Suspension should never be used as a first resort, except in exceptional circumstances. However, the head teacher refers to "continuously" breaking the rules, which implies that some warning would have been given.

[doodab]

I think it must be difficult for the school to teach the nutrition part of the curriculum when they apparently can't read the information on packets.

[doodab]

The school has a very clear behaviour policy, which details the levels of escalation which should take place. I've assumed that the school has followed their policy.

If the school hasn't followed those guidelines, then a suspension is too soon. Suspension should never be used as a first resort, except in exceptional circumstances. However, the head teacher refers to "continuously" breaking the rules, which implies that some warning would have been given.

So it does.

http://www.colnbrookprimary.com/bp.pdf

Suspension being reserved for serious misconduct such as:

• Four lunchtime detentions for any reason(s) in any one term.
• Repeated behaviour examples from Step 2 or 3.
• Bullying through deliberate and hurtful behaviour, repeated over a period of time.
• Theft.
• Physical or violent behaviour.
• Absenteeism without permission.
• Racist remarks or behaviour.
• Wilfully damaging, breaking or destroying other children’s, staff or school property.

Or of course eating mini cheddars every day for a couple of weeks, which lets face it is far worse than a bit of bullying, or gentle ribbing as we used to call it.

[MyUserName]

So it would only make sense if the child had had 4 detentions for this in the same term? Otherwise it sounds like a breach of their own policies.