Children not allowed squash in school !

Castiel · 1 Jul 2013 at 23:16

I will admit that when I was at school we were not allowed anything to eat or drink in class...although there was no such restrictions during break and lunch,we had whatever our Parents gave us, unless you were on welfare and the state supplied a meal at school....which was usually pretty disgusting and filling rather than healthy exactly. (This wasn't in the UK though)

vicisthebest · 1 Jul 2013 at 23:17

Woden said:
Why would they have one at their desk?

Long time since you've been in a school? The majority of primary aged children have water bottles in class.

Burnsy2023 · 1 Jul 2013 at 23:17

Woden said:
Why would they have one at their desk?

That's pretty normal now.

Woden · 1 Jul 2013 at 23:20

vicisthebest said:
Long time since you've been in a school - the majority of primary aged children have water bottles in class.

Burnsy2023 said:
That's pretty normal now.

Really? That's not a bad idea to be fair. Do secondary too? It would make sense, no one stops me having a brew at my desk in work.

OP I need more info! Is this his desk-drink or playground drink?

aardvark · 1 Jul 2013 at 23:22

vicisthebest said:
Long time since you've been in a school? The majority of primary aged children have water bottles in class.

another thing that annoys me!
read 'bad science' - it explains why this particular myth about drinking lots of water for concentration is scientifically nonsense.

SexyGreyFox · 1 Jul 2013 at 23:26

mejinks said:
I stopped this nonsense by walking into the heads office and demanding he tell me what authority he has to dictate what my child eats. I also pointed out that there was nothing of health on the school menu and he should keep his nose out of my parental responsibility.

Clearly I am a terrible parent.

Is your child at another school now or are all kids now allowed juice?
Did they change the school policy just because of what you said?
Awesome.

skippy2421 · 1 Jul 2013 at 23:29

Haha only on OcUK would giving your kids squash as they don't like water be pandering to your kids and bad parenting. As for the amount of high horses in here it feels like I'm at the races or something.

My school had the only water at the desk rule as it would always be spilt and make a mess. Sure some juices don't make any more mess than water but some do so a blanket ban is the only feasible option. But at breaks we were allowed whatever we liked. I feel this is how it should be. May have missed it but OP is this rule only for at the desk or in breaks or lunch too?

Woden · 1 Jul 2013 at 23:30

Skippy, only on OcUK would this topic fly way over 150 posts in what? A day

LordSplodge · 1 Jul 2013 at 23:33

BDEE said:
He doesn't "like" water? Wut?

That aside, the school are being moronic. Take it up with the head.

My lad didn't like plain water when he was ten. Still doesn't.

LordSplodge · 1 Jul 2013 at 23:38

Socaddict said:
I work in a secondary school, and our rule is - in classrooms, water in clear plastic bottle only. We permit flavoured water, but other than that, it gets confiscated. It'll be in the school rules somewhere, which you will have agreed to as part of your home-school agreement.

Reasoning for water only is easy - hard to mask anything else in there (even flavoured water), whereas squash or similar could quite easily contain lots of sugar or similar that may affect a child's attention span.

Not saying its morally right, just that there's little you can do about it (unless enough parents kick up a fuss) other than get flavoured water.

It's a schools job to teach not police drinks. I'm glad my lad went to school before this crap kicked in. I'd be having words with the head. Parents job to feed their kid. Teachers stick to the three R's. :mad:

skippy2421 · 1 Jul 2013 at 23:45

Woden said:
Skippy, only on OcUK would this topic fly way over 150 posts in what? A day

Tell me about it. It's like mumsnet but with better English and tech support nowadays. Probably explains why I post here

Burnsy2023 · 1 Jul 2013 at 23:47

LordSplodge said:
It's a schools job to teach not police drinks. I'm glad my lad went to school before this crap kicked in. I'd be having words with the head. Parents job to feed their kid. Teachers stick to the three R's.

I think teachers should intervene when kids are coming in with horrendously poor diets which are affecting their health, but I do think this should be when health is an issue.

Burnsy2023 · 1 Jul 2013 at 23:48

aardvark said:
another thing that annoys me!
read 'bad science' - it explains why this particular myth about drinking lots of water for concentration is scientifically nonsense.

Whilst I have read the book and can't argue with the fact 8 glasses of water has no scientific basis, being dehydrated does affect cognitive function so I can't see why this is a bad idea.

Castiel · 1 Jul 2013 at 23:49

Burnsy2023 said:
I think teachers should intervene when kids are coming in with horrendously poor diets which are affecting their health, but I do think this should be when health is an issue.

I think qualified health professionals should intervene...Teachers should only report any concerns they have to a relevant authority.

Castiel · 1 Jul 2013 at 23:50

Burnsy2023 said:
Whilst I have read the book and can't argue with the fact 8 glasses of water has no scientific basis, being dehydrated does affect cognitive function so I can't see why this is a bad idea.

You do not have to drink water to stay hydrated.

Burnsy2023 · 1 Jul 2013 at 23:52

Castiel said:
I think qualified health professionals should intervene...Teachers should only report any concerns they have to a relevant authority.

LOL. The system doesn't work as well as you think it does. At the end of the day, for many children the school meal is the only vaguely health or nutritious food they get every day. There are some very poor parents out there.

Castiel said:
You do not have to drink water to stay hydrated.

No, but it is the best way to avoid dehydration. If it's hot and your stuck in a classroom why not allow children to drink?

Castiel · 1 Jul 2013 at 23:58

Burnsy2023 said:
LOL. The system doesn't work as well as you think it does. At the end of the day, for many children the school meal is the only vaguely health or nutritious food they get every day. There are some very poor parents out there.

Then let the school supply the meal for those children whose only meal is at school (does this not actually happen now anyway)

I know the system is rubbish, but that doesn't mean we should give unqualified people carte blanche to dictate to Parents simply because they feel the need without proper relevant qualifications. Just because some Parents are bad Parents doesn't mean all Parents are bad Parents. Arbitrarily judging the health and care of a child based on a bottle of fruit juice or a chocolate bar in a lunch box is pretty darned foolish.

Burnsy2023 said:
No, but it is the best way to avoid dehydration. If it's hot and your stuck in a classroom why not allow children to drink?

Quite, allow them to drink whatever keeps them hydrated.

Burnsy2023 · 2 Jul 2013 at 00:01

Castiel said:
Then let the school supply the meal for those children whose only meal is at school (does this not actually happen now anyway)

I know the system is rubbish, but that doesn't mean we should give unqualified people carte blanche to dictate to Parents simply because they feel the need without proper relevant qualifications. Just because some Parents are bad Parents doesn't mean all Parents are bad Parents. Arbitrarily judging the health and care of a child based on a bottle of fruit juice or a chocolate bar in a lunch box is pretty darned foolish.

I agree but it's also naive to say that we should allow parents to give their children anything they want because some simply are ignorant to the fact that high fat/sugar foods are not good for anyone is large quantities. As most things, there is a middle ground which I think is probably the best approach.

JBod · 2 Jul 2013 at 00:02

Castiel said:
You do not have to drink water to stay hydrated.

I've heard squash is pretty good

My son starts school in September, I am going to be pretty annoyed if they have stupid rules around packed lunches.

JBod · 2 Jul 2013 at 00:03

Burnsy2023 said:
I agree but it's also naive to say that we should allow parents to give their children anything they want because some simply are ignorant to the fact that high fat/sugar foods are not good for anyone is large quantities. As most things, there is a middle ground which I think is probably the best approach.

I find it hard to believe any parent is ignorant of that, some just don't care - which means educating them won't make a difference.