My daughter was told yesterday that part of her packed lunch could not be brought into school because it contained nuts.

The hazelnut and raisin 'Frusli' bar has now become part of the 'banned substances.

I'm thinking of taking the matter up with the head teacher, but I'd like to gauge opinion first before going in 'guns blazing'.

They have banned chocolate bars, which I understand from a practical view, but the reasons for the nut ban is because of the threat of an allergic reaction by another child. As far as I'm concerned that should be the responsibility of the child and their parents, not the other children.

Why has 'common sense' been removed from the national curriculum?

<<rant over>>

While typing this out, my daughter emerged from sleep, so I asked her about it. She confirmed what her mother had told me last night, but added 'I wouldn't have eaten it anyway 'cause I don't like hazelnuts!!

Kids eh!

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It's about getting out there and doing the distance, time doesn't matter apart from making it.

Why have chocolate bars been banned?

I went all the way through school from infants to sixth-form on a diet of packed lunches... And in all those years, my food never killed anyone. Why has it become so dangerous now?! :eek:
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GONE RUNNING

i am a teacher, in our place crisps and chocolate are banned, yet the kids all bring those evil pepperami things in that are about 50% fat and full of other crap

id much sooner my kids eat chocolate than that

Banning a nut bar! Thats just crazy. If they are going to do that they might as well ban a lot of other foods that have been manufactured in a factory where they may or may not have been next to a nut.

I would take it further if I was you.

I can kind of understand chocolate but again, why ban foods, everyone is free to feed their child in what ever way they feel is correct. Where is the freedom of choice gone? If we didnt eat everything the Government said was bad for us we would all starve!

O.

the chocolate ban is a red herring ... its clearly not being done for the same reason as the nut one.

i'm not really sure what you expect the head to do ?
this will be recomendation of the HSE people and more than likely is imposed on the school at a LEA level.

if your child was the one with a nut allergy which is often potentially fatal what would you prefer ?
probably the child already has to carry an epipen at all times and several members of staff will have been trained up to use it.

if you were doing a risk assesment the severity (death) would be high and you cant really reduce that..... so all you can do is reduce the likelihood by removing the hazard.

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I would rather have my kids eating a peperami than chocolate or crisps. They aint too bad presuming they dont have lots of E number additives to stabalise. The must have a fair bit of salt so not an every day thing!

The fat content is fine. Its not hydrogenated (trans fats) so its ok on that front.

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Acta Non Verba

What age is your child Scrape?

I would say that any child of secondary school age would have the common sense not to eat nuts if they had a nut allergy.

As a parent, I’m all for making the world a bit safer for kids. But I can’t help thinking that we’re going too far – and in the process we are taking away the sense that they are, to a large extent, responsible for their own actions.

I can’t think of any reasonable scenario in which a child could accidentally eat a bar containing nuts that another child has brought to school (apart from the obvious – a game of Russian roulette with a bag of Revels).

I understand ed’s comments about the risk being so severe that it’s best to remove it completely. But where do we draw the line? Plastic knives in the canteen?, no scissors in the classroom?, no cars within a mile radius of the school?

Good post.

I imagined that the OP's kid was in primary school

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Acta Non Verba

I think I'd be understanding if there was a child in the school who was known to have an allergy so severe that a mere whiff of a nut could potentially kill them. Some people really don't have to eat a nut to die of an allergy.

BUT, if that were the case, I would have thought that the school would have made all parents well aware of it and got their understanding and buy-in from the word go. In fact, even if a child had a nut allergy where they had to eat a nut for it to be life-threatening, I would have thought they would have made other parents aware of that fact. Since they didn't, I'm pretty sure they're overreacting and being excessively cautious. I wouldn't go in all guns blazing, but I would have a word with them, to find out whether it's a real risk (ie there's a child in the school known to have a life-threatening nut allergy) or whether they're just being ridiculously over-cautious.

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Cautiously potter-along puddy

Because the worlds gone mad

Please don't wind me up with the risk assesment carp. That is the root cause of all that is wrong today. Mr Brown, Pleeeeeese bring back common sense!!

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It's about getting out there and doing the distance, time doesn't matter apart from making it.

Actually she is infant age, but brought up with a good sound base in common sense, oh and she also knows the difference between right and wrong. As young as they are, you can still give them the responsibility of looking after themselves and others.

My original point was that if a child knows they have an allergy (if it is an allergy, another thread another day p'raps) then it is up the child and it's parents to ensure that they and all those around them are aware of the problem and the potential outcome.

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It's about getting out there and doing the distance, time doesn't matter apart from making it.

Sadly Dimple, I think you're spot on

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It's about getting out there and doing the distance, time doesn't matter apart from making it.

When did we all suddenly become such an allergic society, everone seems to be allergic to everything now from peanuts to wheat and dairy. We have gotten soft in our bubble wrapped world where everything has become dangerous. I mean you can't even go to hospital now without getting ill.

Of taking risks and learning from your mistakes. My daughter has outgrown her cot so we dropped the mattress to it's lowest setting took off the sides and put something soft for her to land on. First night she fell out 7 times second and third once and she hasn't fallen out since. Friends of ours have got one of those safety nets b ut if the child never falls they will never learn.

Great post squint! and puts across my feelings to a tee.

I have always said that you don't learn anything by coming first and getting it right. You only learn by failure, mistakes and accidents. Yes, these risks need to be eliminated as far as possible, but as Squints daughter has proved, that you don't need a bloody risk assesment form to prevent her from falling out of bed and hurting herself.

High time we threw the Risk assessment sheets away and allowed risks to be taken in a controlled environment that will teach children the valuable lessons of common sense. In fact while I think about it, I'm already doing that. It's called Scouts (unfortunately I still have to do a RA for certian activities to cover my ar$e )

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It's about getting out there and doing the distance, time doesn't matter apart from making it.