Esk State School

Two breaks during the day are provided for eating - 1st break at 10.45 am and 2nd break at 1.00 pm.  All children should be provided with a suitable portion of food for both breaks.   Many children leave home early to travel on buses and are often hungry before school starts. Please ensure they have a healthy snack for before school.  We would recommend that chips, dried noodles, chocolates, lollies, etc were not provided for morning teas and lunches.  Drinks in glass bottles and sharp knives are not permitted at school as a matter of safety.  Students are to refrain from sharing lunches.  Sharing is not permitted as students with food allergies may be exposed to inappropriate ingredients.

We believe that parents are the people responsible for the contents of school lunches and therefore anything that is put into a lunch box is assumed to be satisfactory for the children to eat. We want to assure you that no staff member will talk to or discuss with students the quality or quantity of lunch boxes. We as a staff recognise that this is not our role. We will be encouraging students to eat their lunch no matter what the contents, we do prefer students to eat sandwiches (or savoury things) first. While we have to teach healthy food choices as part of our curriculum we recognise that there must be a line between that teaching and the contents of a student's lunch box. We also recognise that students themselves can be their own worst enemies and can be critical of each other's lunches. These instances would be dealt with  by a reminder to the students. If staff on duty does have issues with the contents of a student's lunch (on an ongoing basis) they will be obliged to speak to the Principal about who will then make a decision as to whether to contact parents or not.