A message from the Principal

At SKiPPS, we place a strong emphasis on healthy eating and on creating a safe environment for all of our students. Recently, we have noticed an increase in students (and sometimes parents) bringing food to share with others—before school, after school, or during basketball training. Often these are lollies or other sugary snacks.

While we understand that a healthy and balanced diet can include these types of food in moderation, we ask that families support us in ensuring that food is not shared at school.

There are two very important reasons for this:

• Parents and carers need to know what their child is eating. We know that great thought goes into the lunches and snacks packed for each child every day, and we want to ensure that this is all they consume while at school. When children are offered food such as lollies, chips, or gum by classmates or other parents, it takes away your ability to monitor and manage what your child is eating.

   

• The risk of allergies and anaphylaxis. Many of our students live with food allergies—some of them very serious. It is not always obvious what a particular product contains, and a well-intentioned offer to share a treat could have life-threatening consequences.

   

For these reasons, we are asking families to support us by following these guidelines:

• Please do not bring in food to share with other children at school or at the school gate.

   

• Please do not allow your child to bring foods such as bags of lollies, chips, or gum to share with friends. Any food packed into their bag should be for them only. We also ask that lollies and gum are not brought into school at all.

   

• For families of older students who travel independently, please remind them that food purchased on the way to or from school is for their own consumption, not to share with others.

Policy Review

We are currently reviewing our Healthy Eating Policy, which sets out many of our expectations about food and drink at SKiPPS. Parents who would like to contribute to this conversation are warmly invited to attend our next Education Sub-Committee meeting in the school meeting room at 8:15am on Wednesday 8th October. 

If you are interested, please contact Michelle Bove at michelle.bove@education.vic.gov.au 

Thank You

Thank you for supporting us in keeping our students safe and healthy. By ensuring that food brought to school is only for your child to eat, and not to share, you are helping us to protect all children and to reinforce healthy eating habits across our community.

Neil Scott

Principal