Skip to content ↓

Allergy Awareness: Packed Lunches & Birthday Celebrations

At St Sebastian’s Catholic Primary School & Nursery and St Sebastian’s Daycare, the health, safety and wellbeing of every child is at the heart of everything we do. You may have seen recent coverage regarding Benedict’s Law, statutory guidance introduced to strengthen allergy safety across schools following the tragic death of five-year-old Benedict Blythe.

These national standards, alongside updated EYFS nutrition guidance, require schools to maintain robust allergy policies, ensure all staff are trained in anaphylaxis response, hold spare emergency Adrenaline Auto-Injectors (AAIs) on site and actively reduce the risk of accidental exposure to allergens throughout the school day.

Allergy Awareness & Packed Lunches

While we cannot guarantee a completely allergen-free environment, we take practical steps across school to keep all children safe:

  • Avoid Nut Products: We kindly ask parents and carers not to send nut-based products into school in packed lunches or snacks (including peanut butter, chocolate hazelnut spreads, or nutty cereal bars). This also applies to packed lunches taken on school trips and educational visits.

  • No Sharing Food: Please remind your child not to share food items from their packed lunches with friends.

  • Medical Records: If your child has a diagnosed allergy or dietary requirement, please ensure their medical records and Individual Healthcare Plan are kept up to date with the school office.

Birthday Celebrations

We love celebrating our pupils’ birthdays in school! However, to protect children with severe food allergies and ensure no child is ever left out due to dietary or religious restrictions, we do not allow sweets, cakes, chocolates or any food treats to be brought into school to share with classmates.

(Note: If any birthday sweets, cakes or party bags containing sweets etc are sent into school, they will unfortunately have to be returned to parents at the door or kept at the school office for collection at home time.)

How We Celebrate in School

There is no expectation for families to send anything in! Every child is celebrated in class on their special day. Children will:

  • Wear our special class birthday badge for the day.

  • Receive a birthday card from their class.

  • Have their classmates sing Happy Birthday to them.

(Please note: Children continue to wear their normal daycare | school uniform on their birthday.)

Optional Non-Food Alternatives

If your child would still like to bring something small into daycare | school to share with their friends | classmates to mark their birthday, we warmly welcome non-food stationery items such as:

  • Pencils or rubbers

  • Stickers

  • Bookmarks

  • A favourite book to donate to the class library (optional)

Junk Modelling & Recycable Materials

We love getting creative with craft and junk modelling! If daycare, EYFS or school request recyclable packaging from home to support children’s learning e.g. DT projects etc, when sending in clean recyclable packaging from home, please ensure it is not from nut-containing products (for example, please avoid Crunchy Nut cereal boxes).

Fundraising Events

To minimise risks associated with homemade or unlabelled foods, we no longer hold traditional cake sales for school fundraising and instead work with our PTFA & School Council on safe, inclusive, non-food alternatives.

Further Information & Support

For more information on managing allergies and keeping children safe, please visit:

If you have any questions about our allergy procedures or birthday celebrations, please contact the school office on 0151 260 9697.

 

Cookie Policy