Kids and parents rights at school.

Hiya everyone, i am a parent of a 7yr old who attends St Andrews c of e primary school in Littleborough, near Rochdale.

I am at present at loggerheads with my 7yr olds school. Well actually, I'm fuming with his school to be honest.

Since September when he moved into year 3, the kids have been given a water bottle which they have to fill daily and take into school. Everyday my son has taken it full, and returned at night with it full. I have explained time and again to my son about the benefits of drinking water and that he should try it and hopefully in time begin to like it. The problem is i have been trying to achieve this since the day he was born to no avail, and he still insists he will not drink it as he hates the taste.

Being concerned about his lack of fluid intake i asked other parents what alternatives to plain water there was and was surprised and dismayed that there was none, and that the head was very strict on this matter.

So being his parent and being concerned about his well being and the chances of him becoming dehydrated i decided to contact his head mistress Mrs Towse to explain the situation and that i would in future be sending him in with flavoured water from now on to ensure he stays hydrated especially since he does sport nearly every night.

Unfortunately silly me forgot i was only his father and that making a simple healthy decision for my child was not my place anymore!

I received an immediate reply, the same day in fact, of Mrs Towse the head mistress saying how deeply disturbed and extremely concerned she was that i thought it acceptable to make a decision about my child without consulting her first! ( I will print the full letters if anyone is even slightly interested in any of this!).

Mr Towse also strongly advised me to immediately reconsider my decision as she could not allow any child to drink anything other than water in school because it would contravene the schools healthy schools status.

After reading through the letter several times and trying to understand the angry tone of the letter i actually got more and more angry!

The situation is that i am now so angry that i have decided to make it my life's ambition to change this ridiculous rule via whatever methods i can. I have sent another letter to the head explaining my next steps but as yet have received no reply, so i guess she thinks that is the end of it and i will just fade away and never challenge her again. NO CHANCE!

I am simply asking that our kids are given sensible educated choices about what they can drink, at the end of the day pretty much any drink is better than no drink.

I am currently collecting evidence and support in my pursuit of getting these changes and start to get some rights back for parents and kids as it has gone just too far now this nanny state of ours. We are losing our rights as parents bit by bit, day by day and we are putting up with it. We are already told how to discipline our kids, how to raise them, what to feed them etc etc etc.

I am in the process of contacting my local MP to see what his thoughts are, I am trying to get some sense out the Healthy Schools Programme but nobody seems to want to speak to me, i am setting up this blog, and i have just set up an online petition-please see link below-http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/allow-kids-an-alternative-to-plain-water-in-schools.html

If anybody happens to read any of this and agrees with it then please could you offer any support you can at sign the online petition.
Any help or advice would be most appreciated.