Surrey Homes | SH26 | December 2016 | Interiors supplement inside

Education
Sugar shock
Susan Elkin gnashes her teeth at teachers who use sweets as classroom rewards
Sugar is not good for you, your child or anyone else. Most
doctors and nutritionists are now agreed – although the
evidence presented by John Yudkin and others in the
1970s was suppressed for fear of upsetting the sugar industry –
that it is a major contributor to obesity, heart disease, diabetes,
some forms of cancer and a terrifying range of other illnesses.
Not forgetting calamitous tooth decay.
So how are we to break the deadlock and ease people away
from their lifelong addiction? Not easily, but there’s a great
deal that schools could do to establish different habits for the
future. Some, however, seem to go out of their way to promote
sugar rather than doing everything possible to discourage it.
It is quite wrong – immoral in fact – for teachers to
reward children with chocolate bars, lollipops and the like.
The child who gets full marks for this week’s spellings or
mental arithmetic test should never be given a celebratory
KitKat or Mars bar but it still happens frequently.
Responsible teachers give stars, stickers or little non
edible prizes. Every school should have a no sugar prizes
rule made firmly clear to staff, parents and pupils by
heads and governing bodies. No sensible person wants
children to associate sugar with congratulation.
If teachers personally dish out sugary junk to children
it conveys the subliminal message that whatever lip
service is paid in lessons to healthy eating, at the end
of the day it’s fine to eat trash. It condones unhealthy
habits and children are very susceptible to such ideas.
School dinners have a long way to go too. Jamie Oliver
has tried. So has Leon co-founder Henry Dimbleby, who
was commissioned in 2012 by the Coalition government to
spearhead improvements. Yes, there are fewer chips around
now in school dining rooms than when I taught in a girl’s
school in Kent and the (obese) Head defended the right of
her students to have fried food and puddings every day. My
lone voice attempts to change her views failed dismally.
But if you offer fruit and salad it has to be made
attractive so that the children actually want to eat
it. Manky apples are not the answer. Neither are
limp lettuce leaves and weary bits of cucumber.
Schools are in a unique position to chip away
(pun half-intended) at the sugar culture and give
their pupils a better chance of a healthier future.
It is scandalous that so many still don’t take this
responsibility as seriously as they could and should.
Cranmore School
Independent Preparatory School
for girls and boys 2 ½ - 13
Paint, Play, Party!
Taster activities for Reception
entry September 2017
Friday 27th January 2017
1.30pm - 3.00pm
Contact Admissions Dept. to register a place
01483 280340 www.cranmoreprep.co.uk
admissions@cranmoreprep.co.uk West Horsley, Surrey KT24 6AT
wealdentimes.co.uk
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