Pupils' school bags searched for unhealthy food Published duration 10 January 2018

media caption Pupils face daily bag checks

Unhealthy food and drinks will be confiscated from pupils during daily bag checks, a school has announced.

The Charles Dickens School in Broadstairs, Kent, said sweets, fizzy drinks and energy drinks would be removed.

The secondary school posted on its website : "Bag checks will take place every morning and any found will be confiscated and not returned."

One parent said sweets made some children "too wired to learn".

Multi-packs of unhealthy food and drink have also been banned and will be taken from pupils during the daily bag checks, the school said.

image copyright Google image caption The Charles Dickens School says confiscated food and drink will not be returned to pupils

The school issued a statement saying it had notified parents it would be monitoring what food and drinks students brought into the school.

"We had noticed a deterioration in concentrations, learning and behaviour particularly from students bringing into school large multi-packs of unhealthy food, snacks and drinks."

The school said healthy eating was part of its programme to "support students' ability to concentrate, learn and behave well".

'Nanny state'

The school's announcement has had a mixed reaction on social media.

Jennifer Keen posted on Facebook: "My son attends this school and I have questioned this, the explanation I received was lots of children are coming to school with 2 litre bottles of coke, big bags of sweets and energy drinks in their bags and being too wired to learn effectively,

"I am in total agreement with this especially the devil energy drinks as they can lead to severe cardiac issues!

"Of course kids will buy them before and after school so many parents have no idea what is being confiscated."