Celebrating Birthdays & Other Special Occasions

At Hillcross, all children have the opportunity to celebrate their birthday and other important events in their lives with their friends at school in a variety of ways but we will no longer be giving out any food items to the children on behalf of families.  Not only do we have an increasing number of children with a range of severe allergies, we also wish to avoid unnecessary competition between the parents and children and minimise the time it is taking staff to manage the sharing of food (e.g. checking  ingredients to accommodate allergies or cutting and wrapping cakes) so that school time is used productively for learning.  This is also an important aspect of upholding our healthy school status.

We therefore ask that parents and carers do not to send in birthday cakes or other foods to be handed out by school staff.

We understand that every birthday is a special day in a child’s life, and we will continue to      encourage children to share their diverse home experiences at school, but there are many
other ways in which parents can enable their child to celebrate with their friends. If parents want to bring something in to celebrate a special event we would encourage a new reading book to go in the class library, a new game for the wet play box or ask the class teacher if there is a particular resource your child could donate to support a different aspect of school life.  

Thank you in advance for your support.