A BASINGSTOKE school has come under fire for banning packed lunches.

Parents at King's Furlong Infant School received a letter on May 15 informing them that from September this year "children will no longer be able to have a packed lunch."

The policy is being implemented after the Government announced last year that all infant school children are eligible to receive a free school meal every day.

The letter sent to parents said: "We recognise the impact of diet on the children's ability to learn and we feel that it is essential that children eat a nutritionally balanced lunch. Therefore from September 2015 we would like all children in the school to take advantage of the free hot school meal each day."

But the announcement has not been welcomed by all parents.

Danielle Alger told The Gazette that she is "disgusted" that the school is taking away the choice.

The mother-of-two, from South View, said: "It's a total infringement of human rights and independent choice. How can they expect children to make these choices later in life if they are taking them away from them?"

The 32-year-old said her six-year-old daughter Sophie Ferris often has school dinners, but added: "If she decided she wants to have packed lunches the school is taking the option away."

The letter sent to parents addressed various concerns they might have with the new policy, and said: "Many of our children are a little fussy about trying new things to begin with, but we have found that because all of the children are eating the same things, it is not long before they will enthusiastically tuck into every meal."

Danielle said: "I fully understand that the headteacher is trying to combat the minority of parents who send their child to school with a chocolate spread sandwich but why penalise all of us?"

She said she was "gobsmacked" when she received the letter, adding: "I still have parental responsibility and rights over my child. Therefore the choice of what my child eats is down to me. That's a custodial right. It's not down to the headteacher. She can't dictate that she can parent my child better than I can."

Danielle hopes to speak with headteacher Libby Wyatt, but said the week after the letter was sent out, she did not greet children at the school gates as usual.

She is angry that parents were not consulted before a decision was made, adding: "There was no opinion poll, no options given, we were just presented with a letter stating that she had decided on what happens from September. It's immoral in my eyes. There's not very often that I'm dumbfounded."

Danielle, who is studying nursing, also said the school dinners are "miniscule portions" and are sometimes not cooked well, with "rock solid" roast potatoes.

Mrs Wyatt told The Gazette that the policy was being introduced after being successfully implemented at other Basingstoke schools.

She said that if all children eat the school meals they will benefit from a nutritionally balanced, healthy dinner, adding: "For some children they don't have access to these types of fruit and vegetables."

She said parents were encouraged to speak to her if they had any concerns, adding: "Some parents provide lovely packed lunches for their children, I respect that. Some don't have the same awareness of health issues or perhaps the child will say 'I don't want this or that'."

Mrs Wyatt said she would never force a child to eat something they did not like, and added: "Morally I couldn't see a child not eat. I couldn't let a child go hungry."