An Academy pupil speaks out

Dear "Gurn"

I am a fifth year pupil in Nairn Academy and only discovered your site several minutes ago. I thought many of the posts were very interesting but on reading the Fast Food post I was quite angry and in response to this would like to make a few points of my own:

Firstly, it is wrong to say that "burger vans sit outside the school". I will openly admit that one is an ice cream van which sells crisps, chocolates and sweets etc, but the other van is a mexican food van which sells mainly healthy, vegetable based dishes. Being a regular customer myself, I can quite confidently say that the healthier food sold from this van is additive free and is extremely popular with the pupils. Quite frankly, the reason that less and less people are buying food from the school canteen is because it is simply not enjoyable. For example, I consider myself to be a rather open minded food eater, but even I stopped buying food from the canteen in second year! Also, to say that the school is implementing a healthy eating plan would not be strictly correct. While admittedly healthier drinks options have been introduced such as fruit smoothies, greasy flapjacks, cookies and muffins are still regularly sold in the vending machines. So to say that both vans outside are unhealthy alternatives enticing the school pupils away from what they should be eating is a criticism that needs to be re-evaluated.

Secondly, I was shocked to learn that there is such animosity against the pupils for their litter dropping. The owners of the vans outside the school are only there on the condition that they pick up their rubbish, so the majority of the blame cannot be placed upon these people. Yes, I can definitely say that there are pupils in the school that repeatedly drop litter, but these pupils are in the minority when compared to the numbers of pupils who actually utilise the many bins provided for them. If blame must be placed, then it should be upon those select individuals who are dropping the litter, and not aimed at all eight hundred of the schools students.

Yours sincerely,

A 5th Year Pupil,

Nairn Academy