Teachers at NSW schools urged to report overweight children

Almost one quarter of all NSW school kids are now considered overweight and experts say parents may have trouble accepting their child has too much body fat.

Parents of obese children who are observed to be gaining “massive” amounts of weight and seen eating pizza and potato cakes at recess face being reported to child protection authorities by teachers.

But health experts warn that because almost one quarter of all NSW school kids now considered overweight or obese, parents may have trouble accepting their child is beyond a healthy weight range when teachers try to council them about the issue.

The NSW Department of Education’s mandatory reporter guide urges teachers to counsel parents if their child’s heavy weight threatens their own lives and to report them if they do not take action to stop it.

“Extreme obesity is not the most common form of neglect but is a serious concern and can be challenging to address,” the mandatory reporting policy guidelines state.

Those guidelines were introduced in 2016 following the death of a primary and secondary school student who were observed to have “massive” weight gain.

The Department of Education said it helps parents where possible to aid the child in losing weight.

In a slide show compiled by the Department of Education to educate teachers about mandatory reporting requirements, it gave the fictional example of Jonnie who is observed to be struggling with schoolwork while being obese.

“I have noticed that he has excessive amounts of food for recess and lunch and spends the whole time eating. And it is all heavy food: potato cakes, pizzas, pies and pastries,” the teacher says in the video. His parents were eventually reported to the authorities because they do not engage with the support services offered by the school including a dietitian who suggested he saw a doctor.

University of Newcastle Obesity expert Phillip Morgan said unfortunately eating unhealthy processed foods had become normalised and a lot of parents did not believe their child was in the obese category.

“In some ways, parents not be able to recognise their children are overweight or obese because it has become more normalised,” he said.

“If you look at the percentages of children who eat too much traditional junk food and how that is a part of their daily eating, just about all children would benefit from increasing their intake of fruit and vegetables because unhealthy eating has become normalised in our society.”

Similarly, he said a growing number of parents fed their child a diet of junk food but believed it was OK because their child remained skinny.

“You can’t judge the health of someone just by how they look,” he said.

NSW Ministry of Health data found only 6.3 per cent of the general population ate the recommended amount of vegetables in 2019. For the same year, 24.8 per cent of boys and 21.1 per cent of girls aged 5 to 16 were considered overweight or obese.

23 per cent of child were either overweight or obese in 2019.

NSW Upper House MP Mark Latham said principals and teachers should try to work with parents rather than reporting them for serious weight issues.

“It is overkill, it would build resentment among parents, it would prohibit a co-operative approach to trying to help,” he said.

“The answer has got to be teachers and principals working with the kids to craft a solution.”

A Department of Education spokesman said the parents of obese children were only reported when they were unwilling or unable to get their child to lose weight.

“Where students present as experiencing massive and observable weight gain, impacting capacity to function in essential aspects of their lives, a mandatory report is required” he said.

“Where possible, advice is provided to staff to support the parent/carer in accessing relevant services and to ask families if and how they would like assistance to address the food or nutrition concerns held.”