A school has come under fire after its healthy eating policy saw birthday cake banned.

Cippenham Nursery School made national news after mother Emma Clarke, 34, slammed the school for its healthy eating policy which her four-year-old son Archie's lunchboxes being monitored and sugary snacks banned.

Speaking to The Sun she said: “I told them I wasn’t happy with them taking food off him. I put a note in his lunch box telling them not to remove items — and they still did.

“They open up the lunch boxes and take the items out in front of the children.”

Emma added that due to the healthy eating policy, the school has a wooden cake they bring out on birthdays, saying: “They are little kids. Aren’t birthdays all about cake?”

The Observer reached out to Cippenham Nursery School on the claims.

Headteacher of Cippenham Nursery School, Nisha Gill said: “Cippenham Nursery School has a lunch-box policy which is very similar to those seen in nearly all nursery schools nationwide.

"It’s aim is to promote healthy food choices and encourage those both for the children in our care and their families."

Nisha added that there are large health inequalities in Slough and that the health of young people is a priority.

“The vast majority of our parents are very supportive of the policy, understanding that outside of the school environment they can choose to feed their children whatever suits their family, and where there are dietary requirements we have discussed these to make appropriate exceptions for individual children," Nisha continued.

“We also make amendments to the policy to include or exclude items following advice from government, public health and other experts and if any parent comes across a type of food which they believe could be included they are welcome to raise it with us so we can get the appropriate advice.

“However, we whole-heartedly stand by our policy of encouraging healthy choices for the children in our care, as we are sure the hundreds, possibly thousands, of nursery schools do, across the country.”

Taking to Facebook after the news broke, Emma added: "As much as I don't agree with how strict the policy is and the fact my specific requests that nothing be removed from Archie's lunchbox were ignored - I have to say that Cippenham Nursery has been wonderful in all other areas and Archie will miss it when he leaves this week to start big school after the summer holidays."