War on manners

SIR – My partner’s daughter works as a canteen assistant at a school in Manchester, helping to serve food to the children aged between 11 and 16.

When a child takes the food from her and offers no “thank you”, either verbally or by gesture, she may pass a comment jokingly about manners.

She has now been threatened with losing her job, on the grounds that “all children should have the option to either offer a simple thank-you or not”, without getting a “lesson in manners”.

Stockport, Cheshire