It was just what I needed to counter the post-Christmas blues. A box of Cadbury’s Roses in the resources cupboard, just waiting to be gobbled by a tired teacher at breaktime. I was on my first PGCE placement and a child had brought me a wrapped-up present. And behind it were the chocolates. They must also be for me as there was no Post-it note on them. So I opened the box.

Over the next few weeks my colleague and I tucked into this treasure trove in-between lessons. But then one day, I left the cupboard door open.

There was the box, open and nearly empty. And there was Matt, an angry seven-year-old howling with rage that the box of chocolates his dad had brought as a present for the class had disappeared into his teachers’ mouths. “What? What?” he bellowed. “Somebody has eaten all my chocolates. That’s not fair. They were mine.”

As I placated Matt, I realised that he had fallen foul of our school’s healthy eating policy, which bans teachers from handing out sweets to pupils. So when Matt’s dad handed the teacher the chocolates, she placed them in the cupboard, waiting for another parent to hand them out in the playground. That way the school wouldn’t be seen to be sanctioning unhealthy eating.

It was embarrassing that we had been caught stuffing our faces. We were used to eating brownies in the staffroom while handing out apples and carrots to the pupils at break, but now our secret was out.

Now that his nutritional idols had confessed, Matt wasn’t happy. I rushed to the supermarket and bought a new, bigger box of sweets. It’s sitting there waiting for someone to put me out of my misery and hand them out.

Sarah Greenwood is a primary PGCE student in the West Midlands. Email your NQT experiences to features@tes.co.uk. Every one we publish will receive Pounds 50 in MS vouchers.