How many lunch options does your child's primary school offer for lunch?

I'd be annoyed by there not being an option for a packed lunch. That will be why parents are not happy. We had this at secondary school combined with 'family dining' which was overseen by teachers who didn't let them leave the table til they were all finished. It meant that lactose intolerant SEN DS was always eating lactose and had horrible digestive issues the whole time.

Ours is a 3 week rolling menu that changes each term - non-veggie or veggie option each day, different veg available each day, with fresh bread and salad also available. Jacket potatoes are also available each day with different fillings. DD sometimes has what's on offer, sometimes has jacket potato - whatever takes her fancy on the day!

That sounds wonderful!

Two meat based hot meals, vegetarian hot meal, jacket potatoes and sandwiches.

Similar to you. One main option a day, plus a veggie option and some pasta or jacket potatoes for anyone who doesn't like the main option. One pudding option or fruit

Generally good feedback from DD, although I feel some of the pudding options are quite sugary (arctic roll for example 🤔)

Two. Main one with a veggie version of the same meal.

It’s not my kids school but mine. We are a tiny school and we have our own kitchen and chef. It’s a smaller space than my own kitchen though. We don’t have space even to offer jackets as well as the main meal. It’s a three week rolling menu and if you don’t like it you have to bring in a packed lunch.
The meals are amazing though - he makes everything from scratch (his curries are the best!) and even his pizza is homemade dough and tomato sauce.

Is it the actual choices themselves? I’m looking at primary schools for my little one and have been surprised how unhealthy the food choices are …. (And I say this as someone who is by no means a super healthy eater…. )

Private primary, 1 item, then all the variations of that to make it suitable for your child.

3 options 2 hot options 1 sandwich option. Everyone can use salad/veg station.

Looking at ours it isn't the most allergy friendly (jacket potatoe is 1 hot option a week) But packed lunch can be sent in which is what parents do for those with allergies.

Our school has a three week rolling menu. Usually 3 options - meat/fish dish, veggie dish, jacket potato. One day a week is meat free and there are two veggie options on those days.

I don’t think it would be practical to offer any more options than that - there would have to be a lot of waste to ensure all pupils got a choice.

I can understand parents at your school being annoyed OP. One option a day or a jacket potato isn’t great, but would be fine if parents had the option to send in packed lunches.

At your school it must mean that either everyone’s meal is vegetarian every day or the children who don’t eat meat are stuck with a boring potato every day.

They can also bring their own packed lunch.

I would definitely eat what they are served.
The booking in advance is because it's catered externally and also to reduce waste.

3 week rolling menu

1 meat hot lunch
1 veg hot lunch
1 filled roll option
1 jacket potato- cheese/tuna/beans choice
With salad bar/ veg sides/ fruit/ yogurt plus 2 pudding options. Or packed lunch.

Its pretty crap, they look like naff kids meals. It's not what I'd feed them at home and compared to the continent really not great. But they do get a good bit of variation and choice which is nice.

Main meal - veggie alternative
Baked potato
Pasta

So 4.

Ours is 3 week rolling menu.

Options are soup, meat main, veggie main, soup and a sandwich, dessert (usually fruit with some kind of shortbread/brownie/cheese and biscuits etc).

Each course is colour coded and kids pick a coloured wristband first thing each morning

Four options in a rotating three week menu that changes seasonally.

A hot veggie option, a hot meat/fish option which is veggie every so often (meat and veggie options both have same sides of either salad or veg, and potato/rice/pasta if not main) , a jacket potato (cheese or beens alternating) or a packed lunch for KS2 only ( with a main (sandwich/quiche/pasties or similar, fruit, same dessert as hot options, fruit and veg sticks). Dessert is yogurt with granola/fresh fruit and yogurt/ fruit salad or (twice a week) reduced sugar cake or brownies (usually incorporating fruit and veg). DD loves it.

We need to book a week and a half in advance- ideally all meals booked at the start of the term.

Hot meat meal
Hot veggie meal
Meat sandwich
Veggie sandwich
Baked potato

Plus soup and pudding

3 week rolling menu, with a choice of standard main, vegetarian main or a jacket potato. With a choice of fruit, yogurt or pudding.
Mondays always a pizza variant, Tuesdays always pasta, Wednesdays always roast and Fridays fish fingers.

I am curious to know why parents at the Ops school are up in arms though- it sounds pretty normal really.

I once got very involved with looking at school lunches (I have a child with sensory-related issues with food and I am a natural researcher... ) and really enjoyed looking at what all the primary schools in our area were preparing. Generally it was all pretty impressive. Some schools had photos along with their menus so you could make a better assessment of the quality.

Our school does not allow any packed lunches in primary at all. Year 7 they can if they wish.

4 choices. Meat option, veggie option, pasta, jacket potato.

DTs had school lunch for the first time today and had “yellow” pasta. Asked if it was cheese sauce but they are not sure.

veggie main with dessert
non-veg main with dessert
salad bar
noodle bar
pasta bar
jacket potato bar
sandwiches (older kids)
specials

Ours isn’t rolling, it’s just different all the time but with a roast on a Wednesday and a fish & chip/fish fingers etc on a Friday. There’s always a main (other than roast and fish, the other days are anything such as pizza, curry), veggie option of the main, tomato pasta,jacket potato with various fillings, and baguette with various fillings. Apparently there’s a salad bar and dessert too but those aren’t choose-able. Those are the options for each day and you can order an half term at a time, and you can amend up to 9am on the day.

Meat option, veggie, jacket potato, tomato pasta or sandwich

Meat option, veggie option or a jacket potato with a few different options for fillings (I think beans, cheese or tuna). They also have salad and I think they also do soup of the day, although they might have stopped that. Oh and on Fridays they get sandwiches instead. Some kids choose plain rolls every Friday which I personally think shouldn't be allowed unless the parents give written permission for it 🙈

It's a Jewish school so no packed lunches allowed to ensure it's all kosher.