Parents complaining about this in school?

What are YOUR thoughts, OP? Strange that you would post, not offer any opinion and then not comment on anyone's ideas...almost as if you were trying to generate content for a website....

My DS is a lanky teenager now and since he started school at infants, has never eaten lunch at school. I used to give him a small packed lunch but he refused to eat it, so I’ve stopped giving him stuff to take. He does have money on him if he changes his mind, but never spends it.

What are teachers supposed to do in that situation? Force feed them? Kids won’t die from not eating at lunchtime. 😂

He will happily eat a small lunch at home at weekends and holidays.

From a safeguarding point of view, this attitude is so dangerous. I actually agree with others that schools can’t make kids eat lunch, but I see this again and again on schools threads. We have to bear in mind that of course kids exaggerate and even sometimes invent things, but we can’t have a go-to of just deciding everything your child tells you cannot be trusted. We all know where that ends up.

You can't force children to sit for an additional 10 / 20 / 30 minutes, just to accomodate those who eat more slowly. Children need to be outside and allowed to play, and there often isn't enough space in the hall for children to sit around waiting for their friends / classmates to eat a little more. Additionally, making children stay inside when they're finished just means you have a table full of children messing about or chatting, because they're bored. Which is going to be even more of a distraction to those who haven't finished eating.

This. As if school staff aren't responsible for enough things, now you expect them to do this as well. When did it become ok for parents to abdicate all responsibility and hand it to schools.

The primary school where I worked had over 400 pupils - you couldn't physically fit that many children at chairs and tables in the hall. The youngest went in first but could leave under supervision of MDS when they'd finished. The older children had playtime first and a short time after eating.

There should be a fixed lunchtime. If not slower eaters run out following the faster easters and a ravenous all afternoon. Play is too tempting, they need a fixed eating period. It has nothing to do with "force feeding" ffs!

This was my life at school in the late 50s and early 60s.

Mid-day supervisors don't do it now, fortunately, and teachers (as mentioned above) don't do lunch duty as a rule. I was a Reception teacher and only went in in at the beginning of the year to see the new children settled but didn't force anyone to eat anything.

Our school keeps a vague eye over what's going on, but only in the respect that of someone really isn't eating a particular thing that will be fed back to parents so we don't order or provide it again.

But no, they're not going to make them eat a certain amount. Eat until they're full and move on, isn't that what they should be taught?

630 kids, 6 midday supervisors, one hall seating 120, one hour yr1-6 lunchbreak. (reception start 15 min early)

Mid day split 3 inside, 2 outside, one roving emergency/medical.

That was fun with the new reception intake of 90 kids in September... some were still sitting there after 1hr15.

It is a rolling lunch. When there is room in the hall for another lot the bell rings and they get shouted in.
Final bell rung 3 times for those who missed all the other bells...

Then 2 mid day supervisors clean and put away the tables and clean the hall. So there are 4 watching 630kids.

Who exactly should be "making sure" kids eat?

What do you mean “thoughts”? What is your skin in this game, what do you think and why?

My DDs first primary school pretty much forced them to eat everything. So no. It caused a lot of issues !!!!!

This was my experience but I remember being force fed in year 1 as well. By a teacher I already had issues with. The supervision in years 3-6 was slightly looser but they still policed what we ate. We'd be sent back if we didn't eat enough of their horrible food. Especially me, the pickiest picky eater. They introduced a clean plate sticker chart. It was for my class but it was actually for me and my mum then sort of backed it up with her own approach. I felt so pressurised. I don't think it was conducive to good eating habits. I don't think I have good eating habits. This was the start of me being out of touch with ny natural appetite.

Should junior school lunches be supervised? Yes. Should food intake be policed? I understand why an eye is kept on it but I personally would rather my child came out a bit hungry and ready for a small snack than that they acutely dreaded lunch time every single day. I still don't eat the foods that psychotic demented hell bitch (I had other issues with her as well as the food) forced into me. I can't and I won't.

I think this is fine. Appetites vary greatly from child to child and even for a child day to day. If they’ve moved more than usual or had a smaller breakfast than usual they’ll eat more for example.

My DD has always eaten more than both my DS at comparable ages.

Is there anything that parents don't expect a teacher to be responsible for nowadays?

@Holu when state schools get the same income as private schools then they can have a staff member on each table

Ours monitor but don’t make them eat anything. In fact before they started reception the teacher on the home visit asked if they are a big or small eater so they knew if someone wasn’t eating who normally would.

I was once stunned to receive a call from the teacher (I’d never had one for anything before) and it was to tell me DD hadn’t touched her shepherd's pie so best not to order that again!

That seemed beyond the call of duty!

What age? For younger children ours get taken out by an adult. If they don't eat their lunch we try and ask them to eat more, but if they don't I can't make them. I usually tell the class teacher so they can let the parent know.
For slightly older children who don't eat their lunch and say they don't like it, unless it's a sen child, I will tell them to tell their grown up they didn't like whatever they had that day and not to order again. With older children however they clear their own trays, so staff wouldn't necessarily know if they are not eating it.

There are some children a teacher might ask us to keep an eye on..again we can encourage them to eat but if they don't we will let the teacher know how much they did manage and what they said about the food (e.g. didn't like the main, would have liked what a friend had).

Most state schools are lucky if they have a couple of midday supervisors and a few TAs. They can't afford to employ enough staff for one to sit at every table.

We were forced to finish our packed lunches at school in the 80s. It’s not one of my favourite memories. My mum used to pack seeded jam sandwiches every day (hate jam on bread, even more so if it’s seeded) I got shouted at in the middle of the lunch hall when the dinner lady saw me trying to put them in the bin. She walked me back to my seat and stood over me as a I tried my best to eat them.
After that, I started to hide them in my knickers (I was under 10) and drop them in the bin when I threw my rubbish away.

Is this how you want your DCs school to be? Because this is the other end of the scale. Humiliation and no autonomy

what does this mean?

I’m so bored of people posting then not responding. How do you want a discussion about something if you can’t respond to questions or provide further information

Most private schools eat family style with the pre-prep kids. It means a teacher on each table encouraging them to try new foods, mind their manners, use cutlery properly and to eat enough so they aren't hungry in afternoon lessons/sport. It seems to work really well. Plenty of little ones won't eat until starving if play time is immediately on offer.

Exactly.

On one hand, they’ll be people whose kids eat and then go out to play saying, oh the teachers shouldn’t get involved, leave them alone etc.

Then on the other, kids who haven’t eaten a thing all day, parents will be complaining saying teacher should’ve told them.

This brings me back to the 60's when me and daisy stayed for school dinners.
Practically force fed cold mashed potato and fatty meat.
We had to sit there until we'd finished eating.
My diss ran away one lunchtime .It caused untold stress and anxiety for us.
I vowed that if I had kids, they wouldn't go through what I did .