to complain about the state of the school lunches?

They are fricking rank! My kids wont eat them. Even when they were free! I still make a packed lunch

How do some schools manage though if its impossible?

Some schools subsidise food from other budgets.

Some larger schools have their own non profit kitchens and staff, by reducing overheads/admin cost they can make better meals at a lower cost than a profit seeking catering company.

I only have one in junior school. When the second joins her and no longer gets free school dinners, they’ll both be having pack up. I can do a really good and varied pack up for them on £26 a week (their dinners are £2.60).

We do packed lunched. It isn't cheaper but better.
I hope that secondary school do a decent lunch next year.

I had £2 for my lunch each day 20 years ago… I’m hardly surprised the food is crap for £2.50!

I send my kids in with packed lunches. Sadly at our school the dinners are mainly eaten by the poorest children, everyone else provides better quality packed lunches for their kids.

I'm in Scotland where school lunches are free and my son packs his lunch anyway as they're just awful. Am glad they are an option for people who need them but for £2.50/day you can provide way more yourself.

How do some schools manage though if its impossible? I work in a school, Scottish state primary, food looks good, staff frequently order portions which shows its good quality and older pupils definitely get larger portions.

Complain OP.

, but for £2.50 a day, I’d expect them to at least get a decent, filling meal.

£2.50 is absolutely nothing when it has to pay for staff to:

• plan the menus and check nutritional guidelines are met
• purchase food & equipment
• cook the food
• serve the food
• wash plates, serving containers & cooking equipment

Honestly only around 50p will be available for the purchase of the food itself. Can you make a decent filling meal with 50p for ingredients?

Our school menu is pretty shocking - pizza of a variation every Monday. However we have the option to do pack lunch but life is busy and having school lunches is one less thing to think about

Do it. I wish the patents at my school could see ours. I think they are awful. Tiny portions and poor quality food. Lots of junk food. Not even plates, just tiny cardboard trays.

They were terrible when I was a child (2000s) massive improvement in secondary school though. If your child's school doesn't have an actual kitchen you can safely assume the food will be terrible

You have to take staff, fuel, insurance and equipment maintenance costs put of your 2.53. Apparently it's about 1.12 spend on food.

But I do agree that simple crowd pleasers work best..

The class teacher has no input into what dinners are served, nor is it a part of their role to get involved so your line about teachers not doing anything is a bit silly. Speak to the office, and the head if necessary, who will be choosing who the contract for catering goes to.

Teacher

I've worked in schools where they are quite good and I ate them on occasion and schools where I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole.

YANBU.
Quite a while ago now as mine are 19 and 17, but ours were also pretty poor.
I ended up doing packed lunches until secondary school started (where the meals were a lot better). I wouldn't think complaining will get you far. It's likely school know how shit they are, but that's the provider they have to use.

Ours have really varied by different providers as we've had several. Ranging from back in the day when we had a little old fashioned kitchen and all food was made on site... this was generally brilliant, decent portions and often enough going for the older children or bigger eaters to ask for seconds, to the terrible...roast dinners that we one tiny slice of unidentifiable 'meat', a single bite size roast potato and as much cabbage as they wanted with gravy not allowed at it was so watery it just splashed everywhere and tasted of nothing.

We're middle of the road now. All portions are the same from Reception to Y6 which I don't agree with, it seems mad to me that they expect a 4/5 year old to have the same appetite as 10/11 year olds. Some of the upper KS2 boys are the same height as me!

Online in advance ordering system for parents to do. One of mine will eat them but mostly has the jacket potato or pasta option. The other one won't eat them and I make a packed lunch.

What gets me annoyed is the packed lunches aren't allowed so much as a whiff of anything dessert like unless it's fruit, but the school lunch puddings are cookies, cake and jelly! I wouldn't be sending chocolate and the like anyway, but it's beside the point. But, I digress!

The quality should be reasonable and the quantity decent. Ours also provide as much fresh bread (sliced French stick style), spread, and salad (that any of the children can help themselves to) as they like. Filling up on white bread isn't ideal but if it fills hungry tummies then it's not something that I have an issue with.

My children go to school on a proper breakfast, they're sent with healthy snacks for break and they get decent cooked dinners at home. So if they have the odd lunch that they don't like or is a bit crap then they can fill up on bread that day and it's not the end of the world, I can't get worked up over it.

If it was frequently awful though, I would make a fuss and I don't think that's being 'that' parent. What would worry me is that for many, many children those meals are the only hot meal they get. If they're poor, then it's really not ok.

Who are you going to complain to? Your complaint is valid but the teachers have no control over it and the school doesn’t decide how much funding the government puts into meals. The government needs to increase the rate they pay per child.

My children said that the food served on my governor visit was entirely different to the food served normally. Teachers agreed!

For 2.50 a head i could make a decent, child friendly menu using cheap cuts of meat bulked out with hidden veg. Puddings could be old fashioned fruit crumbles or pies or sponges, fresh fruit salad with ice cream, or fruit/yogurt if preferred. A real pudding with fruit is not unhealthy as part of a balanced diet for primary kids who don’t stop moving.

the menus these days try too hard to be cool, serving meals alleged to be from around the world when kids just won’t eat them. We’d be better off doing large familiar crowd pleasers like shepherds pie, bolognaise, meatballs in tomato sauce with rice, lasagne, fish (breaded) and chips (oven cooked skin on wedges), ALL of which can be packed with hidden veg and are easy to make in bulk.

I would ask about food OP. The only way things get better is if people question poor standards.

It sounds exactly like my son's school (NE London) except that they are aware and consulting on it.

The last classes to go in basically get the bits nobody else wanted, there is no choice.

Prearranged visit?

Unless it was a surprise inspection after they'd already started dishing it out, they knew you were coming (and would have had influence upon any decision to renew a contract).

The stuff suppliers do to get or keep a contract bears no relationship to the rest of the contract term.

I've seen a lot of school dinners as a supply teacher and the vast majority are not great with small portions. I've read some parent's posts on here saying they do not provide a substantial cooked meal for their children in the evening as they have already had a hot lunch at school. I would not be relying on that.

I do packed lunches for mine because the school lunches are so bad. A number of parents did get together and complain and the school is apparently 'looking at options' whatever that means, but they did address it. Could you bring it up on the class whatsapp and see if any other parents agree and want to raise it as an issue?

My daughter was once given a quarter of a baked potato for her lunch. A quarter. I emailed to complain and was basically told tough shit. I now do packed lunches so I know they are getting proper portions of food.

The funding doesn't really go up but staff costs, fuel costs and ingrdient costs do, so I think the meals gave declined.

Do you know if it's a catering firm. They do vary a bit but schools aren't always in a position to renegotiate a deal.