to think schools should allow flexibility between packed lunches and school meals?

Surely if children have FSM they can permanently book in for them but take a packed lunch in when it suits them and just eat it?

I'm sure they're experienced enough to handle it. Everyone else in catering manages this exact situation and usually with a lot more food choices than a school gives.

Book day by day online. Completely flexible and select food option.

I don't think 420 is impossible. I attended a 3 form entry primary school so about 630 pupils in all .Even if only half those had dinners that's over 300.In addition the kitchen cooked the meals for the next nearest primary school which was 5 minutes drive away. That kitchen must have provided about 500 or more meals each day.

Every school I've had experience with (7) you can choose on the day.

I’m a teacher. We currently allow this flexibility for our school dinners but are thinking of stopping it. Key reasons:

• the amount of food wasted is atrocious
• children who have pre-ordered sometimes don’t get what they chose because the last minute changes mean someone else gets the last piece of pie/jacket potato etc
• parents are supposed to order and pay for meals in advance but don’t, which means office staff are left chasing payments (which have been known to stretch in to the £00s)
• it takes a huge chunk of time out of each morning for teachers to ask children what they are doing for lunch, complete the lunch register and then for the office staff to upload this information to the payment portal
• children aren’t always reliable so will tell you they are having a packed lunch but actually were supposed to order a school dinner
• children will order a school dinner even though they have a packed lunch (cause they don’t like the sandwich that’s been packed) so parents are then charged for a meal and call up having a go, we then have to wipe the payment meaning school is out of pocket

We are looking at saying meals must be ordered a week in advance (unless an emergency, obviously).

edited to add it would be insane to say you have to have school dinner/packed lunch all week though, we will always allow a mixed week, but will say this needs to be booked a week in advance.

It really is.

i used to love our school dinners apart from a turkey pie they’d serve every other week, I think it was on a Thursday. The sight and smell of it made me sick which then meant I’d be sent home (a few times my mum, god bless her, forgot which week it was and sent me for school lunches 😂). It’s crazy to me to have no choice

not really, they have the same menu on a three week schedule and I’m sure they have a good idea by the second cycle how popular each meal is. For instance they know that pizza day is popular so it wouldn’t come as a shock and they would have a good idea about how much to make/order in advance of pizza day. It’s worked for many many years so must be acceptable to the catering team.

Our kids can change day to day.

Pupils at the primary school I work in can choose on the day. We're in West Wales.

They do that but parents don't read, don't care, don't understand. The funding for free school meals is based on one days take up - if only 100 KS1 students eat on that day out of 200, school are underfunded by 50% for the year, even with incentives to encourage them.
My children are at a 2 form entry school, catering for up to 420 students is not an easy task.

When I at was primary school in the mid 1970s you said on a Monday morning which days you wanted a meal and the class teacher handled all the money. 30 years later when my niece was at the same school it was highly encouraged that all KS1 took up offer of the meal . For KS2 it was encouraged and you could decide week by week. However this was a 3 form entry school so the large number in the school gave the catering people a pretty good approximation of the number of heald required each day. There is one primary school near where I now live where school meals are compulsory as part of the school contract. They do provide for allergies, vegetarians and halal and all the parents know when they chose the school what the requirement is.

Ours is booked on the day, full flexibility up to around 8am on the day on choosing packed lunch or school dinner, so yes I would find this a pain being so fixed. Reality is I tend to book 2-3 weeks at a time but it is really handy being able to change it for last minute things

Mine were school dinners or packed lunch decided termly (or maybe half termly?) back when my now Uni aged children were in Primary School. I've never known it any other way tbh.

Flexibilty would be fabulous, but the admin must be a nightmare.

Our school, you decide each day based on the menu. Ridiculous to just be one or the other the whole time.

We used to get the choice each day. We had to hand in a little ticket

Our school its one or the other. I have one in KS1 and take advantage of the free school meals. The other in KS2 had the choice and chose packed lunches which to be fair is far cheaper than £2.85 for the school meals. Isn’t an issue at our school however i suppose we know no different the parents just pick which works best and go from there

We have to order each week, a week in advance, so by Sunday evening for the week 7 days ahead. We can pick which days have each week to week but once submitted it can't be changed. Unless on a medical menu (allergies etc) then have to order a whole half term ahead, but can still mix up dinners with packed lunches.

Imagine how difficult it must be got the catering company then

We can choose and make changes up until the night before.

I don't know why that is ok in our school but not others.

On census day our school really publicises that they get more funding if more people have school meal that day, it's free for everyone, and it's something like burger and chips to get maximum uptake!

You just pick on the day at the school my child has just left. They say packed lunch or school dinner when their name is called out on the register.

It's a small school though so there is no choice. Everyone having a school dinner eats the same thing (or the vegetarian version of it)