School dinners or packed lunch in reception?

[Totterytumble]

My little boy is due to start school in September. If your child is in reception, do the majority of the class eat school dinners?

I've been hearing generally in the news about the state of school dinners - not great food, small portion size etc and wondering if packed lunches were going to be better. He isn’t super fussy but doesn’t particularly like saucey things etc or chicken so wouldn’t want him to just end up picking the plain bread or pasta option every day.

We did a mix. Packed lunch on days where DD wouldn't have liked the school meal option.

Yes, most do, because they are free for all kids at that age.

if they don’t like the main they can have a sandwich or jacket potato, so no point me sending them in with a sandwich.

I would guess the ratio has massively changed in the past few years now they are free. It used to be as many took packed lunch as had dinners.

We used to let ours choose from the weekly menu for one day and they took packed lunches the other 4 days. Ours weren’t a fan of the school dinners except the pizza days. We originally let DD have them every day until we discovered she was only eating the chips/potatoes and cucumber!

Yes that’s what I’m worried about - him picking the same thing everyday! Interesting that some can pick and choose each day what to have - that would be ideal although not sure that will be an option at our school yet.

My DD's school have a menu that is sent out at the end of every term, for each day there is always a main option, veggie option, sandwiches or jacket potato. There is also a salad bar they can use too. They like you to pick their choices before going back after each holiday but my DD is reception so it's easy for me to pick what she will/wont eat

Why not start on dinners, and switch if it doesn't work out?

In my experience the vast majority in reception have school dinners. Yes the foods not the best and sometimes it's quite samey and the portions aren't huge but it's free and to be honest most kids don't want to sit and eat for long anyway because they'd rather be playing so even if they take a packed lunch the majority won't eat it all.

More do have school dinners than packed lunch. I work in a reception class and in our school packed lunches have to sit separately, although I don't think that's always the case.

I don't make packed lunches. Far too much faff, especially when a free hot lunch is available. Mine used to have jacket potato with cheese and beans 4 times a week then Fishy Friday. They got a bit more adventurous as they got older. There's definitely worse things they could have every day.

The being able to pick and choose is quite standard I think. Every morning at our school every child is asked if they want that day's choice, or jacket potato or have their own packed lunch.

I did actually make packed lunches today as a rare treat because it was a special dress-up day for one of them. 6 year old came home and accused me of deliberately making it a boring lunch with not enough treat items just so I wouldn't get asked again. Nothing gets past her.

My children's school has great school dinners however my youngest daughter is a little fussy. I regret not getting her into school dinners from reception class, she had a mix of what she liked from them and packed lunch for other days however I feel I should have made her have them to try new things in an environment where others were eating/trying things.
Also cheaper for the first few years 😃

We use school dinners, at my kids school they send a menu home and you pick the options for the month and send it back and then the dinner staff have a list of who ordered what do they don't have to choose on the day.
My girls are in reception and year 1 have said all of their freinds get school dinners too. They haven't said anything bad about the food and they don't come out hungry. It has helped them try a few new things as well because they see other kids eating them.

We get a menu and they decide at school each day what they want or you can send a packed lunch if you want. We insisted DS had school dinners. Whilst they aren't wonderful, the packed lunch I would make (that he would eat!) wouldn't be wonderful too. He has eaten things he wasn't keen on and realised he quite likes them. We had some complaints in the first term and don't now.

Children tend to overwhelmingly have school dinners and we have to select which meals they have a week in advance.

My daughter is in reception and has a packed lunch most days. I really don't find it a bother to make her a sandwich or wrap in the mornings. To be fair, the school dinners are absolutely shit and I know she wouldn't like the choice. I know she wouldn't eat most of the choices anyway, so at least I know she's eating something during the day with a packed lunch (she's quite thin, and can't afford to lose weight by not eating the dinners).
She does have dinners once a month when it's something she likes.

Pretty much all kids in both my older kids reception classes have had dinners - it's free, decent food (at ours anyway) and they get an option of just having a sandwich if there is nothing they fancy but can only pick a sandiwch twice a week.

Most have school dinners; we pre order them and I picked a variety for my DC and they said they didn’t like something I didn’t pick it again as I knew that if they picked it they’d eat the same thing all the time. As they’ve got older I ask them but still make sure it’s not the same thing every day

I have a very fussy child in a small school so we do packed lunches. The size of the school means they get only one choice a day and it's often something she won't eat.

If it was the main choice OR a jacket potato, or whatever, she'd have dinners. But I need to know she's going to eat and my best bet for that is to give her a lunchbox until she feels confident to try some of the school meals (they can pick and choose daily there as other have said). Luckily she likes decent lunchbox food and always eats it up so it's working for now.

I was a lunchtime supervisor and also worked in the kitchen for a company that has recently been in the news. Whilst fulfilling nutritional requirements - low sugar, lots of veg etc, - my own children tried the lunches but opted for packed lunch. I didn't blame them. (A lot of staff were happy to eat the leftover food, so it wasn't necessarily bad, just not appealing to me.)

The lunches had to be ordered in advance on a 3 week rota for the term. In our primary, most main meals were saucy consisting mostly of veg with barely any chicken (or advertised protein), and children couldn't go out to play until they'd given their meals a good try. Not much time to play for those that were fussier. Portions were very small and the "freshly baked bread" was one small loaf for the whole school. It was cut into tiny slivers and often eaten by the lead supervisor 🤬, so was all gone by about the second year group to come through.

In contrast, my sister's children loved their school meals. The state primary school had a chef who went to the classrooms each morning to take the orders from the children for meals cooked freshly that day.

School dinners, if you're in England they're free until Y3 so no brainer!

From working in a school I can assure you that the school dinners are majoritovly absolutely disgusting. When my son started school (prior to working there), I ordered him the dinners. Upon working there, I stopped as I felt guilty for what he had on offer.

Free up to year 6 here!

Yes this is what worries me and the one featured in the news lately is the same provider the school uses 😬

School lunch can be a good way of exposing them to a wider range of food in my experience.

Mine had lovely meals in reception, and right though. We picked from the menu for the term so they knew what they were getting and it made them try a variety of things. Kids are a lot less picky at school than home I find