School Dinner Memory

[LatteLady]

I was having a mooch looking at tableware and spotted seersucker tablecloths and napkins, and was immediately transported back to school dinners in the 1960s. We had tables of eight with two Yr 6 pupils serving the other six children their meals, on tables with striped seersucker cloths, each place was laid with knife, fork, dessert spoon and dessert fork together with a water tumbler and a jug of water passed around to each child. Our teachers used to join the tables where there was a child missing. Our lunchtimes lasted 90 mins.

I know that it does not happen now as I occasionally join school lunches at the schools where I am a governor and have to admit that my heart sinks when I see the compartmentalised plastic trays.

Before anyone says it must have been a posh school, it wasn't, it was an RC primary school and for my time there, we had between 44 - 48 pupils in my class. Looking back now, I would love to take a look at the 1960s school budgets...

Lunchtimes lasting 90 minutes sounds awesome - I'd happily spend time with my class at lunchtime if I still had a chance to catch up on work and get some time to myself. Unfortunately, my school has 45 minutes for lunch and I really need a break from them! 😂

@CosyAutumn Shall I ruin it further by saying, all the food was cooked from scratch on the premises, casseroles, roasts, fish on Fridays etc... We had really good basic cooks and their Christmas lunch was a triumph. I still want to know how they made rainbow jelly!

I wouldn't touch our school meals with a barge pole!

Ah yes, tapioca ( frogspawn) chocolate pudding with pink custard, cornflake & syrup tart. My favourite was meat pie, followed by apple crumble and custard.

As a child in the late 80s, my favourites were soup and sandwiches (cut into triangles), the cheese flan, and for pudding...cornflake tart and custard!

http://www.schoolrecipes.co.uk/

I've actually used some of these recipes before.

The head cook from my primary school came to my wedding! I still cook some of her lovely recipes to this day.

I remember gypsie tart . No one ever seems to know what in talking about

During the early to mid 70's in LEA state school I remember tables of 8 exactly as you recall with two older children serving. Tables laid out with dimplex glasses and jugs of water. All meals made from scratch on the premises, there was no choice. As children we just eat what we were given, some meals may not have been our favourites but we just eat them all thes same otherwise you didn't get pudding. There was always 2nds if anyone wanted but you had to go to the counter for that, there was not shortage of food for the poorer children to fill up on. No food allergies either, at least I can't recall anyone having to take special care. I don't remember 90 minutes for lunch, more like 1hr including break time.

I think it was sago that was "frog spawn". Tapioca was flaked.

Choc pud & pink custard was "mud huts", can't remember what we called the custard - it was probably rude.

I do too. I think my school did it with that weird white fluffy stuff that was neither cream or meringue.

I was at school in the 70's. The food was made from scratch on the premises, that is true, but it was vile - and its not just my small child brain, my mum taught there and they could have a free meal for sitting in the hall eating and she wasn't keen either.
We drank from tin cups/ water in tin jugs and I hated the taste, no table cloths or place settings either!

I loved school lunch and it was just as the Op described apart from it being an hour long.

Mine were horrific, the food was disgustingly, everyday we would watch the staff add massive jugs of hot water to the mince and custard to make it go further. We weren’t allowed to play outside until we’d finished.
My DM successfully campaigned for us to be allowed to take a packed lunch when I was 9 nearly 10 years old.
I still can’t eat mash, custard, rice pudding, milk on its own and any type of stew.

I used to love the cabbage. It looked grated- a combination of dark green and white cabbage. Chocolate short cake and mint custard, cornflake tart- 😋

I never choked down a school dinner, always had packed lunches. We all felt for the poor unfortunate sods who did. I hated having to walk through the dining hall to get to the playground, I can still smell it 😩

DC1's school dinners were great, they had them maybe 50% of the time. Cooked on site, the chef took to printing recipes for the yr6 leavers because parents asked so often. DC2's current school - bleugh. Terrible menu, the kids hardly eat it, not enough food when they do choose it, I'm confident there are no recipe requests!

I went to primary school in the early 70s. I loved school dinners! But mu mum was and still is a terrible cook. She basically can't cook. Remember Butterflies on TV? That's my mum.

Anyway... I loved the food! Cottage pie, Goulash, roast dinners with roast potatoes! And rice! I'd never seen rice or roast potatoes before. I thought it was amazing! And sponge cake with sprinkles and pink custard! Jelly and blancmange. More things I'd never seen at home.

We sat 8 to a table, with 2 of the older children serving. No table cloths but the table was set properly with glasses, water jug, knife and fork for dinner and spoon and fork for pudding. I still prefer to eat my pudding with a spoon and fork.

Lovely memories. Except for bread and butter pudding. I'd never had butter before and thought it was horrible. I hated the texture and smell of it. I'm still not keen on butter.

It was a Kent thing.

Aside from the 90 mins, this is my kids' lunch pretty much. Proper crockery, everyone eats together and 90% made from scratch. (I also work at my kids' school so really can vouch for the lunch!) Their previous school had the prison style plastic compartment plates and the prison style tables with the round stools attached. So completely depressing. It just doesn't have to be like that.

We had a similar set up at my bog standard junior school in the late 80s. 8 to a table, 2 year 6s serving the younger kids. The table was set properly, food served on an actual plate and passed around the table. No table cloths though.

Ahhh... Chocolate concrete with chocolate custard

I do!

I loved the cabbage too, with meat pie & mash.
Manchester Tart was my favourite but I loved all the steamed puddings and custard. Rice pudding, doughnut and milkshake, chocolate concrete, chocolate sponge and choc custard.
Me and a lad on our dinner table at junior school, early 70s, used to share the skin off the custard 😁 everyone else hated it.
I’ve never ever tasted pink or chocolate custard as lovely as the school one.
I was in the Midlands and don’t remember gypsy tart or green custard.

Yes that was pretty normal in the 1960s (although I think we had placemats rather than cloths). But the knife, fork, spoon and fork, water tumblers etc was all normal. You sat down and grace was said - then you were called up table by table (like a wedding buffet). You went up twice - first for main course and then again for dessert. Not a posh school either but a typical post-War East London primary.

We used to have 90 minute lunchtimes - because classes were so rammed there were often 2 sittings - 40s were common class sizes. It was also common for children to go home for lunch as many women were SAHM. I went home in infants so my mum did 4 school runs in a day ....

My own kids went to nursery/school in Sweden and not a plastic tray in sight. Even the 1 year olds manage proper china, glasses and cutlery.

No it was tapioca. They didn’t use flakes in our pudding. Photo shows why it was called frogspawn . I remember the semolina too, lovely with jam!

For some reason there is no add photo option, as before!