Another school thread - compulsory paid for school dinners

[PumpkinBones]

DS's school sent a letter home recently asking what people thought of them providing a cold meal as a school dinner, as well as a hot. Seemed like a reasonable question, and lots of people said they were in favour of it.

It transpires that what we were being asked was whether we would be happy for the school to provide ALL lunches, and the cold option would replace a packed lunch from home. They want to do this because they say there are issues with the hygiene and content of the packed lunches they see children bringing in.

In order to sort out the confusion, they have sent home a voting form. If the majority vote for it, they will make it compulsory to have a hot or cold school dinner - at £10 and £7.50 per week respectively - and you will not be allowed to bring a packed lunch. It is a primary school, so children are there until 11 - meaning some parents who have 3 children at the school will be paying £90 per month.

One mum of 3 in particular went to the Deputy Head and was told if it got voted in her only option would be to come and take her children out at lunchtime, give them their lunch, and bring them back again.

I am unhappy about this for many reasons - the cost (I will have 2 children there soon) the lack of choice in actual food given, the fact that DS doesn't want it - he is a good eater and will try most things, but he like most people has preferences! and the fact that it is going to be made complusory - plus the tone of the letter itself, which basically implied parents were incapable of feeding their children (which some might be - but I don't think this is the way to deal with it!) But is it a reasonable thing for the school to suggest? And I know I am probably BU for getting annoyed when it hasn't happened - but the thought of the additional cost is stressing me out.

The schools argument also is that you would spend £7.50 on lunchbox items anyway which is difficult to argue, as by itself it doesn't seem like much necessarily - but it doesn't take into account the economy of scale, especially for more than 1 child, and the fact that others in the house benefit from the food I buy (eg we all eat the punnet of grapes)

I agree, OP. The meals should only be complulsory if they are 55p a day. Which no school can possibly manage unless they subsidise them.

My DS has packed lunch.

It costs me about 60p /day I expect.

He gets through 10 slices of bread (£1)
1 cucumber (80p)
5x fruit bags (£1.50)
choc bar/ cake (50p)
1 jar paste (40p)

So thats about £4.20 for the week - I would refuse to pay twice that.

YANBU

Linerunner has a good point. What does the school propose to do if parents can't or won't pay and refuse to take their children home at lunch time?

I suspect there is naff all the school could do under the circumstances.

Please make a stand and sort it out before my DS gets to school age. I despair about this - the cost, yes, but also the stupid idea about what is "healthy". One size does not fit all.

My DS has high calorie needs. Steamed veg and lean meat will not do. Just because eating cake isn't healthy every day for most children doesn't mean that's the case for all children. If I don't get enough calories in him he'll be admitted to hospital and tube fed, and just what exactly would that do to his education if he were at school? And this is not a patch on the problems for parents of kids with allergies have. So what, you're expected to risk your childs life because they have a policy on what they think is healthy?

Aargh, world gone mad. Please please sort it out now because if things are still like this when DS goes to school I think i'll end up strangling someone.

I'd be cross. My dcs primary school did quite a sensible thing with school lunches in that they stopped choice altogether (beyond offering veggie/vegan/gluten-free options) and cooked one genuinely healthy and mainly locally sourced meal in the school kitchen. The reason for this was their concern that very young children are not always helped by having to make decisions from a fuller menu and often, precisely those children who needed a healthy midday meal were the ones who opted for chips and cake.

However, it never occurred to the school to ban packed lunches and there'd have been a riot if they had. It was a few years back but I certainly didn't spend the equivalent of £7.50 per lunchbox despite always providing good stuff in it.

I'm not a fan of academies, as it happens, not least because they've got a deal more autonomy, and thus the ability to make bonkers decisions without any comeback or parental right of reply, than traditional state schools.

Thanks for the comments - it's good to get the perspective of others as obviously I have been mainly speaking to other parents - all the ones I have spoken to seem pissed off, so I'm hoping that it will be voted down - but our childminder, who talks to lots of mums, said that the headteacher and the governers are all really keen on it - there is talk of them overriding the vote and pushing it through anyway (this is probably exaggerating, at least I hope so)

I hadn't appreciated that acadamies had more autonomy - one of the reasons we originally chose the school becuase it was a CofE school with close links to the next door church - at the time we had no idea it was going to become an acadamy, and if I had known what it entailed, I wouldn't have been so desperate for him to get a place!

I'm not controlling about what he eats, like I say, he would try anything, and has had school dinners in the past - they're fine, but not outstanding, and use a lot of bought in ingredients. I don't have a huge issue with them, I am just not happy about being compelled to have them - especially the proposed cold option, as I don't feel it is value for money (example: cheese sandwich, home made biscuit, cucumber sticks).

I'm going to see what the outcome is on Monday and hope that it will disappear (until the next idea comes along...!) otherwise I'll have to take it further, and hopefully other parents will too.

I should elaborate, that example I gave is fine as a lunch, but not for £7.50 per week!

mumblingragdoll your child goes to a private school, you therefore are a lot better off than a lot of us. those school dinners are expensive, especially if you have 2 or more children in school. You had a choice of which school to send your child to. in state education you only get a preference... so some parents will not have a choice about this.

some children have allergies and the food on offer is not suitable and children are left with odd combinations that are not appetising. on some days my dd would not be able to eat any of the options.

when i pack lunch i know that it is healthyit is definately healthier than school lunches provided. I also know what she has eaten as anything left is sent home.

just because you have chosen to have school lunches by choosing the school your dc attends does not mean that it is a suitable option for everyone. you are the one being unreasonable here, not the op.

blackeyed susan....nah...mines on a bursary! I have to pay for dinners though...

I agree with posters who point out that just because a dinner is a school dinner doesn't mean it's miraculously healthy.

My daughter's school thinks that pasta slop and potato wedges constitute a balanced diet. How is that any better than a cheese and tomato sandwich? The main difference of course is the school charges about £2.50 for the carbo-lard feast, and I can knock up a sandwich for pennies.

My children's school already does this!

Was not impressed but called Education Authority, Local government and Ofsted .... no-one can do anything about it. They do it in a very bullying way, the packed lunchers are segregated and had to eat off their laps and my 4 yr old last sept had to eat with 9 yr olds on his very first day of school for taking a packed lunch.

Crikey NickNacks is this an academy as well?

Are we all doomed??

No not an academy just the local village church school!

There is no way in the world that this is legal and there is no way in the world they can enforce this.

I would call their bluff - if it happens then send DS in with a packed lunch anyway. If they take it from him then they are denying him sustenance which is a breach of the Human Rights Act (yeah, I know, sorry for bringing that up!) and they are in a whole world of trouble.

Maybe in some kind of totalitarian state

Like Italy ( ;

My son's former schools all had compulsory school lunches. No packed lunches allowed.

Yes but they can't stop you taking your child out of school for lunch if you want - surely?

Depends what they cost.

I'm just above the threshold for getting FSM but we really do have to watch the pennies. I make very economical but nice packed lunches for my kids.

If the school wants to charge more money than I can afford for a compulsory meal, that's selection by stealth. Ther fricking uniform's bad enough.

I can't take my kids out of school for lunch because I'm a working lone parent.

Rhinestone - good post... Can you imagine if the majority of parents ignored the said ban on home produced packed lunches and sent their children in with them regardless.

Seems like a fair way of getting your point across and getting it addressed properly, doesnt it

Oh, and, wasn't there a Tory minister on the tv yesterday banging on about how unfair the teachers' strike would be on 'working single mothers'? Yet they come up with academies with expensive meal fees, uniform fees, book fees, school trip fees, aaaaagh.

Yes but they can't stop you taking your child out of school for lunch if you want - surely?

No.

But not everybody has a spare Nonna available to get their kid out for the whole lunch hour while the parents are at work.

Which basically means they get no choice in the matter.

God. DP earns JUST over the threshold for FSM (threshold is £16,000pa, DP earns £16,800pa). I have 3 dc at school. They have packed lunch - costs me £13 a week for all three. No way on gods earth could we afford to pay £22.50 a week for a cold school lunch that wouldn't have as much goodness in as what I'm providing. That £13 covers a ham sandwich, a piece of fruit, a slice of homemade fruit loaf, a yoghurt and a bit of cheese for each. I highly doubt what the school would provide for £1.10 a day would be as nutritious once overheads like wages etc are paid. I would have to collect from 2 different schools and sit in the park with them while they ate their PACKED LUNCH. It would cost me £9.50 a week MORE.

What's with the fish finger thing...? I thought they were ok??? Surely not in the same league as turkey twizzlers?

YANBU
I would not accept this. Lunchboxes for a week = one loaf of bread, £1. One pack of cheese £1.50. Bag of bananas/apples £1. Dried fruit snacks, £1. Cereal bars £1. £5.50 maximum and there will be more leftover. They cannot impose this on you.

Definitely YANBU. Here is another angle on how to handle the issue. Instead of simply saying you don't want DC to eat the school food, refuse to pay the money of point of principle. You could say you will send DC in with a packed lunch and instructions not the eat the school food, and that you will not pay the £7.50 on point of principle. If they force DC to eat the school food, you could say you will still refuse to pay. If they take it to court, they wont have a leg to stand on. If they suspend DC, you could take it to LEA and they still won't have a leg to stand on. By simply refusing to pay the money, they'll see there's nothing they can do.