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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think £10 a week is a bit steep for school dinners?

80 replies

fernier · 07/07/2011 10:39

We pay £10 a week for school dinners per child (2 currently in school 2 more to go). They can have packed lunches but the school have made this so unpleasant (they have to sit at a different table we live in an area where almost all the children get free school meals so there are literally a handful of children with packed lunches sitting alone at one side of the hall) they also have a very restrictive list of what you can put in a lunchbox even though the school dinners actually contain alot of it.

Examples of meals this week are pasta with tomato sauce, jelly. Or fish fingers mashed potato and broccoli.

Aibu to think that these meals made in large quantities and I'm guessing not using exactly top notch ingredients are not worth £10 a week?

Also Aibu to think that making packed lunches so miserable that parents feel forced into paying for school dinners even when they cant really afford it is not on?

I am actually at the point of complaining about the quality of the meals and/or the treatments of those with packed lunches....and I never complain about anything

OP posts:

notso · 07/07/2011 11:16

I hate the policing of lunch boxes, but then I also hate it when DD comes home whining that so and so is allowed chocolate spread, chocolate mousse, chocolate, milk and chocolate biscuits everyday.

I tend to do a mixture of school and packed lunches, DS prefers hot meals so has more school dinners, DD chooses more packed lunches.
Our school lunch is £2.05 for DS and £2.10 for DD however packed lunches cost me way more than that when I break it down.

BettySwollocksandaCrustyRack · 07/07/2011 11:59

YABU - £2 per day is very reasonable....DS's school dinners sound lovely, wish I could have them!!

SoupDragon · 07/07/2011 12:02

The cost of the school meal includes, as has been said, paying the staff and the power involved in making it.

Cocoflower · 07/07/2011 12:05

"altinkumThu 07-Jul-11 11:05:22

fernier, yes its true, ofsted takes into consideration when scoring a school, on how many children receive school meals."

Thats shocking! Why? What on earth does that inidicate? Are you sure you dont mean just free school meals by the way, I have seen free school meals on reports in the past.

But if they just mean in general I dont see how this is relevant?

RustyBear · 07/07/2011 12:08

It's not just OFSTED scoring that the schools are concerned about - it's the pupil premium.
The school (or at any rate the LA) gets the premium for "deprived children who are currently known to be eligible for FSM in both mainstream and non-mainstream settings and children who have been looked after for more than 6 months" - so it's important that all those who could claim FSM do so.

CurrySpice · 07/07/2011 12:11

I would love the opportunity for the kids to have school dinners. No such thing in primary schools round here :(

BettySwollocksandaCrustyRack · 07/07/2011 12:11

Our school keep a close eye on how many pupils have hot dinners purely for financial reasons...at the end of the day they need to make money to keep the kitchens open - there are a few schools in my area who dont even offer hot dinners.

At the end of the day school dinners for 2 or more kids is gonna be a big part out of the family budget which is why you are noticing it more.

RustyBear · 07/07/2011 12:12

I think altinkum must have meant free school meals - I hope so, because we don't keep a record of how many children have had school meals, only the free ones - at our school they can switch from school meals to packed every day if they want.

Lorenz · 07/07/2011 12:15

DS(1) school dinners is £10 a week and he's in seconday school.

Cocoflower · 07/07/2011 12:15

Ahh I see Rusty Bear. That would make sense it they just specifically meant free.

ebbandflow · 07/07/2011 12:16

At my dd's school it is also £2 which I think is fine as I only have one child. However, I can totally understand why if you have 2 or 3 children at school it can seem expensive. It's a shame they can't offer you cheaper rates for having more children on school dinners. This could encourage more parents to change to school dinners.

drivemecrazy63 · 07/07/2011 12:18

its very reasonable i think, at secondary its much more expensive than that as its like a real restaurant with chilled cabinets of food and salad bar , pasta bar, they sell main meals and toastie sarnies bacon rolls pizza ,tortilla wraps jacket spuds with lots diff fillings everythings individually priced as in a real restaurant so it costs a fortune so be happy with your £2 and fairly basic set menu it can only get much worse.

harrietthespook · 07/07/2011 12:18

£2 per meal is not a lot at all in isolation. But if I've understood correctly the OP will have four DCs in the school soon (ish)? I agree that on £40 a week it starts to feel like a lot. What exactly are you forbidden to put in the packed lunches?

TotemPole · 07/07/2011 12:22

You can do packed lunches cheaper than £2 a day. A tuna/salmon & pasta salad works out reasonably cheap. So does pitta or wraps with chicken/ham and salad. Then buy the yoghurts and fruit that are on offer.

that she wasn't allowed pasta in her box as it was too messy ( i had made a tuna pasta salad). They are also not allowed things like, crisps, biscuits, homemade pizza slices, salads which require a fork hmm

That's ridiculous. How do the children eat the pasta and fish fingers for the school dinners? With their bare hands?

I can understand them keeping on top of things like biscuits, crisps & fizzy drinks.

kreecherlivesupstairs · 07/07/2011 12:28

My DD is starting at a new school in September. She will be having one hot lunch a week. Friday is chip day and the uptake is high apparently.
It is a pretty small school, so one cook who does everything. I think it is a reasonable cost, although I only have one.

BuckBuckMcFate · 07/07/2011 12:29

Yes £10 is the cost here. I have 3 DC at school and I refuse to spend £120 minimum per month on school dinners!

Eldest is in secondary school and he takes packed lunches everyday. He is a growing teenager and the cost of him having food at school to fill him up is more like £4 per day.

The other 2 are primary, they have packed lunch 3x, school dinners once and come home for lunch once a week.

I can provide lunches for all of them for less than £120 per month.

Though they are envious of the ones who are on free school dinners, very high percentage at our school, and I struggle to find a way to explain to them that we have to pay and that the majority who have them are on free school dinners.

I'm also against lunchbox policing and get annoyed that DC interpret school dinners are healthy as packed lunches aren't!

drivemecrazy63 · 07/07/2011 12:29

oh yes 4 dcs it will be expensive as £40 in one goseems a lot ive 3 dcs myself and as i like to know what there eating i opted on packed lunches or they would be eating pizza at breaktimes but these items cost from 60p a drink to £1.50 for a tortilla its utter madness, yes the food looks wonderful but i would have to be on twice my income to aford these prices

aquos · 07/07/2011 12:39

My kids have recently swapped to school dinners. Secondary school is £2.15 and primary is £1.90. I can provide packed lunches for cheaper, but dd had gone off packed lunch and wanted to sit with her BF who has school dinners. I take it from that that the school dinner and packed lunch kids are kept seperate.

Policing of packed lunches was driving me crazy too. Fruit is the only snack allowed at break time. No crisps, chocolate, biscuits, cake, fizzy drinks or sweets. No chocolate spread or nuts. And woe betide me if I forgot to put a spoon in for them to eat their yogurt with. Packed lunch kids are not allowed to use school spoons, nor are they allowed water from the school dinner kids jugs, nor are they allowed to put any of their rubbish in the school bins, it all must be taken home to be disposed of.

Also I don't give them a second dinner at home in the evenings. They have a sandwich or something on toast. School dinners and then a second cooked meal at home would be too expensive for me.

niceguy2 · 07/07/2011 12:40

Back when I lived with my ex and we had 4 kids between us, the cost of school dinners is why we put them all on packed lunches. With so many kids you can save some money through the amount you buy. But forty quid a week per child is a lot of money on school dinners.

I feel for you and understand the pain! lol

Raahh · 07/07/2011 12:44

aquos- I ws just about to post about the spoon thing! Our school does the same, can't use the cutlery, can't drink the water- half eaten yoghurts sent home (loose) in the box.

When ds first started, I once forgot a spoon. They grudgingly let him use one. Next day, because i remembered, he was given a 'dinner lady award' sticker for remembering. Patronising!!

Funtimewincies · 07/07/2011 12:44

Same price here (N. Wales) but we can chop and change as much as we like between sandwiches and school dinners, which is really handy when dh is abroad. As long as ds1 opts for a hot dinner, I don't mind. It's when he chooses the sandwich option (and therefore completely defeating the object) that I feel it's poor value for money.

Funtimewincies · 07/07/2011 12:46

Luckily, the only lunchbox rule here is 'no confectionary' which allows room for a bit of common sense.

drivemecrazy63 · 07/07/2011 12:50

that disgusts me too sending the bloody yoghurt pots back with some still in yuk so unhygenic it stinks in summer and whats the spoon thing all about oooh you dont deserve spoons when you bring your own? pathetic !

stickylittlefingers · 07/07/2011 12:51

It's £1.50 a day here (but we are in the grim north!!) - they do amazingly on that, I think. I was in for DD2's taster day last week and stayed for lunch. I was impressed that they get lots of choice and food that looks appetizing. In the cold (grim north) winter, I really like the fact that they get a hot lunch.

Also, I am bone idle and think that packed lunches are a faff!

TotemPole · 07/07/2011 12:52

And woe betide me if I forgot to put a spoon in for them to eat their yogurt with. Packed lunch kids are not allowed to use school spoons, nor are they allowed water from the school dinner kids jugs, nor are they allowed to put any of their rubbish in the school bins, it all must be taken home to be disposed of.

aquos, that's also ridiculous. What does the occasional use of a spoon mean to them. And not allowed water, FFS.

Can't the parents speak to the school about this.

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