To think this is a sign of the times we live in.....

[MidWeekSlump]

My daughter today was telling us about her new high school... lots of stories. Then we got to lunch, her friend gets free dinners, when they went to get dinner (which cost my daughter £2), her friend complained as she had to pay 20p extra to add to her lunch as hers is free.

She said her friend started arguing with the dinner ladies about her free dinner and being a single parent family, then went on to say she shouldn't have to pay for the drink.

My daughter said she thought her friend was being silly as it was a lovely meal for only 20p a day if she wants extras....

Am I wrong for feeling sad that my daughters friend at 11 is already pulling the whole "I'm entitled to it" attitude out of the bag????

But the costs of those foods should not be absorbed by the children- that in itself is a relatively new concept. The reason this happens is that school meals are provided by profit making companies who sell the cheapest food at the highest price, a practice totally at odds with the Healthy Schools initiative.

THANK GOODNESS my kids school uses the fingerprint system and no cash is handed over in the school canteen

I'm not sure that a flat rate is any fairer tbh, benefits and drawbacks to both systems.

As I said earlier, I'd like to see free school meals for all children, regardless of income.

I am sure I read somewhere that Lincolnshire were planning on moving to a system where all pupils had FSM.

I'd like to see FSMs for all primary age children, but I really appreciate the fact that my dc have an account and have to make choices and learn how to budget themselves at secondary. It's a good thing that I think they learn from. There is nothing to be gained from treating secondary children like primary children and allowing them a couple of choices that they don't have to pay/budget for.

tethersend - at secondary school the canteen will offer a vast range of snacks and meals, from which the children choose. I don't really think that you could only offer a main and a pudding, like they do in primary school. My DC take packed lunches but will sometimes pick up something extra from the canteen, for example (so they definitely appreciate smaller, less expensive snacks being offered and wouldn't want a main meal).

my DCs canteen has dozens and dozens of lunch options ....
www3.hants.gov.uk/caterers/hc3s-food/hc3s-secondaryschools.htm
www3.hants.gov.uk/secondary_schools_hc3s_tariff_summer_2012.jpg

Secondary is VERY different from Primary in state schools

A typical large secondary school might have one or two hot lunch counters, a salad bar, a sandwich cart, a separate cafe and a large number of snack and drink machines.

Try negotiating your way around that lot on Day 1 when you're 11 years old with a £2 FSM credit.

In my first three years of secondary we had two choices of main and two puddings. Proper cooked stuff. I don't remember much resistance.

Then the county council switched from school cooks to outside catering that provided things for the kitchen staff to reheated. It was about 1980/1.

I was neither a fussy eater nor a gourmet but I struggled to find anything palatable and nothing decent. It was cheap crap; nothing like I was given at home and I'm not talking about lobster and champagne.

I believe in children developing their tastes and independence but are we forgetting that when children are given choices, they often choose wrongly? It's even more difficult to choose wisely when the quality is so poor.

Those look good tlakingpeace.

I'm a bit worried that it's possible to fill up on crap bread, garlic bread etc.

limited
because this
www3.hants.gov.uk/secondary_schools_hc3s_week_3_menu_summer_2012.jpg
is the bit that they will be guided towards with their £2 a day next week ...

"tethersend - at secondary school the canteen will offer a vast range of snacks and meals, from which the children choose. I don't really think that you could only offer a main and a pudding, like they do in primary school."

Being a secondary teacher, I'm aware of that, adeucalione

I think it's wrong.

I worked at a secondary school where every pupil got a free meal- there was a choice of at least three things for both courses and water to drink. It worked.

My DS says that at his secondary school it is possible to spend their £2 on anything. They don't have to have a main course. They can have chips, biscuits and cup drinks if that's what they want.

Crikey, tethers, are you my DS's geography teacher? He raves about her.

Tether / linerunner
at DCs school, certain children have diets built into their menu options - the system will not let them purchase certain foods.
Sadly they buy junk at the corner shop before and after school.

My DD was grassed up by the guy who runs our corner shop, who inadvertently let slip she was going in every morning to buy a can of coke on the way to school. This was when she was 13!

talkinpeace I'm sure I was looking at the EAt Well menu before and it had quite a lot of bread variations on it. Definitely garlic bread which isn't a wise thing to put on a kids' menu if you're not going to supervise. But I think I must have been seeing things becasue that looks reasonable.

You didn't need money for school in my day.

I had a free train pass and dinner tickets and if we were caught off the school premises we were in trouble. Residents were encouraged to report us. There was only a chinese, a chippy and a bakers where the wasps outnumbered the doughnuts 10-1

Ah Linerunner the local resident grass lives on

All this is going to do is confuse the children and allow certain smug parents to tut and whisper about the common families who don't send their children in with enough dinner money because they've spent it all on fags and flatscreen TVs

Surely more likely to tut and whisper about the icommon families' kids eating crap and sugary drinks.

Oops sorry Tethersend, I didn't realise!

I don't really like the idea of limiting options myself, so until the happy day arrives that every pupil is offered FSM I think that the current system is pretty good - spend £2 on whatever you want and if you want extra, you pay the difference.