to expect more than this for £2.15 a day?

[stinklebell]

Our school dinner contractor was changed at the beginning of this school year.

Mine don't have school dinners that often, but for quickness on a night when we have something else on (Rainbows/swimming lesson) they have a dinner so I can fling beans on toast or sandwiches down them before we dash out the door.

Today they had a school dinner.

DD1 had piece of French bread, some cucumber, some baked beans and a cookie. Hers was the last class in to the dinner queue and that's all that was left.

DD2's was better, a jacket potato, baked beans, cucumber and sponge with custard. Hers was the 5th class in, but a lot had already run out by then

The menus look good but they just never seem to provide enough so once the first few classes have gone through, there are only bits and pieces left.

Today the menu was either homemade chicken goujons or homemade breaded vegetable fingers served with jacket potatoes and baked beans, salad or seasonal vegetables, and either a cookie or sponge pudding or custard. French bread is also included.

There have been lots of complaints about portion sizes and there never being enough to go round - their solution to this seems to have been to rotate the classes so everyone gets to go first, rather than tackling the fact that they're not providing enough in the first place

I personally would stop school dinners, tey don't sound too good

We pay £1.85 for school lunch. The DCs can choose on the day if they want one or not, and choose from red, blue or green at registration. A menu planner for the whole term is sent out at the start, so the DCs can check in the morning before they leave home to see if they like the look of it or not. The menu seems balanced and varied, with plenty of choice. The DCs enjoy it now and again.

As far as I know, they never run out, but do rotate, because of space in the dining hall. In fact DD2 particularly likes being on last lunch, because they get offered left overs - even if that's chocolate cake!

YANBU

Oops yes, it's £1.85 now

In house school cook and team, food is lovely, they often have meals and invite parents in to join their children. £2.10 a day but I think it drops to £1.90 if a sibling has meals also.

Menu is given out each term and rotates, whole school get to choose a special meal, its usually pizza on Friday.

BlueberryHill - your school sounds very much like my DCs school (only our lunches are £1.90 all the time).

We are in Paris and our school dinners cost around 10 euros a day. But the food is good, healthy, plenty of choice and portion size is generous. They get the choice of a main meal, salad bar, sushi or veggie main meal, with yogurt, cake or fruit/fruit salad for pudding. It is light years away from the shit that they used to get in their state primary in the UK - delivered on a "prison style" tray with your custard often slopping into your main course, completely inadequate portions and as others have said, often running out. The day DD2 was given peas and a yogurt because everything else had gone, was the last time she had school dinners in UK. The catering company ignored complaints and we got no refund for cancelling.

for 10 euro a day, it should be! You could go to a restaurant and have an adults 2 course lunch for that price.

I have a similar experience, with the last few classes not getting much. In secondary school, it's improved, but for DS3 and DD, it's still a big problem.

Last year I came home to a very, very hungry 6yr old (he's now 7). They have a link with a Chinese primary, and they celebrate Chinese New Year, mainly with boring things which aren't really Chinese and just normal lunch. He was the seventh class to go in. This is what he had-

• Cup of water
• Fortune Cookie
• Jelly pot

He was given the jelly pot by an older friend who had been able to get a proper lunch. He would have had a cheese sandwich, but he can't have cheese, and they had no other option even though, according to the school, he will always have an option. I started sending him on pack lunches, but they aren't allowed to sit with their friends who eat school dinners, so he switched back. I can't believe that he only ate jelly and a cookie, and drank a bit of water .

My DS's school have the kids choose what they want in the morning so there's enough for everyone at lunchtime. It's not a new thing as my primary school done the same when I was young, although high school did the first come first served thing I've always thought it was a rubbish way of doing lunches.

hmmm.... wonders if shineyshoes and inklewinkle's dcs are at the same school as my dc.....

We have the wrist band things according to choice on the morning, and the dc always get what they ordered. Sometimes if you are last in, then limited choice on pudding according to my dc, but still a choice, and still get themeal they order for their main.

Stinklebell It would certainly be worth calling in / writing to / e-mailing the school about the issue though, as the staff may well not be aware, as they don't have time to go into the hall at lunchtime to check what's going on with the dinners.

Have you seen (9 year old) Martha's Blog NeverSeconds.blogspot.uk?

Oooh! I wonder. Same area maybe?

Are you in Scotland

I have long been apalled at the standard of school lunches and stopped my DS from having them - it is so much better value to prepare your own packed lunch; and I know it is stuff he will eat (and much healthier).

Thanks!

We've got a parent meeting next week and I know school dinners will be top of the agenda so I'll suggest some of these

In some ways they're very good, they cater to allergies really well and the menus look good but they seem to run out of the main parts of the meals really quickly

We don't have them very often - they had them today as DD1 had a thing on this evening and I thought I could sling beans on toast at them knowing they'd had a decent meal at lunch.

We'll be giving them a miss until something is sorted

And they used to be £1.85 with the old company and they never ran out

inclewinkle I'm in Scotland and its the same summer and winter menu, with 3 trays and a wristband and 3 week rotation of the menu. It was like that when I was in school too and I left 14 years ago.

Inklewinkle - no - we're OK, not been outed!
We're in the Midlands.

mine were desperate for school dinners so had them last week and then complained the portions were too small (none of them are overweight btw) 2 different schools, both complained about the same thing tbh i don't know if they are telling the truth or not

lynniep for 'menu card' read 'bit of coloured paper' but actually it is pretty cool.

DS1 would freeze like a rabbit in headlights if he had to decide on the spot. It's also good me doing it with him then I can encourage him to try new things etc

Don't know what portion sizes they have though.

YANBU

that is completely out of order

if there is a selection on the menu you should get something of everything on the selection

I would complain and get all the mums in your DCs class onside too.

Yanbu. If they would not refund me I'd be tempted to take the school to the small claims court. Disgusting. I hope your poor dd1 was not hungry this afternoon.

I don't understand why they're running out. Ours are run really strictly; they measure out portions to such an extent that if a child arrives late at school after the order's gone through to the kitchen it's tough luck that they can add anyone else.
That said, I can't count how many children I see staggering up to the hatch with a wobbling tray full of food they haven't eaten. It's not supposed to happen- they're meant to stay at the table until a dinner lady gives them the OK to leave (and checked that they've eaten it all) but they still slip through the net. I bet the parents of those kids would be appalled if they knew how little they'd really eaten. And this is food they've chosen in advance (some at home with parents), so unlikely to be stuff they hate.

Our school dinners are varied,and the cooks pretty good with portion sizes, but children choose the oddest things to go together,and sometimes children choose next to to nothing, but that seems to be the way it is, to minimise waste.
I really don't like this choosing thing, particular for Foundation and KS1, because I don't think small children can really be trusted to make the right choices.
I also hate the tray-plates they use in our school (for the children...adults get plates). How revolting to have your pudding slopped onto the same tray your main course is on..yuk! And again, small children will often eat the pudding before the main meal because they get everything together.
Its a bit different for upper KS2,they should be old enough to be trusted to make the right choices.
I have school meals, sometimes (when I forget my sandwiches, or there's nothing very appetising in the cupboard!),and my complaint is that they taste so bland, because they are not allowed to use much in the way of salt or sugar...so nothing has much taste! I don't cook much with salt at home,but I do add a little bit at the table, but of course,these days you don't even get that option in school...salt and pepper forbidden!!

That's why DS doesn't have school dinners anymore. It's ok if they are early in but towards the end there is hardly anything left.

I have a similar problem, DS doesnt eat meat, for medical reason.
His school cook in house and have a set rotating 3 weekly menu with vegaterian options which are all fantastic.... Except there aren't enough vegaterian children in the school for the kitchen staff to be bothered to make the vegetarian option, so DS is given the meat option, without the meat.
I only found this out a couple of weeks ago and when I challenged the teachers about it they were adiment that DS is mistaken and that he is always given an alternative, such as quorn(which is more often than not quorn sausages apparently).

DS says he sometimes has quorn, but often is not given the option and just has the side dishes.
Today he says he had potato wedges, peas, stuffing and bread.
The menu says the meal today was roast chicken with stuffing and either mash or wedges and peas or carrots.

I would much rather he have a packed lunch, but at DS's school the cooked lunch children and the packed lunch children sit in seperate dining halls at opposite ends of the school, and all DS's friends have cooked lunches so he says he doesn't want a packed lunch because he will have to sit on his own away from his friends.

But I do hate having to pay £2.50 a day for what he actually gets. He is always hungry when he gets home.