To think they should at least be allowed to eat inside?

[Yakky]

DS1 has just started at secondary school. He always took a packed lunch when at primary school so was very excited when I told him he could now stay for school dinners.
However when he came home last week claiming he was starving I asked what he had had for lunch. He said "a sausage roll". When I told him to stop wasting money & go for a proper meal (with a plate & cutlery), he said there weren't any and that everyone had to eat out of a plastic tray outside in designated eating areas.
TBH I laughed as I thought he was joking.
He forgot his pe kit last week so school phoned & asked me to meet him in the school grounds to pass on his kit. It was raining so ,as it was lunchtime, I was suprised to see so many kids standing outside in the rain eating chips, burgers, hot dogs, etc out of plastic trays.
When I finally caught up with DS he was sitting on a bench with his friends getting wetter by the minute, all trying to eat soggy food (junk) out of a tray.
When I asked why they were all not sitting in the dining room they all replied they weren't allowed to. Apparently, there is no dining room as such just a glorified kitchen area where food is sold then taken away outside to be consumed.
I was not impressed at all.
Are all schools like this now? What happened to real school dinners?
Are they expected to eat outside in winter?
I would never have believed this if I hadn't seen it for myself.

[Goldmandra]

It's all about money, I know, but I need warm clothes, a space to organise myself and a proper lunch in order to work, so why would I assume that a teenager wouldn't?

I have to wonder how they think these teenagers can concentrate in the afternoon classes when they are freezing cold and soaking wet

[noblegiraffe]

They aren't allowed to sell energy drinks.

www.childrensfoodtrust.org.uk/the-standards/the-food-based-standards/final-food-based-standards/healthier-drinks

[Yakky]

They aren't allowed to sell energy drinks. Well DS came out of school in the first week carrying a half empty bottle of what can only be described as a luminous green apple fizzy drink.
It was the second one he had bought that day!

[englishteacher78]

It really does sound like this school is breaking every guideline going and I believe you said it's not an academy?
You must complain to the governors and then, if no joy, the LEA.
I would really hate teaching soggy children who were full of energy drinks. School blazers smell very similar to wet dog in the rain.

[YoureAllABunchOfBastards]

Report, report, report. Your child is not safe at this school.

[Yakky]

I really don't get it as they were classed as very good in their last ofsted report and the Head has claimed that some of their previous pupils went on to Cambridge & Oxford.
Do academys have a different set of rules then?

[TigOldBitties]

-Showers thing seems normal to me. We never had showers at school and my DCs have never been given that option. I haven't hear of schools really dong them for a while.

-The school my DSs attended/currently go to, had that type of food until very recently when it was reopened as an academy. I know that a few schools a bit further away from us still do but they aren't under pressure to change (friend works with them), because its not a deprived area. My immediate local area and our school are in a deprived area and so there is lots of pressure about providing decent food.

-Coat rule is quite common amongst the schools I know.

• Lots of schools don't have enough space for all pupils to dine at once, my DSs school also doesn't have the room/quantity of tables and chairs for them to all sit in the dining hall (around 2500 pupils), but they do let them stand around the edges. It sounds like this school is taking the piss quite a bit. Forcing them to go outside is unfair, especially in the rain. You should definitely complain.

[nennypops]

I think you should report the school all over the place - the council's Education Department and Health and Safety, Ofsted, you name it. Get Jamie Oliver in on the act, you never know, he might go for it. Tell the local papers.

[englishteacher78]

Gove removed many of the rules for academies.