My sister who is 14 and is in Year 10 has told me recently that a new thing has come in where at lunch time they have to have a pudding with their meal. When I asked what she meant, she told me that until September you would get your meal (the main, potato item and veg) and then you could choose to have a pudding if you wanted to but if you didn't want one that was fine.
However she said this September it all changed and now it has become compulsory to have a pudding with it. Even if you tell the dinner ladies you don't want one, they won't let you leave and pay until you pick one. My sister has always had quite a small appetite, ever since she was a baby and doesn't really like having a pudding. She likes to just have her meal and that's it and she's always been this way.
I told her just to take the pudding but not actually eat it and she says that's what she would normally do except if a teacher catches you taking your tray away and you haven't eaten it, they will send you back and not let you go until you've eaten it. This has only happened to her once apparently even though she'd eaten all her main meal and kept telling the teacher she was full and didn't want any more. She still sent her back though and she had to eat it. The kids who don't want pudding tend to just sneak away away when nobody is looking but sometimes people will still be caught and sent back.
I can't be the only one who thinks this is odd. Fine have pudding for those who want it but to make people who don't want it have some seems a bit too much. Sending them back to eat it too seems especially over the top. The puddings are apparently quite stodgy too - cake and custard, etc. There's seldom any choice to have something lighter like fruit or jelly.
Is this common practice in schools these days?