to think the new free school meals for all KS1 children is a ridiculous idea?

[Flexibilityiskey]

I just don't see the rational behind it, when benefits are being cut to the bone, why give free school meals to people who don't need them? Yes it may benefit the odd family but there will be loads who just don't need free meals, and at what cost? My DS's school will have to build a new kitchen as they currently don't have the facility to provide hot meals. There must be loads of schools with similar issues. Add to that the cost of feeding all the children in KS1 for each school year, the cost must run into millions. Surely the money could be better spent being targeted at those who genuinely need it or am I missing something?

since take up will be 100% there are economies of scale to take into account.

FSM are not compulsory. My daughter will have about 3 per week, and I think that the take up in our school is expected to be 50% (not sure)

Economies of scale are going to take a long time to pay off the cost of building an extension.

My kids love the puddings and leave the veg because it is 'horrible' whereas in their packed lunch they have a pot of cucumber or fruit and they eat all of it because it is something they like.

The parents don't have to take up the offer of FSM though. They can send in packed lunch as normal.

Our school has suggested a donation to the school building fund for those that can afford it in place of dinner costs. This will be excellent for the school and none go the kids know who's paying what.

Mine eat their veg pot in their packed lunch because there is nothing else to choose and only yog to follow.If they don't eat their veg they'll go hungry as no pudding stodge to fill up on when they've left the maj of the main course.

The meals at my kids school were provided by Sodexho. We got a fairly decent looking meal planner, but in practice by the time that ds got to the front of the queue half the options were gone. Sometimes it was pretty much baked potatoes and chips, no protein left and no vegetables either. ds at that age ate pretty much anything but if he didn't get enough to eat his behaviour was awful. Plus he really needed to run around. Spending lunch time queuing for bad food wasn't great. dd at the same age was very fussy and refused school dinners completely.

I have to admit my views are influenced by years of being forced to eat food that was frankly disgusting by militant 70s/80s dinner ladies, and may not be representative of current practices :)

Where we live now very very few schools have canteens at all as the expectation was that all children went home for lunch. It would be nice not to have to bother making up packed lunches once in a while!

sources

policybristol.blogs.bris.ac.uk/2013/08/15/school-meals-and-packed-lunches-how-important-is-government-policy/

policybristol.blogs.bris.ac.uk/2013/08/15/school-meals-and-packed-lunches-how-important-is-government-policy/

it appears it is 1% not 3% though obviously it includes older children buying outside of school asnd the chips and mars bar brigade

I am not sure i'm totallly convinced but was namingthe source of info

The veg in the school dinner probably is horrible too, most bulk catering isn't great, and the cheaper it is the more that is the case. Harder to screw up pudding that doesn't matter very much if it sits about a bit than vegetables that overcook very easily.

I'm not worried about the quality as at our school we can ring up on the day and say we are attending lunch with our children at school, and we have a kitchen where most things are fresh even the bread rolls are baked daily at school.

We are also having a massive extension.

It says only 1% meet the standards?It doesn't scrutinise school dinners and the actual school dinner that lands on the plate and is consumed.

I'm really hoping that DD's school doesn't make it compulsory for all of KS1. She's a fussy eater and I would rather spend money and make sure she has something she'll eat than get a free lunch that she won't touch and end up hungry all day.

Retropear - possibly more than a yogurt, though depends on the yogurt itself. But seriously - the amount of sugar in the school puddings here is VERY low. Though we do have things like yogurt too. Not just traditional sponge type puddings at my school. Fruit provided every day at lunch too which actually many children do seem to opt for - probably because the more stodgy offerings are so bland and quite tasteless!

As I said - i don't think many school dinners are overly great tbh. But I do think people tend to fret over the dessert aspect when in reality that isn't really that big an issue. The rest of it is the bigger issue, and portion size too.

Interesting links. I remember the little envelopes for school dinner money. My mother thought they were fantastic value for money and refused to countenance our request for packed lunches. She never had to eat them though!

When I moved to secondary school school lunches were very chips orientated. I recall eating chicken pie and chips very regularly and being much happier. My mum joined the school a year or two later and her previous rule of 'never complain about school dinners' soon changed!

I'm all for the provision of good well funded school meals. But although school meals have obviously improved since Jamie's campaign I wonder if you compared what children actually ate what their nutritional value is compared to the packed lunches.

It's not low at ours according to my dc which is why my dc reject the sweetener filled Mullerlite yog on offer as they never get sweet stodge like that at home.

Chatty- bread rolls baked daily here too, but they are not made on the premises they are supplied frozen. Often rather 'wet' and stodgy inside.

I don't get why kids need fish,chips,milkshake and cake all in one meal.And are allowed not to pick veg and fill up on bread if they run out.

Oh and the pudding was the only good thing about school dinners in my day. You suffered though the nasty stuff and filled up on the pudding. I don't know why puddings are so demonised now, growing up I had pudding every evening and kids were much thinner then.

When my kids have cake I much prefer it to be home made "full fat" version that they will enjoy. And we all eat it.

Not a massive disappointing slice of tasteless stodge.

These are our caterers for school dinners (my school, not DD's old school.) Many of the local state schools here use the same company, at primary at least.

www.taylorshaw.com/

I can say as a parent of a child just going up to Juniors. we have been informed cost of his school meals will be going up next year.

I would sooner FSM were rolled out to low income families even if working no matter what age. I am aware that this has more cost implications with PP.

My DC school also already has a waiting list for hot dinners so no idea what will happen next year

Giles, it never fails to amaze me how tasteless the cake is! And stodgy; one member of staff dropped his cling-film wrapped brownie on the table and the loud thud rocked the table.

Yes our dinners have just gone up,funny that.

Not impressed with subsidising the free school dinners for those that don't need them.

I agree with those saying that it would have made more sense to up the threshold for qualifying for FSM rather than giving it to everyone. At DS's school they won't be providing cooked meals as there is no facility to do it. They will only be doing packed lunches.

So cheap white bread, cheapest reformed meat slices and plastic cheese then?

Washed down with a cheap sweetener laden yogurt maybe a bruised apple and a giant cookie then?

FSM for all KS1 infuriates me, when at the same time schools are having to increase class sizes and make staff redundant.

I know the money doesn't necessarily come from the same pot, but it could certainly be reallocated and spent more effectively by schools.

Yes of course, increase the threshold for entitlement to FSM (for all ages). But not all families need this bonus benefit, many can easily afford school meals (or make less expensive and more nutritious packed lunches) and huge amounts of money will be spent needlessly, that could be used more wisely elsewhere.

Although not so headline-grabbing (Gove to give schools a little more cash so teachers won't be lost and all class sizes won't rise to 32 minimum)

Our school meals seem to use decent enough ingredients BUT when I give my kids a packed lunch they get a carton of fruit juice, a generous helping of salad and a pieced of fruit. That's three of their five a day in the bag. When they have school dinners the nearest they come to fruit and veg is a tablespoon of baked beans.

Giles it'll be called Farmhouse cheese lunch,orchard apples,yog and homemade healthy Dorset/Hampshire/ Somerset(pick county of choice) biscuit though.

Didn't you know giving it a fancy name makes it healthy.