School Census Day means a change in school lunch menu

[bert07]

October 2nd is school census day.
One of the things they will be recording is how many infants are taking up the new free school meals initiative. Most days, this is about 50% of ds's class because the meals are all roast dinners derivatives which few of the kids like.
Tomorrow, there is a special menu for one day only of sausages, chips and beans and then ice cream for pudding. This has been advertised with posters around school and emails and texts to promote the special treat. Tomorrow is 2nd October.

AIBU to be annoyed?

Yanbu. Clearly they want to show it all gets eaten and kids love it .

They shouldn't be serving anything that they wouldn't want seen and parents should complain

Haha yep here too.

I've got no problem with it, surely you want DCs school to get as much money as possible?

Yes ONE of the things. Not all of them.

Their money for the year is based on this I believe.

Send them in with a packed lunch then! Just bear in mind their funding is based on tomorrow. I think the government have assumed 87% take up, so a school getting less than this will effectively be penalised.

However, personally I'd blame the stupidity of a system that bases everything on tomorrow and 1 more day like this in January, not your school.

Yes but schools have to play this stupid game.

I'd quite like my kids school to provide meals which he will eat every day of the week (which he did last year but they massively changed the menu this year because of the new fsm programme)!

I am just waiting for a big political slap on their back for bringing out such an amazing scheme and that all of these children are benefiting from when in reality they are only benefiting from it on census day because they are being played by having a treat put in front of them.

I am more miffed that they are manipulating the kids and parents and not being open about why they are doing the menu that day.

Our school is open about it!

It's says on the posters "WE GET MIRE MONEY if your kids have school dinner on Thursday"

We had an email asking for all infants to have school dinners tomorrow, and parents to send a pack up as well if they think their DC won't eat the dinner. Great, fudge the figures and add to the food waste all in one go! I'll be sending the usual packed lunch. It's crap that school funding is linked to this. Schools put pressure on parents for one day purely so that the government can say "look, over 95% of children take up the free school meals, therefore our stupid scheme is popular and successful"

Yes, our school has a special menu for tomorrow too although it is pizza day on Thursdays anyway so always a popular day for dinners.

"Schools put pressure". What PRESSURE? It's a school dinner!

No way! Our school is doing a special dinner tomorrow as well. Here I was, completely oblivious to their trickery

Glory Alleluia, what numpty came up with that system.

Even DD2 would eat sausage and chips and she's the most awkward creature, with respect to food, on the planet!

Don't know if this has been done to death but altering meal choice to encourage take up is not even the half of it. Infant FSM cost the govt approx £400 per child per year. If they are getting a free meal anyway then parents are less likely to 'officially' register as eligible for free meals, thereby saving the govt £1300 per year in pupil premium. Good investment if you ask me. Hmmmmm

Our school have been fairly open about it, the ks1 class had a letter explaining that they get more money if everyone has school dinners that day but reception class have just been given the menu but no explanation about the funding.

nothing from school. ds is one of the few who has packed lunches. I shall be if he has accidently lost his lunch box tomorrow and has to have a school dinner...

we have to choose either all dinners or no dinners.

"Pressure" by saying your child's school will get more money if your child has the revolting school dinner tomorrow that they don't want and won't eat.

I don't get the outrage.

SURELY YOU ALL WANT YOUR KIDS SCHOOL TO HAVE MORE MONEY?

It's chips for one day. They were hardly going to tempt them with liver and onions.

Revolting?....oooooooh it's a food thing? Send your kid in with his hummus then (bet he tries to swap it for some nuggets)

cantpickaname - is that right? I have been wondering about that, and whether schools will suddenly see a collapse in pupil premium payments.

My friend's school has not only a special menu but has sent home a letter suggesting that children who normally have packed lunch have school dinners and bring packed as a 'back up'.

Our dinners are just really good generally. At the start of term about 1/4 of the class didn't take them up. Now it is one child.