To be sick to death of the school pushing crap school dinners?

[Helphelphelps]

Ever since the free school meals came in, DS1's school has been trying to get everyone to sign up (all years, not just KS1).

This includes a weekly 'competition', the winner being whichever class had the most uptake of school dinners, and various 'special days', where they get to eat with their teacher or have a theme.

I wouldn't mind so much, but the menu is total crap. DS1 had to have school dinners for a week when i was in hospital last year. Being vegetarian, he's quite limited to what he can have anyway, but for £2pd, he had the following:
Pasta, courgette, chips and beans
a roll with cheese and spread in (nothing else, that was the whole meal)
cheese pizza and chips (again, nothing else)
jacket potato, cheese and beans

These were accompanied by a sweet pudding (sticky toffee pudding, brownies, muffins etc) or fruit. DS says nobody chooses fruit because the puddings are yum!

The water jugs are always empty and apparently it's very difficult to get the supervisors to refill them.

DS always pesters me for school dinners because the food is basically junk food and he wants his class to win the school dinners competition.

It makes me so bloody mad, i just can't understand why they're doing it!

I can totally understand why - if there are only 100 kids each paying £2, you can probably just about feed them for £200 but make no profit. However, the incremental cost of adding another meal is then probably only £1.50 because fixed costs are already covered, but they are still getting £2 each, so if they can increase it to 300 kids eating lunch they get £600 but it only costs them £500 to feed them, and it's £100 profit.

Do you get the menu? Are you sure this is all the school are serving or just what your son is choosing?

To be fair, he did choose the rather odd combo of pasta, courgette chips and beans himself. The rest of them are what was on offer.

They can have either the main option, vegetarian option (pizza on friday, pasta twice a week, curry and a 'bake' on the other days), roll (options are cheese or ham, no sides), or jacket potato (options are cheese, beans or tuna, or a combination). They're not the worst, but it's the sweet puddings and lack of drinks that really irks me.

That's a shame about the Veggie options. We get DS's menu on a 6 week basis and the veggie options sound good. There is a veggie meal option plus a jacket potato option daily! We get sent a link to provide feedback do you have similar?

Don't forget - whilst the desserts often sound very sweet, they often aren't. There are guidelines on how much sugar etc can be used. I have had them often enough to know that the desserts are often NOT very sweet and are definitely lacking in sugar!

Is there definitely no option for sides with a roll? I would double check there isn't something he's missing. At the school mine go to and the one I work in there is a salad bar and if you have a roll or sandwich you can have the potato of the day with them.

Also the puddings are often nowhere near as sweet as they seem. The rules about the nutritional balance of them are really strict. I never eat a dessert because they are not sweet at all.

I eat A LOT of school lunches across the country. mostly primary but a few secondary (average 3 a week- each in a different school). Generally they are pretty good these days. If you ask they will probably let you come and sample eating a school lunch is often about promoting good manners etc.

There is ALWAYS water available in plenty.

My DD2's school is the same. Just had another pushy letter, trying to get all kids to have school dinners. Attached was the menu for the trial day, Beefburgers (we don't eat beef), Pizza (DD3 hates pizza) and Fish and Chips (She'd only eat the fish without the batter) and dessert (cake or jelly).
All carby stodge, no veg in sight, no fruit.

She takes a well balanced packed lunch, with fruit, yogurt and sandwich, plus biscuits or flapjack.

After one term of free SD, three children in her class have gone back to packed lunch. Two of them because the put on quite a bit of weight.

The school doesn't get the message. We don't want this rubbish, not even for free.

My DS's secondary school dinners are excellent, they always have a good choice of healthy food.

One thing to bear in mind is that the school dinners are run by a different company. It is not the school who plan the menu. They have very little say in it all really.

YANBU

School dinners are bloody dreadful.

As a supply teacher I have experienced a fair few in my time. I haven't seen any sort of recent improvement in my borough.

halber, there were no vegetables on the side at all with any of those meals? I've never heard of that in a school, even when I was in primary 40 years ago.

Unfortunately it's very dependant on each school, I would suggest approaching the head with a group of parents. Or go to the PTA about it

Often the vegetables isn't listed in the actual meal details. The vegetables are served as sides and there should be at least 2 different ones available, and there is often a small mixed salad option available instead of veg too.

Also, there are normally large jugs of water available on every table. Whether a child chooses to drink it or not is another matter.

I am not saying school dinners are great. Just that I have never seen there to be no vegetables and fruit, and the desserts are not quite as sugar fueled as menus might suggest.

At my school, each day the children can choose from a meat dish, a veggie dish or a jacket potato option.

DD's old primary school had its own kitchen and cook and their meals were lovely - just as well as school dinners were compulsory (price included within school fees) so there was no opting out anyway.

Following suggestions from parents our school has introduced a system where kids choose meals in advance for the half term. I think this is a great idea, it means that no child is stuck with something they don't want because they've had a run on what they'd have chosen, there's less waste for the school and also parent's can supervise what the kids are getting and ensure that they have balanced meals. Do you think that system would work at your school helps?

There will be veg on the side. At the school I work in only a few eat them - it's usually peas, sweetcorn, carrots or overcooked broccoli. I'm impressed you have courgettes. It's also usually carb stodge - what is the point of putting cornflakes on jam tart bar to whack up the carbs. Most of the time my kids prefer a packed lunch.

Our school always has a salad bar available as well as all the usual school dinner food.

And as for the water jugs being empty, at ours the children (yr1 upwards) are expected to take the jug and ask at the dinner hatch for it to be refilled.

I agree a lot of it is crap but ...

They probably need you to sign up to get the Pupil Premium which means a lot to the school's finances. Up to nearly two grand per pupil.

Lib Dem push me-pull you policy I'm afraid.

They serve crap like this and then weigh your kids and criticize their diet!

I have already caused a bit of a kerfuffle by telling DD's nursery teacher that no, she wont be having the free school meals when she starts reception, she will be taking a packed lunch like the others.

I know of one mother who has invented a non life threatening "intolerance" so she can avoid the conversation at all!

Not quite sure what good it would do to approach the PTA/PC? School dinners are organised by the local authority and nothing at all to do with the Parent Council.

The puddings are not full of sugar, they actually aren't particularly sweet and add calories that are important for growing children. Ask the Head about the drink situation, that's something that's easily solved.

Just had a look at our menu for the coming week and think we must be very lucky. There's a different kind of home made soup every day, main courses include salmon fillet, chicken pie, braised sausages, pulled pork, quorn lasagne, vegetable curry all served with different kinds of potatoes (chips only once a week) or rice and vegetables or salad. Also baked potatoes, sandwiches, baguettes or wraps. Puddings are fresh fruit, yoghurts and cake or custard twice a week. Looks pretty good and healthy to me.

My Ds has school dinners.. Sounds like much more vegetarian choice.. He sometimes say he has had quorn curry or quorn nuggets etc... I find the portions are tiny though.

He does have school dinners though as they are better supervised..He simply wasn't eating his sandwiches.

Out school certainly aren't pushing dinners as they can barely cope with what they have got