...to ask you to ditch school milk?

[TurquoiseTranquility]

Just received the milk letter from school. Not sure if milk prices vary by area/school, but I'm being asked to pay £18.25 for the Autumn term. That's for a 189ml carton of semi-skimmed for 8 weeks, which works out at a whopping £2.42 per litre (£1.37 per pint) of supposedly EU-subsidised milk
Beyond the maths, though, I can't even begin to explain just how much school milk goes to waste. I'm a TA and in my KS2 class, only three children are on the milk list... yet they never EVER drink it, and even though we do offer it to the rest of the class, there are rarely any takers. In Reception, where more than half the class are on the milk list, they are regularly chucking whole packs of it. And that's not just the milk, it's all the packaging and the plastic straws, makes my heart sink
The odd thing is, I've always asked my kids whether they want milk before renewing. And they'd always said yes. But having seen all that waste, I thought I'd go a bit further and ask it they drink all of it or just take a sip and put the rest in the bin. Guess what the answer was.

So last term, I bought them a small thermos flask each and started sending milk in with them. This lasted all of 2 weeks, in which time they were coming home with the flasks still full. Lesson learnt

I guess what I'm trying to say, grill your kids before you pay! And if you don't think they actually drink much of it, save your money and the planet. They'll drink some at home if they want to.

milk and products made from milk are a REALLY good source of calcium though, much better than green vegetables and significantly better than beans.

Soya milk has calcium added to it, but large amounts of soya aren't great for you and like most fake food its good weird stuff added to it.

echt - but that's a bit of a pointless argument, as surely it applies to all nutritious foods: that you can get your nutrition elsewhere if necessary? If broccoli runs out, I can eat spinach... Variety is the spice of life, as they say!

It’s an option at lunch at DDs School.
She’s on a high calcium diet as well so is a good option for her

I think you need to look at your system in school . My Ds stopped having it because it interrupted his play time queuing for it . If he didn’t collect it was taken to his class.

You should change you system and know who is and isn’t drinking it .

My kids say in years R to 2 (when Cool Milk was given) everyone sat down to drink together at start of break. They say everyone would finish most of milk. Also other children would be happy to get an extra. They are in KS 2 now and there fruit and milk available from a sort of tuck shop and kids buy what they want. The milk is UHT though (presumably to avoid waste) and my two don’t like it as much. So it seems it varies a lot.

I think milk in school fills a very important gap in a lot of children’s diet and I think should be supported by the school.

I was paying for my daughter's, luckily for only a half term (and it was about £2 so no great loss) until she confessed she was in fact giving it away to her friend. Which I didn't mind, because I'd hate for it to go to waste being plastic bottles and all, but obviously I cancelled it.

We only pay £12 for the whole school year. Our school has also changed to cartons that don’t need straws and are recycled

It’s an option at lunch at DDs School.

It's not really a good idea to drink milk at lunch time, it blocks absorption of other important things like iron @Eggzandbacon. Better at a snack time.

Children under the age of 5 get milk for free in nursery and reception. Above that age they can pay for it.

It gets to be a problem though at this time of year in reception. Schools get one small bottle of milk per child. Each half term children who have turned 5 get their milk stopped. So you get to this time of year where only 6 or so children in the class are entitled to milk. But we have a ‘come and help yourself’ snack policy so children regardless of age will help themselves to milk. What can you do? Could you say to a child that they are too old to have it?

I used to work in a deprived area and the kids always hoovered the milk up. We never had any spares left either as we had to operate a rota system for the ones left over when people were absent.

Milk is more polluting than sewerage because (I think this is right) it takes a lot of oxygen to break it down so it deoxygenates the water meaning fish etc essentially suffocate. If you have a lot of waste milk it can be poured on compost heaps but don't pour it down the drain.

I never knew that was still a thing. None of my 3 have ever been offered milk (in Sussex). Youngest in primary gets a free fruit snack each day though.

School milk - free or paid - hasn't been offered in the part of Scotland were I am in at least 10 years as my eldest is 15 and has never had it. I think they did a fruit thing for a while but no milk.

We get free school milk until they are 5 and then it works out to be £15 for the year.

I don't buy it though as dd has told me she doesn't want it. It is semi skimmed and we drink full fat at home and that's probably why

echt but that's a bit of a pointless argument, as surely it applies to all nutritious foods: that you can get your nutrition elsewhere if necessary? If broccoli runs out, I can eat spinach... Variety is the spice of life, as they say

My point relates only to the assertions that we need milk. We don't, not after being weaned:

www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/calcium-and-milk/

Can’t believe it’s semi skimmed!

Perhaps people pay for it because it's usually inexpensive and their children like it giles. Ours is a few quid a half term, and my DC when asked said they like having it at school, so we kept on. Even though they also have milk at home. There are doubtless other ways to get more milk for my money, but I'm quite happy to do it this way.

That said I can well believe what OP says about the kids giving it away and wasting it etc, because that is exactly what I did at that age! It was alright for the kids who liked milk but ew if you didn't.

I agree op when i was a TA most of the classes the kids would have 2 sips and bin them. I only ever saw one child finish a carton.

Ours is only £38 for fruit and milk for the whole year

I also like DS to have it as he’s at a higher risk of JA as I had it as child.

In England fruit is free up until they are in KS2.

If you are being asked to pay, and you are in England, then you need to ask questions.

Just to stick up for echt who seems to be getting a hard time - I haven't drunk dairy milk for two years and am fine!! back to the point, if it is being wasted so much, then parents absolutely do need to know.

www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/school-fruit-and-vegetable-scheme/
Free fruit in English schools.

What's your point, sandgrown?
My 6ft+ 25y old is vegan and has never drunk cow milk at school, or anywhere else. Neither has my very sporty, very active 8y old.

As a child, I was encouraged to drink the stuff by the pint bottle. We had 12 pints a day delivered. At 50, I'm knackered-currently undergoing bone density testing, amongst other things.

The warm, sour stuff we were forced to drink at school, though, was rank.
School milk really was a massive coup for the Milk Marketing Board.

Anecdata can be used to back up pretty much any claim.

Every child under five in England, Wales and Scotland (don't know about NI) is entitled to 189mls of semi-skimmed or whole milk (or powdered infant formula) every day they are in school or a registered early years setting for more than two hours.

This is the nursery milk scheme website.

They can only get it if the place they attend is willing to claim for it.

Milk for over 5s has to be paid for unless it is being provided under a different healthy food scheme, pupil premium, etc.

It doesn't have to be provided in expensive and wasteful individual cartons but, if they use cups, someone has to dish out the milk and wash them up.