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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To wonder what the hell happened to healthy eating in schools?

51 replies

JohnnyMcGrathSaysFuckOff · 25/09/2018 20:10

We are currently looking at primary schools for DD1. On a tour today, we were given a sample menu for lunch. Every day had a sweet pudding, and I don't mean yoghurt and fruit style things - I mean cookies, cake, custard.

Fine once a week or whatever, but every day?

At first I thought it was just this school and it put me off, but I have just looked online at sample menus for two other primaries we are going to see and they are the same.

It is worrying me as DD has eczema and whilst I don't know the cause, it seems to be exacerbated when she has lots of sugar. At home we try to limit this.

I thought schools had all become lunchbox police! What happened?!

OP posts:
thecatsthecats · 27/09/2018 08:51

Stuck

It perpetuates into adulthood with bloody meal deals!

My fiance is obsessed with picking 'the best value' shopping (over and above what he actually WANTS), and will always pick a meal deal - but he's trying to lose weight, and a sandwich, sugary drink and a snack isn't the best way to do that!

My appetite has come down to the point where I don't eat snacks so I pick something I can use in a meal, but you can very easily come close to 1000 calories in a meal deal with the drink and snack included.

Realowlette · 27/09/2018 09:01

My DD has the same issue with sugar as well as other things like dairy. She's just started school, is having dinners and is given fruit for dessert. If you let the school know it's a medical issue they will complete a health plan for her.

Miladymilord · 27/09/2018 09:05

At dds primary it was either fruit, yogurt or cheese and crackers which is what mine invariably had.

5SecondsFromWilding · 27/09/2018 09:23

DD has come to expect a pudding after each meal and it really is giving me the rage Angry after years of being told that kids all have an internal off switch when they're full, I've come to realise that this is a complete lie. DD will, and has always been able to, carry on packing away as much food as she is allowed. So giving her the impression that there's nothing unhealthy about a pudding right after a meal that should have filled her up has been really detrimental here. I wish there was more I could do but they don't even publish menus at her new primary despite strongly discouraging packed lunches.

TestingTestingWonTooFree · 27/09/2018 09:33

DD’s School claims to be healthy eating, eg children must be sent in with a fruit/veg snack every day. I was a bit alarmed that there’s pudding every day so I’m pleased to hear it might be rubbish pudding!

Original poster
JohnnyMcGrathSaysFuckOff · 27/09/2018 22:18

Thanks all. I think we may consider packed lunch and if the school "discourage" it (why fgs?!) then see if her GP will write a note that she is not allowed.

It is just awful when her eczema grts going. We have avoided her having steroids so far through careful management but worried this would tip it over the edge....

OP posts:
User5trillion · 27/09/2018 22:28

Meals at my dc school are poor, they pride themselves on their healthy eating.

Breakfast club serve fat free but full of sugar yoghurts, pastries but its ok they are only allowed a max of 2😕, toast and jam. Plus cheap fruit juice.

Lunch is not too bad but my kids pick a jacket potato EVERYDAY, I want my 4 year old to have the main meal but they let him decide. They also serve cake or sugar filled yoghurt everyday.

In after school club its more pastries or biscuits as a snack. They are both entitled to free lunches but I am seriously considering going back to packed lunches. With us all needing to leave the house at 7.15am its a challenge but at least they will get some proper nutrition.

My kids love veg and fruit and are the least picky kids but give them the option they will eat rubbish but being 4&6 that's understandable.

dameofdilemma · 28/09/2018 16:39

I feel sorry for the schools as they're so short of money and the priority in primary schools is to fill the kids up (understandably), its little wonder the meals aren't great.

White bread, veggie choices heavily reliant on pasta and cheese, meat and carbs focused meals etc. The puddings aren't the only issue.

All you can do is try to educate and influence your child - I go through the menu with dd at the start of each week and we agree what she will have each day. Eg pasta no more than once a week, jacket potato with tuna but not cheese etc. She has the pudding every day but no cakes/sweets etc at home on weekdays.

And we eat a LOT of veg at home.

Original poster
JohnnyMcGrathSaysFuckOff · 28/09/2018 17:22

Dame, the issue with that is, for your DD there are presumably not medical consequences to her having the pudding every day?

For mine, there would be as her eczema would go mad and at 4.5 shr is too young to consistently remember "if I have the cake all my friends are eating, next week I will have sore itchy bleeding skin that keeps me up at night".

4yos just can't make those kinds of decisions wisely.....

OP posts:
ninemillionbicycles · 28/09/2018 21:53

Op so many posters have said the cake in their dc school is actually very low in sugar, wouldn't it be worth asking the school at least rather than making your mind up on the menu? The menu could be phrased in a way to appeal to the kids

5SecondsFromWilding · 29/09/2018 16:32

and if the school "discourage" it (why fgs?!)

It's to do with funding at DD's school I think. The school asked every parent to apply for free school meals, even if they knew their child wasn't eligible or that they wanted to give them packed lunches.

PhilomenaButterfly · 29/09/2018 16:35

Every so often we have these threads. I went to a Mother's Day lunch at my DC's school and the iced bun I had for pudding was hideous!

Aragog · 29/09/2018 16:40

Although there feels like their is cake or a sweet pudding every day, they are not quite the same as having them at home or from a cafe.

They are lower in processed sugar and fat. The sweetening usually comes from fruit or juice. And some are just quite bland, due to how little sugar there are in them.

There are rules and guidelines they must follow: www.schoolfoodplan.com/actions/school-food-standards/

And from my experience school meals are far healthier than the past.
Even many years back when I was at school, school dinners included a proper pudding every single day. There were no alternatives either then, whereas schools here now offer a dessert, yogurt or fruit to choose from. Several of our children choose fruit.

Roomba · 29/09/2018 16:50

I have to say, I noticed a massive deterioration in the food quality and menu as soon as the free school meals for all KS1 came in a few years ago. Our primary had great, healthy, well balanced meals with lots of fruit and veg before. The menu was never repeated over a month. As soon as they had to provide a lot more meals but didn't get enough extra money to cover it, it went to Pizza and Chips every Monday, Sausage Roll, potato cubes and green beans every Tues, Curry and Rice (no veg) Weds, Macaroni Cheese (no veg) Thurs and Fish n Chip Fridays (now Fish Fingers since last year as cheaper). Dessert is a biscuit, Angel Delight or sugary cake. The chef is long gone as too expensive. And the price just went up for those who pay as well!

They started doing a special dinner once a term, where kids could dress up for the day as long as they have a school dinner. This just happens to fall on the day the council does their census of how many pupils have school dinners, so they get more funding for the full term overall.

PhilomenaButterfly · 30/09/2018 07:01

I haven't noticed a deterioration at all. My DC's school uses an outside caterer.

PurpleFlower1983 · 30/09/2018 07:15

They have very little sugar. The custard is sugar free and the cakes are often sweetened by beetroot at my school.

AndhowcouldIeverrefuse · 30/09/2018 07:39

Why must children been given bizarre cake substitutes in order to maintain the "pudding at the end of every meal" thing? It's not a healthy habit imo.

Also what is it about disguising vegetables? Do the children who eat beetroot chocolate cake know what beetroot is, what it tastes like?

The reality is that cake has a lot of calories for the amount of nutrients you get so for most of us it's a bad idea to eat a lot of it. I know this so I try to limit my intake. But when I eat cake and pudding it will be the real thing - good ingredients, great flavour. Know what you are eating and enjoy it.

Schools should be playing the log game in my opinion... eat real food, a good variety and stop when you're full.

glintandglide · 30/09/2018 07:44

I don’t understand the point in low
Sugar cakes. Cake is not a typical pudding in the U.K. yogurt makes far more sense and calcium rich

Paddingtonthebear · 30/09/2018 07:57

DD is in year one and has school dinners. They have a pudding every day but they have a low sugar policy. I think it depends on the school. Ours has own chef and kitchen on site and they use local produce. There is no pizza, chips, pasties, fried food etc on the menu. If schools use one of those generic school catering companies that just ship the food in then the food is likely to be rubbish and packed lunch is a better option.

PhilomenaButterfly · 30/09/2018 08:08

The food isn't rubbish at my DC's school Paddington. Also, school dinners are compulsory at their school.

ZW26 · 30/09/2018 08:10

Yeah, bizarrely they serve cakes for dessert every day and yet when I stuck a Freddo in my 5 years pack lunch because it was his birthday they confiscated it. I could never get my head round it.

I would keep sending it in with a note stating that as long as the other children could have cookies and cake every day, mine could have a Freddo for one lunch. Fucking weirdos.

ZW26 · 30/09/2018 08:11

Also what is it about disguising vegetables? Do the children who eat beetroot chocolate cake know what beetroot is, what it tastes like? Distungsting is what beetroot tastes like Grin

ZW26 · 30/09/2018 08:11

*typo

HundredsAndThousandsOfThem · 30/09/2018 08:11

I think people are being a bit OTT, if your child expects a desert because they're given (a bland sugar free) one at school just tell them no. They have more meals at home than at school anyway.

Biologifemini · 30/09/2018 08:15

We have this at my child private school. Align with loads of unnecessary snacks.
I think pudding should be fruit or natural yogurt and fruit.
Not pudding. I disagree with he concept of low sugar because like others have said it creates the habit of eating pudding.