To ask you about secondary school meals

[Moreorlessmentallystable]

Posting here for traffic. My daughter is starting secondary school in August, currently she takes a snack and a packed lunch to primary school. I am not sure if this will be seen as weird in secondary school? I know you could pay for school meals but what I gather is most local school kids go to the town and get a meal deal or a Greggs. Is this what most kids do or are there a lot that stay in school for a meal? I know it sounds snobby but I worry that she'll be getting Gregg's or similar every day as it's not very healthy, also worried about her drinking fizzy juice every day as she is not allowed it apart from maybe once every month or two. Any tips?

Not allowed off the school premises? What? How would they stop them? Round here the streets are swarming at lunchtime with kids in school uniform.

When I was at school OP most days the kids I hung about with brought food in but we'd usually go out on a Friday and get something from the chippy. I'd send her with a lunch and some money and she can figure out something with the kids she's pals with.

I must be living on another planet. What 11 year old can't tell the time? They'll learn pretty quick when they get a bollocking for being late back.

I've lived all over Scotland and never hear anything like this. Is this an English thing?

My dc secondary only permits sixth formers off grounds at lunchtimes. Gates shut the rest of the time.

Mine gets school meals (£2.95 meal deal, hot or cold) a day as I cba making packed lunches. Plenty dc take packed lunches.

Pupils at my son's secondary are not allowed off premises for the most of the first year but at the end of first year and onward can, and do, leave for lunch. Very few take packed lunches, some eat in the canteen and many go down the street to the local shop and/or bakery (not Greggs as none where we live, but not any healthier and probably more expensive). It's common to see them eating absolute rubbish for lunch, day after day, and also throwing litter behind them. This is in Scotland and S1 is around age 12 (though some a little younger). Apparently the canteen food isn't great, plus some of them like to get out of the building too. I suppose you need to find out what happens at her specific school by asking the school/parents of older pupils, because clearly different things are more normal at different schools.

Schools surrounded by high fencing with electric gates operated by passes/ reception.

Keeps unwelcome people out.

Also stops vulnerable young people going out. They may need protecting for their own wellbeing (e.g. self-harming, or SENs) or from external risks around the school area such as gang culture, grooming, county lines or just old-fashioned anti-social behaviour. It also cuts truancy from people not bothering to return, or dodging out of chunks of the school day. That's just brought back a memory of the fire bells going off and revealing that a group had dodged out since morning regestration which was easy through the numerous gaps in the waist-height fencing.

School lunch times are often awkwardly short anyway, often 30-45 mins, so little time to go anywhere productive anywhere.

Few schools I've known in the past 20 years have allowed pupils out freely below 6th form. School sites have been becoming more secure since the mid-90s.

I'm in Scotland and they are allowed to leave the grounds although it is quite a walk to get to nearby shops. My ds takes a snack and packed lunch to school. He often takes a food flask so he can have a hot lunch; usually pasta.

They aren't allowed out at DDs school either... probably don't want to scare the tourists! (Joking aside... no where for them to go) However the chippy, Indian takeaway, and convenience shop do a roaring trade from the sixth form college.

Its a mix of packed lunch and canteen food at DDs school... although some packed lunches are no doubt purchased from the shop on the way in and are definitely not healthy.

Mine aren't allowed off site during breaks till 6th form.
It's a mix of packed lunch and school dinners.
Re snacks mine take a cereal bar as they have breakfast at 7am but lunch is not till 1.20pm. The school have staggered meal times so some years they've taken a snack other years they've had an earlier lunch and had a snack after school or not at all.

@BogRollBOGOF

I get the sense that this is a big cultural divide between England and Scotland.

Y9 here. They aren't allowed off school premises.
He started off in Y7 having school dinners but that stopped and he now takes jacked lunch.
Various reasons: cost, the food choices he was making and the fact he was spending most of his lunchtime queuing up.
Most of his mates take pack up too.

The pp who said her child spent £4 a day-same here.
A break time snack, drink, lunchtime meal, comes to about £3.85 ish here.
On the odd day he doesn't have packed lunch (once in a blue moon) I put £4 on his card. It lasts him one day and possibly a break time snack the next day. That's it.

Surely £4 a day for a meal would be pretty good value, no?

@penjil if you can afford it. If it was £4, that's £20 a week, plus £12ish for my primary age dd. That's £32 a Week just on lunches for the kids. I don't spend £4 a day at work.

I presume you are in Scotland. Its a real cultural divide. I'm not aware of a single school here that keeps pupils in school grounds at secondary.

People do a mix of things. If your daughter is used to taking a packed lunch you could continue it and she can take a walk with her friends to Greggs and eat her packed lunch with them.

In our school, the first years are not allowed out at lunch until the October break (or possibly the September weekend) so the option is school canteen or packed lunch until then.

Anyway, a packed lunch is quite common so don't worry about that.

My DS takes a packed lunch every day - he says the queue for the school canteen is too long at lunchtime, he'd spend all of it queuing up. They only get 30 minutes. The food is good, apparently. So he does sometimes get a breakfast sandwich if he gets in early enough, or he might buy a €1 panini at the end of the day if they're selling them off. Most of his friends take packed lunches. It's not cheap though, it would be easy to spend €3-4 a day on a main meal.

Children aren’t allowed out at lunchtime though I think some buy something on the walk to school . Mine take a packed lunch and decent snack as actual lunchtime isn’t until 1.40 ! They might buy from school once a week but the queues are long and food not cheap . I think school sets a limit on what they can spend but it’s maybe 5/6 pound a day . They also want food that’s quick and easy to eat standing up as they would rather chat to their friends

Just to give idea on costs - last week one son spent £2.60 on a panini and the other £2.65 on a bowl of tomato pasta ( different schools)

dc take packed lunches. Ds makes himself a sandwich whereas I put hot food in a flask for dd. They can buy stuff from the canteen if needed but both are vegetarian and find the selection of suitable food is poor.

Well this thread has taught me that Scottish kids are allowed off site during the day. You learn something new every day!

The pupils at my local school are allowed off site during breaks. There's a small co op nearby and they have a member f staff on the door to limit the number of kids entering .There's always a huge queue. It's even worse at lunch time.

Yes. I'm in Scotland too

Think this is the same as our school re. After October week.

A 2 course lunch is £2.70 and a meal deal is £3.15 and includes a 500ml bottle of water. Think there's an app to book lunches and money is loaded onto their young scot card to pay for meals and trips, etc via iPayimpact.

Ds prefers to take a packed lunch

Looks like Scottish school food is much better value too !

I’m a secondary school teacher, I’d say more children bring packed lunch and health wise I’d stick to pack lunch because although they provide healthy options they are sat next to the less healthy ones which the kids will pick first

School meals at my school (secondary) are SO EXPENSIVE! I spent £6 the other day on a really sad looking chicken burger, potato wedges and a drink. DS is in year 7 at a different school and he takes pasta or soup in a flask each day, along with another couple of bits and bobs and eats it at break time (11.30) as their lunch isn’t till 1.30 and he’s just too hungry by then. He has occasionally bought stuff from the canteen but he can’t be bothered to queue, says it’s boring and would rather be with his friends. He does go home via the shop at the end of the road once a week or so and pick up some chocolate - but he always buys some for me too, which is a welcome surprise when I get home!