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?

What do Scottish teens do when they go out at lunch? I can see the novelty soon wearing off when there is literally no where to go.

Mine aren’t allowed off premises at lunchtime and have always had packed lunches - cheaper and healthier- this gives them lots of opportunities to attend various lunchtime clubs -they have a small amount on their lunch cards for emergencies but only spend around £15 a year -usually ice lollies in a heat wave!

Our school is about a 10/15 minute walk from the nearest supermarket so most of the break would be taken up with walking there and back. That's the reason dd and ds nearly always stayed in school.at lunchtime. There's also a van that parks nearby and sells crap to the school kids

Mine aren't allowed off site, they take packed lunch mostly although they ask for dinners on PE days so they have less to carry.
The dinners are pretty rubbish and they only have about 25 mins to choose the worse options because like mozzarella sticks in a bap or a chicken burger because they're quicker to eat.

We’re in Wales and only our 6th formers are allowed off site at break or lunchtime. There’s nothing physically stopping the others going, but it is against the rules.

Getting lunch can take ages so both of ours take a packed lunch but they do have a set amount on their accounts to buy the odd lunch or snack at break time.

I know a few 11 year olds who still struggle to tell the time and apply that to what they need to be doing (volunteer at clubs where they need to keep track of time for their events through the day). No idea why!

They - wait for it - eat lunch.

Novelty doesn’t wear off; particularly in schools close to the town centre where they have many lunch options.

Eating lunch isn’t a novelty lol.

@0rangeCrush so they would just wander the streets if no shops nearby? Whats the point?

Whereas in England they... sit down and eat lunch.
I can understand if there is somewhere to go. But you can't go far in a 30min break!

Very few 11 year olds in mainstream school can’t tell the time. Some can’t use analogue clocks; but I’ve yet to meet a neurotypical 11 year old who can’t tell the time on a digital watch. Plus, almost all of them have mobile phones by high school age.

At our secondary only sixth formers are not allowed off site at lunch time, and that’s pretty common locally. In my DDs friendship group it’s probably about half and half between packed lunch and school dinners. My daughter tends to mix and match - depending on lessons, lunch sittings, clubs and what’s on the menu that day.

@0rangeCrush these kids can tell me what the time says on their smart watch or phone but really struggle to apply that to their timetable.

So if their phone says 11.47 and they have a race at 12.15 they have difficulty figuring out that they’ve got about half an hour and how long that is in reality if that makes sense.

I have not seen a high school that doesn’t have shops nearby. Not saying that they don’t exist; but it would be very unusual. The school system in Scotland is so much simpler than in England - we don’t have separate high schools/6th forms - just one school from 11 to 18. We also don’t have multiple different school options for one area - you go to either the local non denominational school or the local Catholic school; both of which are normally near the centre of town. Some people do go to private schools but those tend to involve some travelling as they are normally in cities. Our schools are maybe larger than yours? One (possibly more) has about 3000 pupils.
If there were no shops nearby they would no doubt not go out; but I’ve yet to see somewhere that doesn’t have at least a local chippy nearby.

That is very different from my experience. I’d be quite concerned if my 8 year old couldn’t work that out, nevermind a high schooler. Again( possibly because our kids are given the responsibility of getting themselves back on time.

Most latecomers tend to be the ones who stay in school tbh; they queue so long to get their lunch in the canteen that they have no time to eat it.

I work in a secondary school canteen. Everything is cooked or baked on site. There are usually a choice of 4 things. Only one is a “snack food”. Then baked potatoes, pasta or noodles, then a proper dinner Ie. Roast, curry and rice etc. All made from scratch. Even the cakes are baked here. No child is allowed off site. It can be pretty hectic though, we have 3 seperate serving areas for different year groups though. We see a lot of kids having packed lunches alongside those on school meals. Oh, we can also set spending limits for those who blast through their money.

I suspect these boys (they’re all boys) will have a pretty hard time with the transition to year 7. It’s been mentioned to their parents several times as it makes running the events more challenging but unless they’re willing to put some consistent effort into helping their kids learn these skills then nothing is going to change. It’s quite sad.

That is really sad. It’s most definitely going to be problematic at high school; often I use a clock face as a countdown timer so they may struggle with that too.

I wonder if there is something more going on - I have dyscalculia and some of it sounds familiar (although I can tell the time!)

Mine have £6.50 a week. Oldest is quite happy taking packed lunch for 3 days. youngest seems to think it's humiliation to eat anything from home bar crisps or cereal bars so generally doesn't eat!

30 minutes?

Christ unless things have really changed since I was at school, your lunch break is an hour.

We used to take a good wander to the chippy for a roll and fritter, get a paper poke of sweets from the cafe and still have plenty of time to piss about in the park across from the school before we came back.

Lunch break at my dcs school is 45 minutes. If they walk to the shop and back they only have about 15 minutes to eat as the school isn't close to town

This is really funny to me. I started secondary school in 1999. The school was a big brutalist concrete piece of shite from the 60s. The playground was just a concrete square. 2,500 kids in the school. Some would eat in the canteen, some would eat their piece or whatever just standing about, some went home for their dinner before walking back to school, but the vast majority would swarm onto the streets.

We walked to the shops and the chippy. We'd muck about in the park. We'd just float about and chat. Sometimes we'd get up to a bit of mischief.

They eat on the way back.

I think the real cultural difference here is the structure Of the school day.

DD gets 30 mins for lunch but they finish school at 2.45. Different year groups have lunch at different times. Nearest shop is 10mins away .. and no park either. Thats 20mins away.

However the school has more labd they than can actually use in a day to day basis... they have a field which is only used for camping on for example. Its a rural school.

I can see how a town centre school it may be more appealing to get out, especially with an hour break.