A poll for those with lo's at independant primary, please help!

[Passionflower]

I'm really concerned about the quality of the lunches at DD's school and have made an apt with the acting mistress in charge about them tomorrow morning. So please would you help me out by telling me

a) what your schools charge and

b) what are the lunches like, are you happy with them.

Lot's of mum's seem to be moving towards packed lunches because of concerns about the food served at the school but I think it's really important for lo's to have hot food at lunch time and have decided to be brave and raise the subject with the school.

To kick off we pay £190 a term for hot lunch, £50 for lunchtime supervision only.

On the face of it the menu looks OK but I'm suspicious that there is a lack of fresh fruit and veg and I heard a rumour concerning Mr Kipling cakes this morning. They say that there is always fresh fruit as an alternative pudding but DD1 tells me this is just an orange or an apple, regardless of the season.

like Mairna: included in the price, good quality ( we went in to try) good variety and the occasional fish and chips to keep children happy. pizza's are not unhealthy..it is just bread with cheese and tomato...

I am not happy with the school meals, 38p is the norm for most infant school children.
The menu looks good, but the idea that they only serve chips once a week as a stab at lowering the amount of so called unhealthy food is pretty pants. Smiley faces are much worse when compared to chips.
Also, a portion of cucumber is the one veg portion. A food that is so low in calories , that it uses more to digest it.
I want a veg and salad to be available if they want.
However the choice is limited to the strict portion control that the cooks have to stick to.

I dont approve of dairy lee triangles and crackers, again like the potato smiley faces, too much salt. Whats wrong with a small amount of grated cheese?
I have noticed that all the food arrives in macdonalds boxes, and roast dinners are prepared from pre formed slices of meat in salty gravy.
Most veg is frozen.
On the plus side, the fruit selection is good, and looks appealing to children.

However because I have 4 children ( two in senior school which would = £4.00 a day) I cant afford school dinners.
My childrens lunch boxes are far healthier for them, than having school dinners every day.
For one half term I paid for the younger children to have lunch once a week, but once they told me they picked the sandwich course, as they enjoyed that more than the main meals , I stopped.

We pay £126 a term for meals. This is for a two course lunch. There is no option for packed lunches everyone has meals.

We are very lucky, all dinner produce is fresh and mostly organic (deliveries every morning) and mostly from local producers. I can't complain at all.

They have vegetables every day in some form, there is a salad option during the summer term and there is fresh fruit (a good selection)available every day for pudding (as well as another pudding).

Lunch is an extra to our fees. For Y5 and below dinners are £1.50 approx - we get charged a flat fee per term and some terms are longer than others. Y6 and above have a smart card which you recharge with money so they can opt in and out of lunch/breakfast/post school whenever they want. Mostly the food is excellent, although there are always parents who complain. There is always pasta/baked pots/salad/sandwiches/hot pudding/yog and fruit on offer, then a changing offer of traditonal hot meal (varies from curry to chilli to meat and pot pie etc) and fish and chips on a friday. I think there is plenty of variety, and choice, and mostly my children eat fine from the options, they are sensible enough to offer biscuits and cheese (like suew's version) to those below Y5 who have eaten all their chosen main course and pudding and are still hungry. Fizzy drinks are not available, even in the vending machines, and sweets only after 4pm, and quite frankly if my 12 yo is about to play 90 mins of rugby after a full school day inc sports then i really don't mind him having a twix or similar. You can opt out of that bit anyway if you can't ask your children to be restrained and have a no-use after lunch bar on the smart card. It would be useful if they allowed younger children to purchase food after schooll as well, I send a snack for them if they are doing after school sports but i'm sure some working parents would find it easier if they could get the food there, but can see the logisitics would take some sorting.

What's interesting is that our private school does not charge very much more than the state pays for it's own.
I think one of the core errors in the way the government spent money was to be captured by a comibnation of unions and wannabe tories.

As I recall the single most common "real" job for Labour MPs is that they were teachers. They genuinely believed that merely increasing budgets would work.
The wannabe tories brought in various forms of PFI and in some cases allowed evangelicals to take control of schools, which is not working al lthat well.

Schools are not used properly or fully, huge capital assets who spend most of their time idle.
Pre-school and after school clubs are patchy, and in the main holidays they aren't used, and somehow the correlation between lack of activities for kids and crime/drugs/obesity is rarely debated.

Pre/post school clubs would help a lot of working parents, especially the single mothers both main parties seem keen to victimise.
If 2 or 3 meals a day are being provided, the costs of decent school food drops.

Indeed, no one has really explianed to me why teachers can't be offereed shift work.
Start at 12, finish at 8, for instance.

But that won't happen. The unions are too strong, and the desire to break things down into cost centres, rather than take a wholistic view of the system, mean we will have education by electronic brain implant before our schools get run properly.

DC I disagree that the correlation between lack of afterschool activities and youth problems (ie drug use, obesity)is rarely debated. Youth workers have been dealing with this for decades and despite tirelessly campaigning for funds, increasingly youth centres are being closed down or experiencing cut funds. No wonder after school clubs are given scant regard, if they can do this to youth services.

DS's lunches are included in the fees, and they are homecooked on the premises. They are simple meals, but wholesome, and there is always a choice of cold meats and salads for those who don't like the main course or hot veggie option.

Pudding is either fruit or yoghurt.

They also have a biscuit at break time, and sandwiches and cakes at tea time.

Hang on! Was reading this thread, giggling at pasta bought from italian delis, and then read DominiConnor's post:

"Indeed, no one has really explianed to me why teachers can't be offereed shift work.
Start at 12, finish at 8, for instance. "

Huh?

It's not just teachers in school! There are children too. 8pm finish time. Is the man barmy?

lol @ dried pasta from italian deli

(not nastily at you Sue just this thread is a bit parp-worthy)

lol att hsi whole thread
am sniggering alon g merrily

DC think most teachers dont do shifts as most of them are mums hwo see thats the only way to combine a JOB wiht mothehood thereofre they accept crap apy and concditions to gett eh summer holidasys free

my kid wodl nto be ats hcool till 8pm in a million years.

eh? 8pm?

domic onnor from todays sermon

"Indeed, no one has really explianed to me why teachers can't be offereed shift work.
Start at 12, finish at 8, for instance.
"

Seriously, barmy!

lol at idea of kids being at school till 8pm

My kids were at an independent primary where lunch was £1.60 a day. It was vegetarian, totally organic and locally/ethnically sourced where possible - sounds fantastic doesn't it? DS1 flatly refused to have school lunch after a term as he said it was tasteless, boring and "where was the meat?"

Whilst I don't normally onject to people "parping" although I would never be so rude as to parp someone else's thread myself - in this instance, I genuinely don't see why people who aren't interested in this issue are even reading this thread.

Passionflower, I entirely agree that you want your child's meals to be of a good quality, it is very unusual for an independent school to even offer the option of children taking in packed lunches (maybe indicates a sense of your school not thinking its own lunches are that great?)

rosiesmumof4, regarding "late" food, my dd can be booked into supper in those instances, which is the beauty of attending a school where some children board.

I accept your correction plummymummy, but I think we agree that it's not perceived by either the public or any level of government as a big thing.

I accept that many teachers won't want to work until 8, fine. I said "offer". Also not everyone involved in the after hours have to be teachers.

Also some teachers want more money, I'd offer them overtime.

Given that we have kids hnging round the streets until way after 8, all I am saying is that we can make problems less bad by using resources we already have built.

Blimey o'reilly this has kicked off a bit since I looked in last.

Firstly:

DC £190 a term is £3.60 per meal not under £3. The school is private states education dept have nothing to do with funding lunches. I particulaly asked for responses from private edders because I didn't want this to turn into an aren't the lea pants debate.

Have absolutely no problem with paying this or even more however I started this thread because I had serious concerns about the balance in the meals being served and the quality of ingredients being used. Have spoken to the mistress in charge this morning and found that the problem is not one of funding but that the senior dinner lady is a bit lacking in imagination and a bit lazy when it comes to sourcing ingredients. She is based in the senior school and the m.i.c. asked me to write to the head mistress about my concerns because she is fed up with sending the menu back and pointing out that there are no veg included.

Cam I think you have hit the nail on the head.

DC I don't generally object to thread hi-jacks but you might get a bit more relevant debate if you start your own thread.

Not sure why this is a parp worthy subject, it was merely intended as a bit of research before confronting the school about the meals they are providing. The Mr Kipling mention was a bit of a joke tbh, I can see now that was a mistake as people have taken it seriously, however if it makes you happy snigger/parp away .

Thanks all.

Just thought I'd point out many teachers do work till 8 pm or teacher mums after kids are in bed till the marking is finished anyway. Last night I worked from 7.30 till midnight. Wish we got paid overtime for that!

SueW I honestly wouldn't worry about it, they've wandered off to pick on someone else now anyway.

Cam, yes it's not a boarding school though (day only), so late food is only sandwiches, fruit, and other cold stuff. I have mentioned to the catering manager that he'd go down great if he offered hot food in the eves - when we play the boarding schools away for rugby/swimming etc they always offer the boys a hot meal afterwards, whereas our offering is only sandwiches and biscuits which always makes me feel a little inhospitable.

sunnydelight - that's not the little school in ChA in Leeds is it - i was wowed at their dinners, and nearly put DS4 there on the strength of them :-o

No it's not rosiesmumof4. I just thought it was worth adding my experience as, like you, I was really impressed by this and thought it would be great but kids have this inconvenient way of having minds of their own! No matter how good your ingredients are you have to do something reasonably tasty with them. DS1 eats a really good diet and is extremely adventurous with food, but kids can sniff out "worthy" food miles away.