Teachers, has this healthy school dinner thing gone too far? Kids moaning that they can only buy bread and water

[fizzbuzz]

But to some extent it appears to be true!

Only bread, bread and more bread available at break time (and hugely overpriced fruit). Bottled water is the only drink.

Dinnertime, they can buy a meal, but only bread available as snack or filler up (or fruit) Sooooooo..............

they all escape to the local shops at dinnertime, causing mayhem

Surely moderation in all things is better than blanket ban (and the staff miss flapjacks and muffins too!)

I think it depends on individual shools. Something had to happen - school dinners were a complete joke. They were awful and so unhealthy. And snack time stuff even worse.

And all the evidence show that this unhealthy additive fueled food is bad for children and does affect their behaviour, concentration and learning.

No idea if it has gone too far.

DD's school is excellent in what they serve up at lunch time - school dinner is complusary for all. And break time snacks, provided by parents, are to be fruit or veg type only.

If children are complainming about snack availability or overpriiced fruit - take their own.

I'd get rid of snack machines and fizzy pop machines to start with, and be far stricter with the food served. Oh, and stop those under a certain age leaving the school at lunch time unless they had a good reason, with parental written permission. The latter worked really well at the first school I taught at - local shops would not serve uniform clad pupils, anyone other than sixth form could not leave premises at lunch.

To be fair, I don't think its teachers - its the school management teams. I am appalled about how little the kids know about food (a year 7 that didn't know how to peel a banana & questions like "can you eat the 'bits' (seeds) in a tomato?")
We are a "healthy" school, but we do have some 'healthy' treats available - the fruity flapjacks are lovely !!

They don't have snack or fizzy drink machines.

Also as our school was one of the first under the PFI thing, it has a miniscule canteen which is not big enough to feed the throngs of students. So Y10 and 11 are allowed to go to the shops........as there is not enough room to house them all at lunchtime