Free school meals for all infant children

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What do you think? I think it's a great idea.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-24132416

Why ban packed lunches. Who has the right to do that.

It's not the government's business to use tax revenue to feed small DC FFS...

I don't really get this. Surely families who need the FSM are already entitled to them. Where are they means testing a previously universal benefit (CB) and making a previously means-tested benefit (FSM) universal?
How will the pupil premium be effected?
I don't know if we'll take them up as DS is vegetarian and a bit particular, but either way it won't make much difference to us.
If they banned packed lunches I'd be livid. What would happen to children with serious dietary limitations?

I would rather that it was targeted at lower income families. Ds will qualify - he eats anything so will probably be happy. Dd2 will just miss out, but she hates school lunches. It's not that she is mega fussy - just that she likes food cooked correctly. Both girls agree that the pasta is always v hard, the jacket potatoes aren't cooked properly, the sauces are dry and they both hate chips. If the standard improved then they might be more tempted. It is fine to have nutritionally balanced meals but if they are cooked to the point that they are inedible then it doesn't matter. When I have tried them they have been dire - and that on days when they are trying to impress the parents. I'll let ds try them but won't force him to have them.

I find English state schools increasingly grotesque....

DDs school won't be able to do this . They don't have a kitchen and only have a very small assembly hall - most children eat in the classrooms. How will that work?

I'm intrigued that Chartwells do 'Tiny potions'

I would like to see that in practice!

Agree it's a great idea. Also agree it should be extended to juniors.

School lunch is compulsory at our school. There is a non vege and vege option and a two dessert choice. Drink is water.

All the children eat it, and the staff eat it with them.

If staff are eating with kids when do they get time to photocopy next lessons and just breathe & relax. It's still working hours, isn't it, so when do they get an actual break from work?

Don't really care about that. But my eligible child (current y1) is fussy. And he doesn't like to eat same thing every day. So probably he would have the packed lunch option, assuming they can make the exact same sandwich every day. Most of it would go to waste. Long list of things DS won't eat, including most veg and fruit.

What happens to children with intolerances and allergies TSS?

It was always properly cooked stuff too, like meat pies, and sponge and custard for pudding.

This is not the makings of a healthy dinner.

Why on earth should the tax payer cough up to feed other people's children. Where is the funding coming from. Ridiculous

Surely it's a half hearted effort to tackle childhood obesity and snack/junk door culture. Someone's got to.

I'm on the fence.

I suppose it seems a little unfair, especially to parents who've struggled to pay for school meals in their time. Can they not give something to the older children? Or extend the free fruit scheme to all pupils? It is however a fantastic boon to young parents who are struggling to pay for multiple KS1 children, I know I'd've been very grateful at that time of life.

I think it is a great idea

I wonder about that, too, perplexed. I have 2 boys with ASD and some severe food aversions tied in with that (including gravy, boiled rice, boiled, baked or roast potatoes, savoury pastry and custard, for DS1 - I can't even pay him to eat those things - and almost all vegetables and raw fruit for DS2). Added into the mix, we've got DS1 on an exclusion diet for probably abdominal migraines, which includes chocolate, cheese and citrus - that means he couldn't even have the veggie option, most days.

As for the social side, DS2 sits with a bunch of friends, who help him open things and chat with him (he's non-verbal) and they all eat their packed lunches together. DS1 can't tolerate the noise of the dining room, so eats his packed lunch in a quiet room with some staff and sometimes a friend.

They're in juniors, anyhow, but compulsory school dinners would be discriminatory towards them both and would mean that their diet was worse. DS1 would probably not eat at all, if he wasn't allowed to take a packed lunch in. DS2 would eat very little, as the portions are tiny, even without the high proportion of the meal that wouldn't be eaten.

My kids school have most kids eating packed lunches in their classrooms. They have no space to feed all the kids in the hall. It would take them all day to feed the children in shifts. It is a massive school but with a tiny dinner hall. They have already had to build on the playground to accommodate an extra classroom due to the shortage of school places in our area. Will they have to build a new dinner hall, or provide packed lunches for those who want it? I would love to give my kids school dinners but i don't know what they eat, if anything and I don't want to be paying £10 a week, only to have to take a packed lunch for them to eat on the way home because they are starving, which is what I had to do when my DS1 was on school dinners.

I think it's a good idea as there seems to be solid evidence that diet affects concentration.

lljkk I promise I'm not picking on you but using what you said as an example - if your DS doesn't eat fruit & veg, then he's not going to eat it whether its on a plate or in his lunchbox. He'll just eat what he wants either way so it's the same end result IYSWIM?

Well it's just going to be a complete money pit. There can't be a school in the country who doesn't have a child with allergies. And I've eaten in enough canteens to know that they don't even know what a vegan is ( plate of proteinless salad covered in colesalw anyone??? or wouldn't think a chip wasn't gluten free. It's a bloody dangerous gamble to play with the kids health.

There are literally thousands of kids with special diets or who are diabetic or who are fussy or sensitive to tastes and textures who will come out of school starving and costing their parrbts a bloody fortune in their hungry snacking after they get home. Teachers will be dealing with sugar highs and lows as opposed to teaching.

The idea that anyone's safe option the packnlunchnwill be taken away by people who haven't a sodding clue how to deal with the effects of a child who hasn't eaten all day doesn't bare thinking about.

Increases absences and trips to drs anyone?

They can't ban packed lunches.

Why not? If they are providing a free meal then they don't need to.

Agree that there needs to be some provision for allergies. They either cater for it or allow said child to bring a packed lunch.

If all schools were forced to abide by the nutritional guidelines (which would mean inspecting the caterers), and if this were compulsory for all primary aged children, except those with specific dietary requirements that the school meals couldn't meet, then I think this would be an excellent idea. Improving the nutrition of primary children will actually save some money in the long term.

But, this is only half a baby step. Maybe it could be a step in the right direction?

They banned them when I was at school-I went from 5 yrs to 18 yrs in 6 schools and not one allowed packed lunches. Pupils could go home but otherwise they had a cooked school meal.

I'm not convinced by the nutritional content of school meals. For example the minimum average protein content at primary level is 7.5g source, but the recommended daily intake is 20g for infants and 28g for juniors source p4. No one has pointed out to parents what gaps need to be filled in nutritionally and there can be a tendency to think that they have had a good lunch so breakfast and dinner are less important. The meals seem really carb heavy with puddings and extra bread. I don't think more than 1 carb per meal is a great idea, particularly when many children will load on carbs and skip any fruit/veg.

My DD has packed lunches at nursery of a sandwich (protein filling), fresh fruit and a small full fat yogurt, I am careful not to give her too much sandwich/yogurt as she wouldn't eat the fruit if she could fill up on other stuff. I saw some surprising choices at her nursery which could be improved with FSM, but I don't think that school meals are always better than packed lunches. We also earn enough that I think the money could be better spent on other children. For example breakfast clubs for children who currently qualify for FSM.

No, I dont want it, in fact I feel very strongly about it, FSM for those who need it of course, but the money would be much better spent in other areas.