Free school lunches for infants - what do you think?

[KateSMumsnet]

Starting this month, in accordance with plans announced last year, all pupils in English primary schools up to the end of Year 2 will be eligible to receive free school meals.

How do you feel about the changes? Is it money well-spent, or could the funds be put to better, more targeted use? Has your school had to make any changes such as building new rooms or using classrooms? Are you glad to have lunches taken care of, or would you prefer to make your child's lunch? Have you seen the new menus, and are you happy with them? Will any of you be opting out?

We'd love to hear what you think - do let us know below. And keep your eyes peeled for a guest post on the nutritional value of school meals, coming later this week.

p.s For those of you still making a pack-up every morning, try out this recipe for the perfect lunch box bars (you can still make them even if your DC are at Uni, we won't tell)

I am directly on the receiving end of the brutal, inhumane cuts (disabled).

My (already low) quality of life will drop when when I lose mobility DLA due to the change of criterion from walking 50m to walking 20m.

I am not under the illusion that any money saved by not implementing this will come back to the people hurt by the cuts. I also know fine well that while this thread may be baying "give it to the deserving poor," there'll be a neighbouring thread explaining why the poor aren't, in fact, deserving - creating a little circle of moral rectitude in which no money actually gets paid out.

This project will have teething problems, but I am looking at the big picture and can see longterm benefits in all sorts of ways, for FSM and non-FSM pupils. Including that schools will require adequate physical space for their pupils.

Britain isn't actually cash-strapped. Unlike many other countries, we actually can afford to feed school children if we chose to. We just have to chose to. That may mean not making the next tax-cut the Tories have planned. I won't cry.

The pilots tested the idea of extending FSM entitlement to those who don't quite qualify for means tested FSM as well as for universal provision. It found that the test area where entitlement was extended rather than made universal showed no academic gains, in contrast universal provision showed academic gains for all children, but especially for those who are just above the current means-tested threshhold.

Means testing is itself often detrimental to outcomes as it distinguishes and "Others" those receiving extra support which generally has a significant adverse impact. Even when people think they it's done discretely.

Sorry not RFT so someone else may have flagged this but schools in our LEA need the parent to apply for extra funding if the child is deemed to be at poverty level. The incentive for this used to be that they would then receive free school meals. the school in turn, received extra funding which went towards eg TAs and SEN as there is a strong connection between child poverty and under achievement. Take away the incentive and many parents won't admit to being on the poverty line. So the school loses out on significant funding that goes towards education not cheap yoghurts.

discreetly*

Did you know that when your children reach year 12 you will be expected to pay £180 a term for their travel? Rural children travel free to their catchment school but from this September the government has changed the school leaving age but not the eligibility for free travel to school. This means parents in rural communities will have to pay £180 per TERM per child to get them to compulsory schooling. There's a petition here to Suffolk County Council but we are campaigning to change the law for everyone. If school is compulsory then access should be free and fair. www.change.org/p/suffolk-county-council-provide-bus-travel-for-16-year-olds-to-get-to-school?utm_medium=email&utm_source=notification&utm_campaign=new_petition_recruit#share

i agree that its a good idea, however if they are going to give free school meals as not means tested then they should be doing it for all age children. mine are all too old now as youngest in year 4, but why should someone who earns 4 times as much as us, but with a child in year 1 get free school meals, when it would cost me £48 a week for mine to all have school dinners. we lost our free school meal entitlement in april, when we were awarded £4.68 a week in working tax credits. but that £4.68 means we lose £48 a week in free school dinners.

I am on the end of the cuts due to disability too Pausing. My DH is on the end in his job, he is lucky he wasn't one of the many got rid by this Government. Whilst they are still making this cuts, and proposing more I think this is a waste of money.

lcullen we live rurally and DS2 is just going in to Yr13. From this Sept, the cost of a bus pass is £499 for Yr12s and Yr13s. That has gone up by £200 since last September. We have decided, since DS2 has a part-time job and has saved for a car, that we will help pay for the insurance because it is actually not that much more, and it will stop him getting home at 7pm!

I think it's a great idea, however school dinners are NOT UP TO SCRATCH.

Cheap meat.
Baked beans.
Cake and custard.
Tinned fruit.
Chicken nuggets.
Mince. (shudder)
White bread.
Tomato ketchup.

This is not what we should be feeding our kids daily.

Despite the school repeatedly telling us that the school dinners 'meet government targets for nutrition' they are simply NOT as healthy as the meals we eat at home.

They need fresh fruit and vegetables (organic preferably), wholegrain and varied carbs, free range and organic meat (if you eat it), good vegetarian options (a baked potato is not this).

However, this would take the government over budget, so they continue to feed our kids low quality food.

Bealos that's not the case at many schools. My children's school provide lots of fruit & veg, wholegrains. Teachers often sit with pupils and have the same lunch. Parents who volunteer / help eat with the children sometimes - I've been in and seen the lunches and they are nothing like what you describe. Don't get me wrong, I am sure there are schools like that, but some are not.

Why shouldn't a family in a half a million pound house benefit from this? When alls said and done they have contributed most toward it regardless of whether they want it or not

I think it's a truly dreadful idea and another example of how the Condems just don't live in the real world.My reasons are as follows:-

Firstly if there is spare cash I'd rather they put it towards raising the pp threshold so less kids go hungry in ks2 and 3. It really makes me angry that children who don't need it in ks1 are getting free food whereas older children who do are going hungry.

I'm annoyed that families deemed too wealthy to get CB and lectured for frittering tax payers money on stocking wine cellars(really Boris you have no idea of reality do you)are now eligible for free food.Double standards(again)

Secondly it annoys me somewhat that the Condems have based their reasons for this huge waste of money on findings from the Leon catering chain(no bias there then I'm sure) the owner of whom is buddies with DC.

Thirdly school dinners are often total shite. They are white carb heavy and contain very little protein or fruit and veg.Considering we should all be eating 10 portions a day the single portion kids are actually offered(which often won't even land on the tray) is woeful.I also resent hugely my dc being fed stodgy puddings daily to up the calorie content.

The portions aren't big enough,my kids are starving by home time.

School dinners aren't scrutinised enough.Packed lunches are ripped to shreds and scrutinised to the nth degree.School dinners aren't.

The double standards really get my goat.A yogurt with sugar or a piece of flapjack during the course of the day won't cause obesity.If it is in a lunch box apparently it does,on a school dinner tray it's healthy. Apparently a single portion of fruit in a lunchbox is inadequate,in a school dinner it's an example of a healthy meal.

I don't want my kids being taught that their school dinners are healthy when they're not.Mac cheese & bread,sweetcorn or peas,pineapple sponge containing 3 cubes at best and custard isn't a healthy meal it's constipation on a plate.Ditto to battered fish,fries,cookies and milkshake with a portion of "seasonal" veg all in one meal.Both off this terms new all singing all dancing menu at our school.In reality no different to last term.

I don't like being treated like a twit.I get the impression the Condems think we're all so stupid and uneducated we won't notice the above.

It's unfair.Older children(both KS2 and 3)as usual get nothing.

Finally I'm royally pissed off with education funds being spent on free food for wealthy families,some of it not even hot.The fact is some schools are having to dip into their budgets for a few flaccid sandwiches.

There think that covers it.No not a fan,can you tell?

And it's definitely not all tinned meats and chips at our school either, and we are inner city. The school chef does do a fish and chip Friday but it's the healthy version and comes with homemade tomato ketchup - not all schools are feeding the kids rubbish

DS is having them. He wants them. I'm not so happy about the amount of sugar in them, though. We'll see how it goes. Presumably, we can switch back at any time.

I would have preferred that free school meals were given to all children whose families recieve working tax credits. Children don't stop needing food when their child enters year 3.

My daughter goes to school in a deprived area and this morning almost all her year 1 class had school dinners. Removing the stigma by making school meals universal will help fsm children. I believe that free school dinners will boost results.

I feel that universal school meals should only be in areas of high deprivation. (Ie. where the number of children entitled to fsm exceeds 30%)

Actually, I agree with you SeagullsandSand - you are completely right. There really is a consensus that school dinners are healthy and packed lunches aren't. I know mine are. But they are providing the baked potato option (shame it's not a sweet potato) and salad option, so hopefully he'll go for that. But I'd rather he didn't have the puddings. And also, at our school, they give them second and third helpings of main course and pudding, which I feel is unnecessary and a bad habit to get into.

Sorry battered fish (even if it has the word homemade in front), chips,milkshake and "homemade" cookie all in one meal is not a healthy balanced meal and not exactly something we should be aspiring to.Certainly not if a packed lunch containing a tuna sandwich,crisps yogurt and apple are held up as the lunch of sin.

YY I completely agree with SeagullsandSand

But I am also very happy not to be making packed lunches every morning for the entire year. DD is a picky eater with me but does quite well on the school dinners.

Totally disagree with it. We've had CB taken away (fair enough I believe benefits should go to those with real need) and been offered 'free' food we don't need. Ridiculous. Focus on those children who need help and give these children a proper protein & veg based lunchtime meal and a protein based snack, not spend millions giving all children a rubbishy pseudo healthy free meal.

Clearly there are areas where many children are not getting enough proper nutrition. I would support any initiative which saw these children being given a really good, child friendly but nutritional meal every day.

That was to Iam.

We get all thus "seasonal","homemade"and "Mediterranean" jargon stuck on the front of foods like pizza,biscuits and cake as if the flowery language somehow makes them healthier.It's still pizza and wedges followed by cake.

Still

Pausing -what a reasoned and generous post. My best wishes to you.

Fairy-I am with you on the cost of bus passes. I would like the government to give all school children, all students and those who are disabled free bus passes. Huge social benefits to be gained from this and as Pausing says Britain is not actually cash strapped, it is all a question of reasoned distribution of our wealth, so yes no more tax cuts for the higher earners.

....Can I just add that a) while I like the idea hell would freeze over before I voted for the condems, as a single parent they've shafted me so I wouldn't piss on them if they were on fire and b) DS only has a couple of allergies that require an epi-pen so the school cooks can work around them. I daresay I'd feel differently if he had multiple allergies.

Icullen DS goes to a special school and from age 16 we will have to pay his travel costs. He will be there till 19.6 so at £300 per year we will be spending nearly a grand in travel costs. The LEA alternative is as he is disabled he can get a free travel pass and go on 2 buses including a change in a busy interchange. Seen as he can't put his own shoes on without guidance, nor can he be trusted to walk down a street without running into the road to pick up that tiny speck of rubbish only he can see and he has no communication skills whatsoever he still won't qualify for free travel.

FSM are a great way to attempt to tackle child poverty and to help give vulnerable children a hot meal but it should be as well as wheels on meals, as well as free travel for all secondary children, as well as free bus travel for pensioners, not instead of

As it happens we do need our CB however the only bit of positivity sold to us was that it was going on the needy. In actual fact it's gone on free food and childcare for people on salaries we can only dream of.

Completely agree with those who have highlighted the carb-loading point. My DC were at a leafy primary with kitchen onsite, but the quality of the meals horrified me. KS1 of course cannot make healthy choices when they are offered stodgy puddings - confusing to them since if the school is offering it, it must be healthy. Why puddings???? The only reason can be because stodgy carbs are cheap. It cost me far more to give the DC nutritious packed lunches that the cost of the hot meal, but at least I knew what they had eaten, and could put healthy stuff (eg protein, veg, fruit.. )in the box that they would eat. But we came under constant pressure to move them to hot meals, obv because of the economies of scale.
Now the Dc are at senior school where no-one take packed lunches and the lunchjes are included in the school fees, but (fee-paying) parental pressure has ensured that there is less quantity but more quality.
As an aside, I used to teach in France, where the school meals are fab! and included wine for the teachers