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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Does your school charge if your dc order a school dinner by accident.

19 replies

MilaMae · 10/12/2010 20:02

Ie put their hand up for a school dinner when they are sent with a packed lunch. My ds has done it twice as have others .

I'm a little annoyed as a) I'm not there so can do nothing to stop it b) they seem to have different people taking the register so I can't even ask his teacher to check every day c) they're only 6.

If this is normal practise I'll have to poke up with it. Seems a little unfair.

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Lulumaam · 10/12/2010 20:04

no, ours have a system whereby infants eitehr take a packed lunch for the week or have a hot lunch for the week, if they have the hot lunch, we send the money in for a week of lunches on monday. ( or friday last week as I totally forgot! )

in juniors, they can decide daily, either taking a packed lunch or money for a hot lunch

we get money refunded if they miss a hot lunch due to illness

cat64 · 10/12/2010 20:15

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Runoutofideas · 10/12/2010 21:06

I wish our school was so flexible - we have to decide school dinners or packed lunches for the whole term and stick with that decision.

DreamTeamGirl · 10/12/2010 23:50

Ours can decide on a day by day basis but they are considered grown up enough by Y1 to know what they are doing

We (parents) are supposed to make sure they have signed in for school dinners and made their choice. the names from these lists are read out and they sit down, then the remaining standers are asked to confirm they have brought in a lunch

Its not the schools fault if your child isnt listening and they are getting a meal prepared for them, and yes I think you should pay for it.
My DS didnt listen till the day he had no lunch at all prepared for him. They got him something to eat but he had a long 15 minute wait (I suspect on purpose) before they found him something, and he hasnt forgotten again!!!!!!!!

JoBettany · 11/12/2010 09:56

My DS's school does. Each child orders a meal from a menu ( each choice is colour coded ) and so the cook makes exactly the right number of meals. I think it's to cut down on wastage. So if he mistakenly orders a school lunch it is cooked so must be paid for.

Hulababy · 11/12/2010 10:28

I suspect the infant school I work at does, yes.

In reception the children's parents sign them up each day for school dinners (meat, veggie or Halal) or packed lunch.

In Y1/2 the children do it themselves at registration. They have two registers to answer - one is attendance, the other meals.

I work in a Y1 class. We tell them the options each morning and if they are unsure we send them to go adnd look on the apcked lunch trolley to see if there box is there.

However, if they ordered a school meal that is then written on the sheet and sent to the office. This then goes to the kitchens and the office will invoice for meals appropriately.

greenlotus · 11/12/2010 10:35

Ours do charge - they have to pay for all the meals. My DC's have different things on different days so they do occasionally get confused, i.e. they go in the queue and eat lunch but didn't order it at registration. School order a couple of spare meals each day in case of last minute confusion.

I went and apologised to the school secretary after getting a note, and she said it was not so much the littlies who get muddled up they are bothered about as cheeky older children who have a packed lunch, eat it at breaktime and try to blag a school dinner to top up!

In reality it's only happened on half a dozen occasions and I make a point of reminding DC's what lunch they are on just as I say goodbye.

We can decide on a day to day basis and that flexibility is really helpful TBH.

spanieleyes · 11/12/2010 10:37

We book ours a week ahead, the menu is sent out on the Friday for return by Wednesday to eat the following week. You can choose for each individual day whether to have meat, vegetarian, packed sandwiches or to bring in your own food. The meals are ordered and charged for, if you forget you have booked one and bring in your own food we will still have to charge you ( as we buy the meals in from the caterers and they charge us!)

ragged · 11/12/2010 10:41

Our school you send in the money with the child (date, class, name written on an envelope) for whatever day you want that week -- must put the order in on a Monday. If your child misses a booked meal (illness, other unexpected absence) you get a credit for a hot dinner another day. Seems a lot fairer than most of what you describe.

Asking little children to remember correctly is a lot, I struggle to remember and I write everything down.

Takver · 11/12/2010 20:51

Ours say as they go in - so as parents generally go in with the tinies, they can tell the TA who ticks them in for one or the other. Otherwise she asks them as they go past whether they have a packed lunch or not, and of course can see whether they are carrying one!

I'm impressed by the amount of flexibility - I'm sure when I was at school you had to choose by the term. And by the fact that you can pay any day for any amount of time, and even I've been told that you can run up quite a bit of arrears without them complaining (though the parents this happened to are rather disorganised and then horrified by what they owed!).

I'm not quite sure why we're not encouraged more strongly to pay by cheque at the start of term if your child always has dinners - obviously some people couldn't but a lot I think could - and surely it would save admin time. I tend to do this to save hunting for change, and then they just give a credit for any trip/sickness/whatever days.

Original poster

MilaMae · 13/12/2010 12:41

I wish we had Ragged's scheme.

Ours the kids say on the day. If we had to send the money or cheque in with the child on the day it would cut down on mistakes.

My ds does listen,he's v well behaved but they seem to have diff people taking the reg,masses going on(loads to put away) and a lot to rem.I'm not going to tell him off as it was on an icy day and he put his lunch box in his ruck sack so he didn't fall over. He was very upset when I asked him about it.

I feel putting the onus on the child is a bit much and kids have different personalities. Some find multi tasking hard and at such a young age I find relying on a child to "book" things can lead to mistakes. My other two are fine.

Have obviously paid it and asked teacher to inform helpers to double check with him. Just find the system a bit flakey. Is interesting to see other systems-thanks

OP posts:

mumof2girls2boys · 13/12/2010 13:21

Do they not check if they have a packed lunch. My DS is in yr2 and has packed lunch each day and he said they check who has packed lunch then tick the rest for dinner. You pay for school dinners at the start of term but if you need one on a one off basis you as a parent have to go in and ask at the start of the day when dropping off.

If I was the teacher and had a kid who regularly had a packed lunch who then put their hand up for a school dinner I would check again with the child. I don't think you should pay for the meal, hey they are the ones not using your packed lunch, what if your child had special dietary needs which you had covered in the packed lunch. Little kids get it wrong and don't listen part and parcel of little kids, not your fault at all.

Eglu · 13/12/2010 13:30

Our school has an envelope menu too.

Each week we get sent home an envelope with the menu printed on the outside. We fill it in and put the money inside to the number of days that you have ordered school meals.

It does seem strange to expect small children to remember what they are doing for lucnh each day.

dabdib · 13/12/2010 19:12

At my son's school you buy dinner tickets, either a book of 10 or individually, which you can buy from the cook any morning before school. So you can pick and choose when your child has school lunch.

We also get a menu with various choices, 2 hot/2 cold I think, which is on a four week rota.

This means I can plan when he goes for school lunch or has packed lunch and I put his ticket in his bag, which has his name on and choice of meal written on aswell.

Seona1973 · 13/12/2010 19:32

Dd (7) has to take money in when she has a school dinner and the amount she pays depends on what she has ordered - she chooses the food and pays at the till at lunch time. She can also choose day to day whether she has a packed lunch or school dinner. She has had to do this since she started school at 4 1/2.

IAmReallyFabNow · 13/12/2010 19:43

I paid for mine to have school dinners today.

They had bread, bolognese and apple pie or bread, tinned tuna and ice cream .

Heating wasn't working.

Power went off too.

The TA's went home, the kids didn't.

I wonder if I will get a refund .

DontCallMeBaby · 13/12/2010 19:50

DD's school is one where you can choose each day to have packed lunch or school dinner. There's a certain time each day at which the dinners are finalised and any hot dinners ordered have to be paid for - DD has once ordered by mistake, I had to go and talk to the teacher after school to have it all explained, I was expecting something awful when DD told me I needed to talk to her! She has had to 'choose' (ie know whether she has packed lunch with her or not) since Reception, and this is the first time she's got it wrong.

Dinners are all paid on account, either with a card or online, you can set your account up to text you when your balance gets low, and if it goes into the negative the school starts chasing the debt.

Original poster

MilaMae · 13/12/2010 20:03

I like that ticket system dab as I also get annoyed when the dc choose a cold option when I wanted them to have hot.

OP posts:

LB29 · 13/12/2010 20:04

Luckily we have order forms for a fornight ahead. Although when we are in a rush in the mornings it would be nice to be able to give the DC's abit of money each for lunch.

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