Unusual school dinner arrangement

[millionsofpeaches]

Just wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience, as this arrangement for Dd's school lunches sounds a bit strange to me.

Dd has just started reception, so is entitled to free school dinner. Unfortunately her school are only able to offer a cold packed lunch. The reason for this is that they have no on-site kitchen and do not employ any lunchtime supervisors at all. The teachers and TAs supervise the children.

I thought the whole point of free school dinners was to get a hot meal. The school have said that's not an option due to lack of lunchtime supervisors. I know some parents who say they are not bothered by the lack of hot food if the money for dinner ladies had to be taken from somewhere else in the school, but surely other schools manage this effectively?

I am thinking of opting out as the packed lunches aren't great quality and Dd doesn't seem to like them.

Is this situation unusual?

I was under the impression they had to offer a hot lunch. Schools round here have had to build kitchens and employ dinner ladies.

That's what I thought Mak The whole thing just sounds like a poor excuse to me.

Last year there was a cold meal only for the first half term whilst they finished building kitchens. It was stressed this was only temporary once the kitchen was built hot meals were served.

they might not bother now. There was something in the news about free school meals for infants being abandoned soon, wasn't there.

In schools without kitchen facilities the meal does not have to be hot, but it does have to meet the required nutritional standards.

Our soon have never offered hot lunches. We keep being promised them but then something outside the school's control happens (like the contracted provider going under) and it gets delayed again. The whole thing has been a bit of a fiasco. The quality of the packed lunches is poor so I have been sending DD with her own packed lunch since Feb & she has been much happier as she isn't hungry all afternoon.

No. The meals don't have to be hot and tbh I can't see universal fsm lasting long - that was Nick Clegg's baby.

In many schools tas and mdas are the same people on different contracts for lunchtimes. School isn't managing it's budget well if it's paying ta rates for lunchtime supervision, but it could be employing tas as lunchtime supervisors

Schools have to be showing they are 'moving towards' providing hot meals. However, as the kitchen additions/changes have to be self funded school can show they are putting money aside to 'save' for a kitchen to be built iyswim.

My kids were in reception last year which was the first year of free school dinners and their school built a dining hall especially for it and employed a team of lunch time supervisors.. As before it was just pack lunches. For about 2 months when they first started they had packed lunches provided by the school as the dining hall wasn't ready. It is abit odd as I thought the government was providing schools with extra cash to build provisions to provide hot school meals.

Round us a lot of school share kitchens. They are not small schools - all 2 or 3 form entry

It will be a shame if fsm is scrapped. But really wouldn't surprise me if it is. Fat cat politicians need to make as many cut backs as possible to ensure they have their ridiculous pay rise.

There are many schools which have no kitchen and therefore must provide sandwichs.The school receives funding in the next year based on the number of pupils who eat FSM on a set day. There was also a capital grant given to all LAs for putting in kitchens,but to be honest it was never going to be any where near enough.
The school's comments about lunchtime supervisors is just a red herring. The school has to supervise somehow the pupils and if they do it with teachers and TAs,then that is OK,but there are rules around when staff are working and I winder whether the school is obeying those.