"coolmilk" deliveries - reliable?

[YBR]

I'm trying to decide whether to continue with school milk for my child.
DD1 says she drinks it when it's there but is a bit "meh!" about it.

Does anyone have any comment about whether it actually turns up reliably, and whether many kids still have it after reception year?

(there is a credit on the bill which would indicate they haven't always delivered to the school).

The school is in Leicestershire.

My two are going into Y6 and I've finally given up on it. Years of difficulty getting the payment going through, I tried again this year and the payment failed to go through again. The kids said they'd rather not have the milk and drink plenty at home. So I gave up.

We found the children often didn't get it (not sure whether it turned up at the school or not). Also DC complained that there was often no straw with the carton so they had to pierce the hole with a pencil and drink it messily through that. Finally DD2 said that the milk was sometimes "fizzy". Investigations with the school office discovered that the milk cartons were delivered early morning before the building was open (ie before 7am) and the cartons were stacked by the main entrance in full sun waiting for the caretaker (who started at 8.30am) to get around to moving them inside and later on into a fridge. Not entirely coolmilk's fault, but indicative of a failure in the system. Why deliver foodstuffs so early that no one is there to receive them!

Yes, agree with Quack. I have seen milk cartons stacked up by the wall near the office entrance very often in the morning, in the full sun. Then it will be moved inside the building, waiting to be delivered to each class. I was wondering who's responsibility it was to deliver it to each class.(big school)
Sometimes I've seen it was still there, half taken after school pick up.

I've just asked DS, he says it's always cold, sometimes there's ice in it so I guess it's either frozen and defrosted or kept in a very very cold fridge. He says it's always there and always has a straw. We had an issue last September with mislabelling which was 50/50 cool milk and school's fault (cool milk didn't label the right classes, school didn't read the names and work out that reception didn't have that many children ).

Other than that it seems fine to us.

We find most of the children who are entitled to the milk often don't drink it and either give it away or it's thrown away at the end of the day.

I'm very surprised a school caretaker doesn't start until 8.30! What time does school begin? Most of our teaching staff are there by 7.30 and our caretaker opens up and does all the checks long before we arrive.

We have fridges in school for the milk and yes children often say it's frozen (don't know if it arrives frozen or our fridges are too cold)

Cuts innit? Teaching staff are usually in early and breakfast club starts 8am, so I expect those staff get in earlier. But caretaker is 8.30 - 12.30. then two cleaners in 4-5pm and they lock up apart from one door. Last teacher to leave locks last door and sets alarm. After school club use a separate building (more like a hut tbh) and close that themselves at 6pm. The main gate (car access) is never locked. I don't think they get the luxury of "checks" before anyone arrives, since they can't manage a HT or consistent teachers for most classes. I would imagine the caretaker budget is used up on supply agencies and long term sick pay.

Our caretaker starts at 6.30 and has the school ready for breakfast club

And he's last to leave and sets the alarms

Delivery is patchy in our area too (South Warks). Dcs probably get it 3x a week on average over the course of the school year. They like it so I've decided to pay up to Christmas & if it's still as hit & miss I'll stop it.

I work in a school in Leicestershire (might be same one) many children in year 1,2 and 3 have milk and then it starts reducing in numbers. For reception the teacher physically hands it out to each child that is on the milk list. After reception children are expected to collect the milk from there classes tray on the way up to the playground along with their snack. Some children do sometimes forget or simply decide they don't want it that day.

The teacher would often say the milk was off. Also in a tiny plastic bottle which the children had to drink out of without a straw.

I'm also in Leicestershire and my DS is going up to year 3 in September. I've just paid for his milk for next term. He loves milk, likes having it at break time and he drinks it everyday.
While he likes milk and is happy to have it, I'll carry on paying for it