School Dinners or Packed Lunch?

[Pavlov]

What is the norm for reception school children, when they first start?

DD really wants a lunch box to take with her!

lilmiss blimey now that is small!

I like the idea of school dinners in the winter and autumn and packed lunch in the summer!

Oh do they? they might all sit together? Oh great, well in that case, i might not be so problematic for her to have a lunch box! I just remember at my primary school it being split up.

Pavlov, that's not small! Our primary has 60 pupils.

I think most all mix pack-ups and hot dinners now for seating.

MarsBars I did think ours was small!!

I just like them having a warm dinner when it was cold - warm them from the inside out.

Definitely worth having a chat with the school to see what the system is!

Mine has always been on school dinners. You can't beat it for convenience, and it's a hot meal too so I prefer it to a packed lunch. Start with whatever you feel like for your dd, soon she'll let you know what she'd prefer.

My dd used to be very fussy about food before she started school. A couple of months of school dinners and now she eats anything you put in front of her! She says my cooking is out of this world .

megapixels luckily DD is not a fussy eater. She dislikes onions, and spicy things. That is it. So maybe school dinners would be a good thing if she is not fussy!

Yeah dinners £2 a day here but I have costed out packed lunch for DS1 (who admittedly is almost 11) when he has a day trip out and it costs about that. He eats it all as well.

Ive found school dinners brilliant for DD1. She will try almost anything now, and although there may be some days she isnt sure and would rather a packed lunch, on the whole she is having school dinners most days. We have a 4 weekly rolling menu for the summer - runs from easter-october and then another 4 week menu from october-april.

I think it has to be what works for your family best, DD2 starts school in august and will be taking school dinners too. Means my shopping bills go down because I only have to cook for 2 adults and a toddler! Currently we all eat together, but DD1 will have sandwiches and fruit while we eat a meal and then the children all have a yoghurt or something together while we tidy up. It works for us!

my dd ( reception started at 4 and 3 days) has a pack lunch most of the class have school dinners but still and third or so have a pack lunch. They do eat in 2 seperate halls due to lack of space a and a 2 form entry primary school so its a really big school. she does play with her best friends who both have school dinners at lunchtime though.
they do have to give a half a terms notice for all changes.
the reasons for having a lunchbox are

our school dinners are really expensive £2 a day and her lunchbox never costs that much our whole food/shopping budget costs between £30 and £40 a week. I cannot justify spending up to a third on one persons lunch!

my dh makes them up in the morning because as I told him your making yours anyway you can make hers. I constructed what would go in he just makes it up.

I have to cook for family anyway in the evening as no one has eaten their main meal at lunchtime so it doesn't even save money from that perspective

she would love school dinners I just can't justify them

At their old school there was no kitchen so everyone had to take packed lunch. Also very small with very diverse dietary requirements - halal, kosher, coeliac, nut allergies, vegetarian etc so packed lunch was easier.

Now they have school dinners but we have the schedule for the term and on days when it's something they don't like (quorn curry for eg) they take packed lunch. The school dinners are good but it is exciting to open a little box and see what's inside.

Have you read Bread and Jam for Frances by Russell Hoban? The best school lunchbox EVER.

I dislike making packed lunch though especially as the school does not allow:- squash, crisps, biscuits, cake, chocolate, anything with nuts in and sweets (and I'm lazy). Also my dd is dairy free so all of her stuff is more expensive so I probably do spend £2 a day on her packed lunch. Not on my ds though!

I love Autumn and Winter term!

DD1 has school lunches as she would not eat sandwiches.

I her school dinners are £1.60 a day. In her school in reception they have their lunch either cooked or packed in their class room so the teacher can monitor/encourage children to eat.

They only start eating in the school dining room in the last term of the year to get them used to it. Initially by themselves them with everyone else.

My friend is a school 'cook'. She works in a reheat kitchen so nothing cooked from scratch.

Veneer of healty eating but mostly processed eg soup is not freshly made from veg but reheated from a packet. The chicken served comes from thailand!

her 2 have packed lunches, enough said!

£2 for a school meal sod that, i am not spending £20 a week on her school dinners. I can cook some massively wonderful food for the children in the evening for that! I was thinking it would be more like £1.20 or something? i see i have a lot to learn.

I shall go help her pick a lunch box then

riven oh it will be pink and garish! Now I have never particularly encouraged (or discouraged) pink, but she absolutely loves it. . It will no doubt be pink, garish and probably have disney princesses on it.

I guess its part of going to school isn't it? having a lunch box. I think I will need to buy her one, whatever she eats. Do you put anything in your dd's lunchbox? toys etc?

DS has had packed lunch this year (he's in Year 1). At his school you can choose on a day-by-day basis which you prefer and they sit at the same tables whatever, so there will be mixture of school dinners and packed lunches. I think they are £1.75 here but we are moving in the next couple of months and school dinners are £2.15. As DD is starting reception in September that would be £21.50 a week on lunch time food for two children and as our total food bill is about £50-60 I don't think it would go down by £21.50 by not making packed lunch.

I did have a school dinner (my first ever ) when I went to an open day a few months ago and it did taste good, but I am happy making packed lunches.

pavlov £2 a day is £10 a week actually.

I really can't do pack-ups for that. And certainly not for £1.20. Not that wouldn't leave my DC hungry anyway - not that I'm meaning to start a new debate!

It may not be £2 in your LA. Up till 2 years ago it was about £1.50 here.

ask the other mums what the dinners are like not all schools are good if they are nice its easier in the morning to have dinners best of luck! x

clary I realised that once I posted it! Looked at it thinking that is a LOT, then the sums another poster put, i knew it was wrong. But I am ill, so i could not figure it out and could not be bothered to explain. Til it got noticed

My DD used to have packed lunch but she got teased for bringing in healthy food - apparently ham sandwiches, crisps & chocolate biscuits were the only credible food items. She's normally a really good eater but she got teased relentlessly about her food and started to develop a real hang up about it, so I put her on school dinners and while I don't think they are as healthy and as freshly prepared as maybe I'd like, they are definitely better than the ham sandwich, crisps & chocolate biscuit that is the only other acceptable thing to eat.

At DD's school it is compulsary school dinners for all.

At the infant school I work out it is pretty much 50/50 between school dinners and packed lunch.

I work in one of the Y1 classes and the variety of food brught in varies loads. We have children bringing in quite a varioety from sandwiches, wraps and pitta pockets to pasta, soup, humous and dips, rice dishes, cold fishfingers, sausages, etc.