Remind me what's good about living in Scotland?

[CoralPaperweight]

I moved to Scotland 25 years ago (central belt) and I've had a great life here but over the last year or so I've got increasingly itchy feet. May be a post-Covid or age thing but I'm not sure I want to stay in Scotland forever - it just doesn't seem to be as appealing to me, and even the cities seem a bit flat at the moment. Realistically, I can't disrupt DS education at the moment, he's very settled and happy so please remind me of everything that is fantastic about life in Scotland. I'm forever reading threads about people who are desperate to move to Scotland and I'm not really seeing why at the moment.

Do you actually have any children in primary school in Scotland? Children have choices - one of which is a packed lunch - with two portions of veg and 1 portion of fruit offered, and they’re free for most years. Whether or not you think they’re nutritious they are often the only meal some children will get that day, which is horrific in 2022.

White pudding suppers and Mrs Tilly’s tablet.

White pudding 😍

I don’t anymore, no. I’ve worked in schools though and seen the quality of food on offer. Most kids if given the choice will live on chips and fried food.
It is very true that for many kids it is the only meal they will get in a day . Which is incredibly sad.

@SirChenjins that's not the case at every school. At DS primary there is no option of packed lunch except Fridays (and there is no other option on Friday) Other days there are now only 2 choices of meal, one of which is usually vegan. Food is not prepared on site - brought in and reheated.

Standards have dropped in the last 2-3 years because of more and more prescriptive rules on nutritional standards being introduced by the Scottish Government ... ie the things the children liked and ate (eg veggie pastry things) are now longer allowed. Vegan cheese on menu, ham not allowed (limits on processed meat). Low fat yoghurts the norm and sugar free jellies.

I agree that free school meals are great but they should be funded at sufficient level to provide a decent meal, that children will eat, and in line with sensible guidelines. Full fat yoghurts are not the reason some kids are overweight.

Yeah, when dd was at primary school the meals were cooked on site and just normal food. Now they’re heated up after being brought in, and too obsessed with “good food/bad food” so not appealing

I still have nightmares about school dinners. We had pink custard with a film on top someone told me was pig skin. I still recoil at the thought of it

My 2 are happy enough with the school meals. My 6 year old is sad that I only give her an orange for snack time (others all allegedly have biscuit/crisps - but 6 year old wanting things isn't the most reliable witness).

Don't get the impression much green veg is served but neither comes home hungry. Some have packed lunches but mostly kids with food issues as school lunch is free for most years - all next year.

It's generally stuff like Mac & cheese, sausage rolls+ wedges, curry, roast meal, chicken casserole etc, and there's definitely access to a sandwich option, a veggie option (if main isn't veggie- but always 2 choices plus sandwich) and soup/yoghurt/raisins/lentil curl type crisps.

That said I'm not entirely sure the yoghurt/soup get eaten from the amount on DC's clothing...

@ssd I'm guessing you were at primary school in the 70s, like me. I LOVED that pink custard and I remember asking for the skin! Happy days.

Me too!! I loved all the stodgy puddings and the spam fritters! So unhealthy though. My mother couldn’t cook and we never had puddings at home.

Oh god no, that skin still traumatises me

As for spam fritters 🤮😣

@LilythePunk same! My mum cooked beans on toast or variations of mince. I loved spam fritters but didn’t connect them to actual spam until we’ll into secondary school. This will also out me to any friends, but I also used to think that St Syrup pudding and St Jam pudding were ‘saint’ syrup and not ‘steamed’ syrup 😂😂 I was embarrassingly old when I realised.

Did you both get the puddings in plastic plates, which were different colours?

No, a white ceramic bowl with a patterned strip around the rim.

That did make me laugh about the Saint puddings!
Its so uncanny you say that about your Mum! That’s exactly what my mother cooked too! Beans on toast or variations of (burnt) mince, or ( burnt ) sausages, or boiled eggs. That really was it. School meals to me were heaven!

Yes!

Think ds will get a shock when he goes to school with the meals his nursery have a amazing caterer honestly he eats better than I do and then their "snacks" made in house are scrambled eggs, noodles, soup, crumpets and fruit etc.

I remember chocolate custard from school in England I still hate custard to this day!

In house catering for DS at nursery, same for DS at primary. They never complain about the meals. Saves me a fortune on packed lunches that would probably only get half eaten.

Looks fine to me, really, for our area at least!

www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/media/26933/spring-2022.pdf

Decent choice every day, there's something my DC would happily eat every day. Maybe we just have low standards! 😁

Menu for our school nursery lunches are very similar to what DD currently gets at private nursery. I’ve got no issues at all.

I heard on the radio this morning that teaching unions in England are urging the govt to extend provision of free school meals. Horrible to think of kids going hungry

Ours get the FuelZone menu which has several choices each day, chosen in advance at home via an app. Plus fruit and yoghurt at lunchtime and free fruit in class time. Can't complain at all. Hardly anyone takes packed lunch.

Our meals are cooked on site and seem really nice, youngest won’t touch them - as he has Asd but my older 3 always loved a school dinner. However it’s normal food, roast chicken and veg, bolognese, fish, there is a burger dotted about but usually not with chips and also one week out of 3 the Friday fish comes with chips I feel it’s pretty well rounded and healthy.

When I was at school the lunches were lovely, no choices like there is today but I remember caramel shortcake and custard or little squares of sponge and icing with custard lovely high school meals were even better.
I miss them. I think we pay £2.20 for dinners now which is ok but my 3rd son only has 2 or 3 a week max

The menus don’t reflect the reality

I agree with @WouldBeGood . We are 'consulted with' about school lunches every year. Every year I write the same thing. Please can they share photos of what is actually provided plated up so we can see how appetising it looks, what's actually in some of these things (took me ages to work out bubble fish) and what the portion sizes are. This never happens.

Agree it all sounds great but the reality is that most days mine seemed to think they were eating sauce and chips.