School Dinner Ladies

maman

couponqueen123 wrote: »

i could take dd home if i wished for lunch but the school try to discourage this as it dosnt look good

I'm bemused by this. Whatever do you mean it doesn't look good?

School days are divided into two sessions and the register marked twice. I don't believe you can be prevented from taking your child home at lunchtime. Most schools would welcome this.

balletshoes wrote: »

Our primary school allows children to go home for lunch ~ at age 4 one of my daughters classmates went home for lunch every day. i personally dont think it helped her settle at school because all the other kids stayed for lunch at school.

I understand the point about 'settling in'. It's just ironic that you're talking about settling in to a system that many posters are so disappointed with I'm surprised they want their children to be part of it.

I have huge sympathy with and admiration for the dinner ladies who have to turn this all around in double quick time. It's not just the supervision of the children and their eating but getting the hall tidied and cleaned up as well. Only the other day there was a thread and a government pronouncement about not enough time allocated to PE in schools but no mention of what it's like to have to access a hall that is still being swept or risk children slipping on peas and sweetcorn during a gymnastics lesson! I don't suppose they have that problem at Eton though!:rotfl:

jellyhead

I've just seen 30 packets of crisps for £2.49!

Because we don't buy them often (I buy a pack of 5 from Poundland for the occasional picnic) I hadn't really noticed how cheap they can be. The Lidl leaflet has an XXL pack of 'crusti croc' crisps for £2.49. I'm really tempted to buy them now, telling myself that we'll be going for lots of days out over Easter. The reality is that I'd eat 3 packets a night in front of the TV though.

pigpen

aileth wrote: »

When I was at school some 10 or so years ago now, only Year 10 and 11 could go home for lunch AND they had to live within 1 mile of the school. Others couldn't go home even if parents picked them up. They had dinner ladies guarding all the exists and there was actual scheming and plans being made for distractions to let others sneak out, or others simply ran past them. They relaxed it in the latter years surprisingly.

They are talking primary school here but if the parents say they want their child home for lunch the school cannot effectively kidnap them lol... In high school we were not allowed off the school premises if we were staying lunch but if we were going home we had a pass for the gate.... this was more like 25 years ago... and is still the same now, I have 3 children there.

katie1812

At the school I work at, we don't 'inspect' the children's lunchboxes but if we notice one unhealthy item or if their whole lunch is very unhealthy then we will put a letter in their box to remind of their family of our healthy eating policy. We all understand that at different points of the month, the cupboards may be a little bare and so we may let it go slightly or if its once by a child who is normally very healthy.

jackomdj

Our school ran a health lunchbox meeting for parents a few weeks ago. I went, even though DD does have healthy packed lunches, along with about 5 other families from the 200+ families at the school.

The reason I went was to get some ideas of other tuff to put in for her, but did not learn anything new.

It is amazing some of the things DD tells me other children have.

Loz01

When I was at school (Im 26), the dinner ladies used to check we'd eaten everything or we were eating sandwiches first, dessert later but now it has turned into a police state it seems :eek: they cant even have a little kit kat or penguin bar in my niece's school or they kick off, home made cakes/flapjacks are 'unhealthy', crisps of every kind are frowned upon. And frube yoghurts arent even allowed!!! It has to be in a bloody pot with a spoon! :eek: it's madness.

Then they serve up pizza and waffles for the school lunch *slow hand clap*

busiscoming2

I'm a dinner lady and the vast majority of parents send their kids with what one would deem to be a reasonably healthy selection, but some parents appear to have no idea: chocolate spread sandwiches, crisps and a couple of chocolate bars.

Ours is a small school and the policy is no sweets. We take those away and give them to the class teacher who returns them to the parent at the end of the day. This rarely happens though as most parents adhere to the policy.

If we see a child with a 'bad lunchbox' we just mention to the teacher what was in there and they chat with the parent, reinforcing 'good' options

Our school dinners are bought in and are apparently nutritionally balanced. Some days they are better than others. There are always a couple of food options and so something to suit most children.

Oh and OP we don't shout and scream at the children. I expect we would be sacked for doing so.

jellyhead

Loz01 wrote: »

When I was at school (Im 26), the dinner ladies used to check we'd eaten everything or we were eating sandwiches first, dessert later but now it has turned into a police state it seems :eek: they cant even have a little kit kat or penguin bar in my niece's school or they kick off, home made cakes/flapjacks are 'unhealthy', crisps of every kind are frowned upon. And frube yoghurts arent even allowed!!! It has to be in a bloody pot with a spoon! :eek: it's madness.

Then they serve up pizza and waffles for the school lunch *slow hand clap*

I wonder if the rule against frubes is due to kids squirting them at each other? They do it at the bus stop for high school here. I don't think it will be due to the fat content or whatever, because you can get fromage frais in pots.

mumps

My youngest is of the bean pole variety and at one point his BMI was 17, you could count his ribs from the other side of the room. I was told he couldn't have crisps or chocolate, apparently a kitkat was OK but a Twix wasn't? He used to take sandwich, usually meat and salad, a yogurt, juice, crisps, banana and sometimes an apple and a Twix or homemade cake. I had to see the Head and have a firm talk about his calorie intake, enough to keep a small town going and he was still under weight. The dinner ladies left him alone after that.

I don't even want to go into what he had for breakfast or the raid on the fridge to keep him going till dinner.

PolishBigSpender

Loz01 wrote: »

When I was at school (Im 26), the dinner ladies used to check we'd eaten everything or we were eating sandwiches first, dessert later but now it has turned into a police state it seems :eek: they cant even have a little kit kat or penguin bar in my niece's school or they kick off, home made cakes/flapjacks are 'unhealthy', crisps of every kind are frowned upon. And frube yoghurts arent even allowed!!! It has to be in a bloody pot with a spoon! :eek: it's madness.

Then they serve up pizza and waffles for the school lunch *slow hand clap*

Again, who are these dinner ladies to judge whether home made food is healthy or not? Are any of them actually qualified in the area of nutrition, or even qualified at all?

The latest story from the school is that the head teacher has told my friend that dinner ladies cannot be expected to understand nutrition on any scientific level, so there must be a blanket ban on cakes/etc. Quite incredible to my ears.