School Dinner Ladies

anniemf2508

jellyhead wrote: »

But supermarkets sell those little bags of sliced apple, etc. for less than the cost of a bag of crisps too.

you have your pricings wrong there.....the little bags of fruit are 3 for a £1 in Tesco and you can get 12 bags of crisps for 68p. Fruit is hardly cheaper that way.

devildog

I was a dinner lady in my past life for many years at a small primary school where no hot lunches were provided. Being a small school we also had two sittings to accomodate in the hour as well as to clean up afterwards (and the 'dining room' was a classroom!!) So stressful!!
You had the older children who would try and get away with eating one solitary mouthful so they could get out and play football to others that would take the whole hour to eat their lunch.
Swapping food was a huge no-no (but they still tried to) and you would be amazed at what the contents of the lunch boxes would be. Always crisps, chocolate biscuits and sometimes sweets and pop, the sweets/pop were taken and returned at home time. Of course there were always those children that ate the crisps cake etc and then claimed to be too full to eat the 'good' stuff or that they didn't like it. To get around this we had to insist that the good stuff was eaten first. The difficulty came when having to decide what was a sweet and what was a cake/biscuit especially when more 'sweet' brands became biscuits/cakes. It ended up being that if it was sold in the cake/biscuit isle of a supermarket it was ok but if purely sold with the sweets it wasn't. Whether we agreed with the policy or not we had to do it!

pigpen

devildog wrote: »

others that would take the whole hour to eat their lunch.!

I have 1 of those.. they take her in to eat first and she is still regularly the last one sitting there!!! She sits in a corner so they can clear everything away around her and she gets a certificate if she is not the last one in the dining hall.

maman

fluffnutter wrote: »

Because that would involve a bit of effort and planning and it's far easier and more self-satisfying to simply whine and chunter about every other influence in your child's life.

Treevo wrote: »

Give the Head a letter (and a copy to the governors) regarding your child's nutritionally-balanced, specialist diet, warning them that should they interfere with your child's diet and health that you will have no option but to take the matter further. It won't work if you include crisps and junk food in their lunchbox however and they're the size of a small car, but if you have a healthy child then the diet will be respected. Even if you include home-made treats.

Where's that tongue in cheek smiley when you need it?

Acc72

Ladyhawk wrote: »

Are you really comparing the maniacs who perpetrated the mass murder of million of innocent people with some school dinner ladies?

Even more difficult to understand when you see the OP's username.

Buttonmoons

I'm confused - what's the difference between an Academy and Secondary school - I always thought they were 1 and the same. I went to an Academy but all the secondary schools I can think of near of the top of my head are too.

Our school when I was there (About 10 years ago) were one of the first to get rid of all the vending machines/sweets. Still served pizza/chips etc, but to be honest hardly anyone ever took that, they made fresh sandwiches which were cheap at 65p a baguette and nice.

My daughters school meals are hit and miss, definatley not a big enough portion but is a bigger one of pudding :-/ they don't ban anything from lunchboxes though, at all - deprived area where some kids are probably lucky to get a can of coke and a tube of pringles.

couponqueen123

laurel7172 wrote: »

I stopped my daughter having school meals because she came home every day claiming to have had chips, something-\I-didn't-eat and cake.

Imagine, then, how impressed I was when they confiscated a treat-sized bar of chocolate (three squares of Dairy Milk), which I'd put in as a birthday, ie once-a-year treat..

One rule for packed lunches, another for school dinners...

i took my dd school on over this a won :j

the school dinners got chips 2 times a week:eek: chicken twizzler horse lol with ice cream:eek: ,choclate cake , choclate flapjack and cornflake crisp on offer for desert every day with fruit as the healty option :rotfl:(i imagine that was popular)

i switched my dd to sandwiches and gave a cheese and tom sandwich and yogert and a nutrigrain bar daily and on a friday a kitcat and crips instead of nutragrain

they told me this was unhealthy and not allowed and stoped my dd eating her "unhealty food"

so i went to see the head teacher and asked for explanation and explained i was rather bemused how school dinners culd have crap for lunch and my dd culdnt have a nutragrain as a "desert" and a chcolate treat and crisps on a friday

shes obustly "had to get back to me "

next day i had a letter sent home with dd saying there was no problem and they will be revising the school lunch menu

and to be fair 3 weeks later there was a new school menu and they are even hoping to use some of the veg they grow for the dinners

so my thing to you is if unhappy go to the school and explain and ask for reasons

also if u send a letter in with yr child saying i do not wnat my dd .ds to be made to eat once they have had enough then they will do just that id imagine

bagpuss38

Another ex dinner lady here.
I second the fact that lunchtimes are in fact very stressful for all concerned, think of serving lunch for your kids when they are having "one of those days" and refusing to eat or just doing it slowly, times that by 320 and now imagine you have to out the door in like 15 mins. Stress central!

The turnaround times for the infants and juniors is not v long at all, and believe me cleaning up after up to 60 4 year olds is not fun.
I had both good and bad experiences with the children, while most were v polite and helpful, there were many who would "whoops my tray slipped" while squashing it into the floor.
Most said please and thank you.

Some sad stories too of one little boy who never had dinner made for him but helped himself to the left over Hors d'oeuvre from his parents dinner parties the night before.
I think allergies play a bit part in a lot of the so called "policing"
Some healthy bars contain nuts which are a big no no.

I would also like to mention that out of some of the teachers on duty, the vast percentage were great, others were rude to us as if being a dinner lady was beneath their consideration.

Sorry for the epic post:o

balletshoes

Buttonmoons wrote: »

I'm confused - what's the difference between an Academy and Secondary school - I always thought they were 1 and the same. I went to an Academy but all the secondary schools I can think of near of the top of my head are too.

In England, academies have different status to LEA-run secondary schools. Ours for example is partnered with a private company and the local university. There are lots of differences between academies and LEA-run schools in England.

glitter03

*max* wrote: »

Dinner's around 7/8.

I've never understood the custom of having "tea" (dinner) at 5pm. I'd be starving come 8!

My daughter (5) is in bed by 7pm and asleep by 7.30! Having 'tea' as late as 8pm sounds madness to me!