Sunday, 4 April 2010

"If you have a problem, if no one else can help..."

This'll undoubtedly warm the cockles of Dick Puddlecote's heart.

It's everyone's favourite mockney chef and proto-Righteous bansturbator, Jamie Oliver, in 'Help me, Jamie, you're my only hope!' plea:
The headteacher of a Worcester school has written to TV chef Jamie Oliver asking him to stop a supermarket giant serving his pupils junk food.
Eh..? What exactly is he supposed to do about it? Blow up the store? Forge documents and get the manager and staff arrested and the store closed under health regulations?

I think headteacher Neil Morris is confusing the porky mockney with Col. John "Hannibal" Smith. Or for younger readers, Michael Westen.
Neil Morris says the Sainsbury’s store next to his school – Christopher Whitehead Language College – is tempting pupils with offers of cheap sweets and fizzy drinks.
Otherwise known as 'selling legal products to customers'.
Mr Morris says he has already had to send teachers to the supermarket to order pupils back to class and fears the school’s canteen will be put out of business if pupils continue to abandon healthy eating options in favour of junk food.
And when you absolutely, positively gotta ensure that everyone is forced to eat the low-budget, tasteless pap on offer in your canteen, you should ensure that they can accept no substitutes, right Mr Morris?
Now he has asked the face of Sainsbury’s and champion of healthy school dinners Jamie Oliver to see for himself the impact he says the supermarket is having on the school.
In the hope that his veins will start to swell, his eyes bulge, his skin turn green, his trousers rip and he lets out his war cry 'Jamie SMASH!!', I presume..?
Mr Morris said: “I am asking Jamie Oliver to come in and to meet with the store manager. All I am asking is that they don’t serve the students after 8.25am (the start of the school day).”
So in addition to all the myriad other things supermarket checkout operators are forced - by the government - to look out for (knives, glue, too many packets of aspirin), they now have to turn away legal custom because some jumped up little babysitter has got in a strop?
They say they are not, but they are. We have teachers now outside the store getting the children back into class. But these offers are causing poor diet and litter for the pupils and the school.

“They have a great responsibility within the community that they aren’t actually going with or meeting. ”
Oh, listen to yourself, will you? Actually, I suspect that's the problem - you are too damn fond of your own voice and having everyone in your little staffroom hang on your every word.

You've forgotten that in the real world outside the school walls, you are impotent. And that you are paid to administer a school, not impose your own standards for food (you do eat in the canteen every day, don't you? Or wouldn't you be caught dead with a tofu-burger in your mouth, like most people who preach to others?) on the students:
"We don’t want to have to ban our kids from Sainsbury’s but that is the way it could be going.”
And you're going to do that how? Legally, you haven't got a prayer. You've already pointed out your failure to keep them in during school hours.

Sainsbury pointed out some economic realities to this loon:
A spokesman for Sainsbury’s said: "Our stores aim to make a real positive difference to the community so we were sorry to hear that one of our neighbours feels this way.

“As well as special offers on occasional treats like soft drinks and crisps we also offer great deals on fruit and other healthier products."
Before uttering a sinister chuckle and daring Jamie and Neil to do their worst, as most cartoon supervillains do, one supposes...

Even the publicity-hungry TV chef doesn't want to touch this one, after his mauling at the hands of the US viewers:
No-one from Mr Oliver’s company was available to comment.
Heh!

Oh, and I can't help a wry chuckle that the reporter they picked for this story is one Claire Fry...

And when I checked out the college, I noticed this little gem:
Since September 2007, the school was divided into six houses. Each pupil wears a colored tie of their corresponding house, with the exception of pupils in their final year at the school. Pupils now share their forms with approximately 5 pupils from each year at the school in the same house. The houses are:

* Da Vinci
* Pankhurst
* Shakespeare
* Curie
* Brunel
* Seacole
Hmmm, some real giants of science, art, architecture and politics there. And one huge, glaring, politically-correct inclusion.

16 comments:

Mike said...

what ever happened to oak and ash for house names?

Joe Public said...

Well if they will teach their students mathematics so they can work out for themselves 'value-for-money', what do they expect?

Chuckles said...

So our verbally effluent head teacher wants St. Jamie of our Dinner Ladies to help him with a school discipline problem,dressed up as a problem with a neighbouring supermarket?

Projection, cognitive dissonance, clang.

Hint for societally challenged school figureheads -
You seem to have a slightly warped idea of the relationship between Sainsburys and Mr. Oliver. They pay him money, fairly large sums. In return, he does and says EXACTLY what he is told. When they say 'shit', he says 'what flavour'.
He does not have ANY input into the running of the organisation.

And what is a 'Language College'? The school seems to have a huge number of depts. that are nothing to do with languages, and then 'English' and 'Foreign'.

dr cromarty said...

I bet Seacole House are shit at everything except sprinting and whining

Mike said...

i think i'm going to leave you Julia :(

Mike said...

Obo the clown has entranced me

Brian, follower of Deornoth said...

So Mr Neil Morris thinks that it is the duty of everyone in the community to keep his school canteen in business.

Everyone apart from himself, that is, because he is too fuck-idle to do anything about it himself, and prefers to whine to the press about it.

Stroll on Michael Gove's proposals. Shortly after they are implemented, this worthless parasite will be out on his ear.

Antisthenes said...

It shows you the intelligence of our teaching profession. The head teacher has written to Jamie Oliver, did it never occur to him to write to the parents. Sainsburys is not the problem and they are the least qualified to deal with it. It is the parents and their children who are the problem and they are the ones to sort it out.

Anonymous said...

You've gotta laugh at Seacole House. I suppose they have to weep while self flagellating about slavery every morning and those promising footballers and architects that are stabbing each other to death on a daily basis.

He's Spartacus said...

Bastard should be force fed a diet of Marmite sandwiches.

Oh.... Hang on a minute....

blueknight said...

'....fears the school's canteen will be put out of business...' tells you all you need to know about what this is really all about.
Perhaps the school canteen should do a bit of market research. They are either selling the wrong things, or their prices are too high, or both. Can't imagine today's youth walking all the way to the shops unless there was a good reason for it

JuliaM said...

"what ever happened to oak and ash for house names?"

I suppose we should be greatful they weren't named after Harry potter.

Yet.

"Projection, cognitive dissonance, clang."

Indeed!

"Obo the clown has entranced me"

He's on my blogroll for a reason. ;)

"Stroll on Michael Gove's proposals. Shortly after they are implemented, this worthless parasite will be out on his ear."

I'd like to think so, but I've rather lost faith in politicians keeping their promises...

JuliaM said...

"It shows you the intelligence of our teaching profession. "

I suspect it's not so much that he wants to solve a problem, but he wants to be SEEN trying to solve a problem. And what better way than by doing something that gets his name in the local paper?

"You've gotta laugh at Seacole House."

Indeed. Albeit hollowly...

"Perhaps the school canteen should do a bit of market research. They are either selling the wrong things, or their prices are too high, or both."

I'd put my money on no:1.

dr cromarty said...

Try this one from The Onion Increasing Number Of Parents Opting To Have Children School-Homed

"When it comes to important life skills such as proper nutrition, safe sex, and even basic socialization, a growing number of mothers and fathers think it's better to rely on educators to guide and nurture their kids."

*hollow laughter*

Anonymous said...

The plot thickens...

Reading between the lines, http://www.worcestershire.gov.uk/cms/pdf/Appendix%203%20-%20Capital%20Programme%20Annexe.pdf suggests that the Sainsbury store is built on the old playing fields of the school. They got a sports centre, and the council got half the cash for the land.

They boast that the canteen is open for breakfast, so it may be that their projections are being crippled.

Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if the school canteen is another PFI contract, with serious penalties if sales levels aren't met, although I can't find proof online.

Slowjoe

JuliaM said...

"Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if the school canteen is another PFI contract"

Me neither.