Talking about the rules around lunches, she said: "The school's policy has taken away the horrors of lunch time.
"My daughter can't make choices, she's too frightened, and by setting a menu each day they've taken away that fear."
"It might sound trivial to others, but when you're the parent of a child who suffers so much in school, it makes the world of difference knowing the staff there are trying to help.
"These are the things that matter. Unless the children are starving, the choice of food comes second to the education. That's why these criticisms of the school are so unfair."
Says you. But why should
you get your own way, and impose your needs and desires on others?
The complaints listed by parents at the school centred around the menu on offer, with just one meal choice a day, always vegetarian or fish-based, combined with a ban on packed lunches to encourage equality.
One mum said her child had resorted to going to McDonald's after school each day, whilst another said she "resented" paying £80 per half term for food their child doesn't eat.
So would I! Choice is a fact of life, so the sooner your daughter learns to cope with it, the better everyone will be.
I left junior school many decades ago, but there was no choice about the meal served. Since I am allergic to cheese, some of the dishes made me vomit. If I left them - and you had no choice but to be served the dish of the day - I would be made to sit in the dining hall which doubled as the assembly hall and the gym was needed to be cleared for some other function. The other dish that caused me grief was mince, made from fatty, gristly, meat rejects, topped with cheese. I wouldn't eat it. In one instance, I tried to avoid the inevitable by piling up the plates with my uneaten meal on top, and the bastard teacher on duty presented me with everyone else's leftovers to eat. I remember sitting with it in front of me all afternoon until I had to be let go because the school closed. Incidentally, the fish dishes were always presented with a cheese sauce as well.
ReplyDeleteI never ate a school meal after that incident, but it was fortunate that my father was away on manoeuvres at the time, or said bastard teacher would have lacked rather a lot of teeth afterwards!
I detested my schooldays, and developed a lasting hatred and contempt for schoolteachers that is still with me today in my 70s, although it was partly assuaged when I completed my A level studies at a Technical College and met people who were both able and decent and in a different class from the teachers at the 8 schools I attended before I was finally free of those parasites on society.
I frankly learned next to FA at school, as I started able to read and write, and learned more from my parents, both who left school at 14, than from graduate teachers at the Grammar Schools I attended. I only started to learn anything worthwhile when I left school and went on to study for a BSc, then an MSc and a PhD, had access to practitioners and was able to teach myself.
But I do remember with great distaste the 10 year old version of myself with cheesy vomit covered clothes.
Between the lines, sounds like the school has lucked out and found a scapegoat for a cost-saving measure.
ReplyDeleteThe logical thing to do would be have a choice, but dinner lady makes Jacintha-Kane-D'angelas choice for her.
Good Lord! They are only serving veggie food and they've banned packed lunches in the name of equality? I'm so glad I chose not to have children. I want to punch someone at the school in the face after just reading that. It's good job I don't have to live through it. This country is turning into shit
ReplyDeleteI think the phrase that pays is here:
ReplyDelete'Explaining the policy, Ms Kazmi said the 'family dining' initiative allowed them to serve better quality meals for the same money, "allowing students of all faiths and dietary requirements to eat together."'
Well, I don't think the problem is really 'all faiths'.... much like the choice on the menu, it's just the one.
Yep, it's more multiculturalism that turns out to be actually kind of monocultural.
Meanwhile, all the liberals that are outrageously outraged by bona fide 'faith schools' never seem to notice when de facto sharia is imposed on secular schools.
> only serving veggie food and they've banned packed lunches in the name of equality
ReplyDelete" .... the equal sharing of miseries ....."
Socialism in a nutshell.
DeleteI read Anon's account of dealing with school dinners with a rising sense of anxiety - I was at primary school in the 70s when compulsory school dinners were the order of the day, and I too was forced to eat things I detested, or sit staring at a plate of congealed food for an hour or so until the staff had to clear the dining room. I think forcing children to eat things they dislike is a form of torture - it makes every day at school a psychological torment, knowing whats coming. I remember well feeling very anxious every morning, wondering what would be for dinner and whether it would be something I dislaiked or not. At least in the case mentioned the children have the alternative to not eat things and go hungry, I would have jumped at the chance.
ReplyDeleteBut I have nothing but utter contempt and visceral hatred for adults who use children as cannon fodder in their attempts at social engineering, they should be forced to go through some traumatic experience every day for years to see how they like it.
"I left junior school many decades ago, but there was no choice about the meal served."
ReplyDeleteOh, me too! But these days, times have changed, and choice is to be expected.
"Between the lines, sounds like the school has lucked out and found a scapegoat for a cost-saving measure."
Only if it applies to staff too...
"I want to punch someone at the school in the face after just reading that. It's good job I don't have to live through it. This country is turning into shit"
It is rather relentlessly grim, lately, isn't it?
"Yep, it's more multiculturalism that turns out to be actually kind of monocultural."
Spot on!
"Socialism in a nutshell."
Once again, spot on!