KS1 school dinners/lunches

Jalima, Infants and Juniors to me as well, Also I am stuck when talkig to a mum who says Year 5 or whichever it happens to be. I am still with 1st year, 2nd year and so on.

EdithCrawley that is so true.
One child who was interviewed said he didn't like the school holidays because he got dinners at school and nothing much at all in the holidays.

I'm a KS1 teacher in a huge school in a deprived area, and I'm grateful for our kitchen staff's attitude to fill our children with as much as they can at lunchtime.

For a frighteningly large number of children, this might be the only meal they get in a day. To begrudge them sticky toffee pudding makes me so sad.

Growing? My DGS is nearly as tall as me (still another 2 years in primary).

Nothing wrong with children having a pudding, remember they are actually growing and run around in the playground anyway.

At my DGC’s primary school, the meals are brought in and parents have to order the meals by the previous Weds at the latest. For mains, there is a hot meal choice, a veggie choice, a jacket potato choice or a cold box. For desert there is a pudding perhaps a sponge, jelly, crumble or flapjack, but as well as that there is the choice of yoghurt or fruit or cheese and biscuits. I think that is absolutely brilliant and they will continue to have them even when they get to the ‘paying’ years.

We had to eat everything when I was at school, even the gristle.

Artificial sweeteners aren’t allowed in a school kitchen, btw.
I am relieved about that, dreadful stuff.
If they have a pudding then are thrown out into the playground most children will run off the calories; if they go home to a nutritionally balanced tea or supper they will be fine, it is those who eat the junk food constantly who are in danger of becoming obese.

I ate large school lunches plus the puddings, then a large tea or another dinner in the evening and was an extremely skinny child with legs like matchsticks.

Well my DC bake with their children, and there are umpteen recipes these days for low fat, low sugar hot puddings. And for many children of course, the free school lunch is their main, or even their only, meal. Artificial sweeteners aren’t allowed in a school kitchen, btw.

When I was at the grammar school , years ago, the food was horrible and we used to fill up on the puds. Thames mud was a chocolate tart and death on the concrete a jam tart. That and milk then I would go home for a decent tea.
Mind you, my teeth are dreadful now and I am a type 2 diabetic.

I have pudding after my main meal ???

P S I don't know how one makes e.g. sticky toffee pudding without sugar -and I certainly wouldn't want my GC to be given artificial,sweetners.

I don't know many people who have puddings at midday, or for that matter in the evening except for special occasions. If the main course is nutritious why do they need anything else? Also what would be wrong with having another piece of fruit ? However, my main gripe is the double standards- one hand telling parents to limit calories of snacks while the other provides starchy puddings.

So say you get rid of all puddings that you see as unhealthy, Atqui. Out of interest, what are you going to replace them with, apart from the yoghurt already mentioned? Bearing in mind that KS1 already get fruit as a snack mid-morning.

As vampirequeen states, nutritional standards for school kitchens are very strict, and I think you'd be surprised at just how little sugar and other nasties there are in the "sugary carby food" you want to ban. I just want my DGS to learn how to make healthy choices, certainly, but also to enjoy their food and not develop an unhealthy obsession with it.

They are still Infants and Juniors to me Auntieflo, except when corrected by DGD!

Thank you Jalima1108 and WhenIwasyourage. Apologies for not understanding. All grandchildren are (very) grown up, except our little latecomer, 3, so I am not au fait with the current terms in use.

I suppose the Welsh Government can't afford to fund free lunches for KS1 and compulsory Welsh lessons.

We must get our priorities right.

Our DIL tells us that free hot school lunches are free for the first three years of primary school, so age 4-5 5-6 and 6-7 and they can choose to have the hot lunch or packed lunches ( the school provides.) very good isn’t it? she says the lunches sound really nutritious.

Yes, P1, 2 and 3 are the first 3 classes of primary school in Scotland. We don't have Reception or Key Stages.

ps I presume that reception children in England also get free school dinners?

KS1 is Key Stage 1 ie Infants and the free dinners are provided in England for this age group. Wales does not provide free dinners.
I think P1, 2 and 3 must the the Scottish version of KS1 so school dinners must be free in Scotland too for this age group.

Please, what are KS1 dinners, and also PS1, 2 and 3. ?

vq raisins are notoriously bad for rotting teeth - they are sweet and stick to the crevices in teeth apparently.

can I add I was very strict about no sweets etc when mine were little they are both choocoholics now and I get the blame for it
That's very interesting paddyann. Mine were allowed sweets and lemonade - but they were strictly rationed. One of my DC still loves sweets but the others are not bothered at all, one will eat chocolate occasionally, the others not at all.

There are no free school meals in Wales.

It's like the NHS telling us there's an obesity crisis and having vending machines full,of chocolates and crisps.

It's true that our generation was brought up with 'proper puddings' , but I don't think we sat about as much playing with computer games and watching tv , so the exercise might have compensated, and I'm not sure our generation is particularly healthy or averse to eating too much sugar. I did say in the OP that a healthier alternative is always a available , but my point is that it's hard for young children to resist sugary carby food without making an issue of it , which could lead to eating disorders, so why not just leave them off the menu?