Teachers feeding hungry children

We called tapioca pudding 'frogspawn' at school.

I think 'frogspawn' might have been tapioca, Joan. I never had school dinners, but it made an appearance in my University residence, until it dawned on the cooks that nobody chose it. We had something called 'bath mat', but I think that was Yorkshire pudding.

j04 I agree that it's not always their fault but if there was complusory parenting classes for those affected it would solve the problem. Much better the 'nanny state' educates the parents and therefore the children than takes over the parental responsibilites.

That's it - tapioca!

I think tapioca days might have been when my mate and I snuck out to the local transport caff for a bacon and egg buttie, till we got hauled up in front of the headmaster for 'lowering the tone'. Oh well, it was good while it lasted.

PS
She's ever so posh now.

PPS
I'm not.

AlisonMA I wish I had your faith in the efficacy of parenting classes.

petallus no experience at all of parenting classes but think I could do a good job of them so surely others could. It cannot be difficult to show someone how to feed a family on a budget and teach them the basics of nutrition.

But could you force them to turn up for the whole course? If they had to be frogmarched there by the police, the yellow press would have a field day.

Elegran presumably there would have to be some sort of incentive or penalty. It is worrying that someone would not want to know how to be a better parent isn't it?

The problem is that many so called inadequate parents are stubborn enough to think they are doing fine and resent what they see as middle class interference. They probably would not be prepared to voluntarily attend parenting classes.

As for incentives/penalties, easy to attend the course, collect the money and then ignore everything you learned. As for Penalties, docking benefits would adverseley affect the very children you are trying to help, as would taking those children into care (where if recent reports are to be believed they are sitting targets for sexual abuse).

Parents often have to learn how to play with their children and can also learn to cook meals which they then take home with them for the family's tea. The school where I was chair of governors had a community room which could be used for such purposes. There is no reason why parenting courses should be punitive. When I was on the Social Services committee of the Council, I once went along to meet mums who were on one of these courses and the atmosphere was pleasantly informal and cosy. It had become a kind of club. And why not?

Primary school meals are still pretty good overall.

The problem comes with secondary school (which can be from 10+)- where there are 'good' choices available actually, but the kids are too tempted by the poor food value items - and so daily choose the same, a plate of chips, with a bag of crips, very sweet cake/bun and fluorescent drink. They could choose salad, veg, baked potatoe, pasta or rice, with meat or fish - and a fruit or yogurt - but they don't. And if the school does try to withdraw 'unhealthy' items, the kids boycott the school meal, go to the chippy, or parents even come and shove MacDonalds burgers through the gate.

Of course the chips and biscuits have the biggest profits for the canteen - not much profit on nice fruit, good meat or fish, or even veg.

The issues are very complex, and go back a very long way. No magical solution unfortunately.

Annobel That is good to hear. I feel sure there must be a solution somewhere.

Engaging the interest of people who may not want to learn, such as prisoners and the bottom streams of inner-city secondary schools requires a lot of experience. I suspect that many women who have not had the advantage of a good education could easily feel patronised by someone they perceived as privileged and middle-class teaching them to feed their children according to the teacher's own ideas.
I love the idea of a mums' (and dads!) club based in a local venue where everyone feels equal and they swap ideas

How would parenting classes help with lack of money? I am NOT criticising the parents' ability to know what to feed the children. The problem is they do not have enough money!

j04 I don't think that is the case for all of them. As someone else said, they often have the latest gadgets, smoke etc.

Lack of money is one factor; inability to budget is another.

I agree that in many cases it is lack of money that is the problem. I personally know a couple of families where money for food runs out at the end of the month.

As for poor nutrition, if you are going to penalise parents for having obese children, to be fair you would have to do something similar with obese adults who are often costing the nhs plenty for fat related illnesses.

Maybe we should run courses to advise people on how to manage alcohol and cigarette over-use.

Not to mention chocolate

I'm not sure parenting classes would help those parents tbh. I'm not at all sure many of them actually exist. Apart from in the pages of the Daily Mail.

There have been threads on Mumsnet where parents have run out of money and can't feed the kids. Other mums have rallied round.

I was going to ask what on earth school meals services were doing providing fluorescent drinks until jura pointed out the profit motive. If school meals are driven by profit motives, improving them (so that fluorescent drinks are never an option, for instance) is impossible. Makes you want to give up in despair

We only ever got water to drink with school dinners.

And us! Never allowed anything else at the boarding bit either. The only time I had juice,tea,coffee etc: was on holiday at home.
Oh we're allowed a horlicks before O level exams so that we had agoodnights sleep.

Some schools have banned these drinks from their tuck shops and vending machines. In fact, many primary schools take pride in achieving healthy eating awards and if some can, surely all can. Certainly my GC learned about healthy eating and healthy living in Y2. Children are also encouraged to bring their own water bottles to school.

And I am talking about the secondary school sector, not primary. Canteens DO provide 'healthy' choices, but the kids happen to choose the *p - despite knowing full well that is is such. And from my observations over many many years, the kids who choose the chips, cakes, fluo drink - are most of the time the ones that didn't have a good breakfast, and won't go home to a good balanced dinner (I use that term loosely, not talking about organic doodahs and low-fat/sugar yogurts!, etc).

By and large posters on Mumsnet are a kind, non-judgemental lot.

This image of the poor as really just being feckless, with flat screen tvs, gadgets and for some reason eating crisps is often mentioned, must be true in some cases but I do think it's largely a fabrication of the right wing tabloid press (mentioning no names).

I usually give to beggars but my DD never does as he's sure they have a limo parked around the corner!

There was an excellent documetary about Romanian beggars on TV a few months ago. The children themselves are poor, but they are 'managed' by adults who have large homes in Romania - it is another version of women being trafficked for prostitution.