Parents fury at ‘ridiculously strict’ school dinner rules telling them to order pupil’s meals eight weeks in advance
FURIOUS parents have blasted a school after being ordered to choose between school meals or packed lunches for their kids eights weeks in advance.
Bosses at Welton Primary School told parents they now must pre-order their children's school dinners up to eight weeks in advance or make them their own - not a mix of both.
The new rules - branded "strict and ridiculous" - mean parents will have to decide at the start of term how their children will eat for the entire term.
Youngsters at the school in Brough, Yorkshire, can no longer mix and match and have hot meals on some days and packed lunches on others.
Despite outrage from parents, the school said it had to bring in the new rules for financial reasons but gave them no say in the matter or offered any consultation.
The letter sent to parents reads: "Parents must decide whether they would like their child/children to have a hot school meal every day or a packed lunch every day, for the entire half term, ie there will no longer be an option to have a mixed meal pattern."
The letter goes on to say the decision has not "been made lightly" and was due to a variety of reasons including the cost of school meal provision.
Bosses at the school also cited waste and "administration of the meals becoming a disproportionate financial cost to the school."
One parent, who does not wish to be named, said: "Basically we have to pre-book our children's meal pattern a term at a time which we all found off.
"Some children chose mixed meal patterns but we have been told we can't now do this which I find ridiculous and very unfair.
Some children chose mixed meal patterns but we have been told we can't now do this which I find ridiculous and very unfair. Other schools do this daily and for some children a hot meal at lunch could be their only hot meal that day.
Disgruntled parent
"Other schools do this daily and for some children a hot meal at lunch could be their only hot meal that day.
"I have tried challenging this with the school and at no point has the head bothered contacting me."
The parent said they dispute the fact the administration time takes so long and questioned why other schools are able to offer children a choice.
They said: "By implementing a policy which says my child has to have all or nothing, the school are either forcing my child to eat something they do not like or want or they are trying to force me to pay for a meal and also provide a packed lunch so that my child does not go hungry on these days.
"The reason the school are doing this due to admin time spent on it, which should take no time at all and other schools successfully manage this."
Another mum at the school added: "The problem with it is that a lot of children do not like the school meals every day, so my daughter would only take her own lunch when there was something on the menu she did not like.
'WASTE OF MONEY'
"Now, if we opt for hot meals and she doesn't like it, I will have to pay for the meal she does not even have and also send a home lunch in on those days too which is a complete waste of money."
Headteacher Nikki Pidgeon said: "We are asking parents to choose at the start of each half-term whether they wish their child to have a hot meal or a home-provided packed lunch for that session of six to eight weeks.
“Previously they could book for their child to have either a school meal or bring their own lunch on different days each week.
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“The level of changes daily and weekly made it difficult to make the appropriate arrangements for staffing levels and ordering food.
"The school was making a financial loss on school meals, which were having to be subsidised from other parts of our budget.
"We have had a very small number of complaints from parents about these changes, which will enable us to plan more efficiently and continue providing high quality school meals without having to cut costs in other areas.”
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