So you're saying that the council and the school are liars?

Or perhaps I have difference in opinion on what I think is an acceptable standard of food to be serving up the children to what they do?

NLC, like A&B, will tell you they offer up "good quality, nutritionally balanced meals" for school dinners. However go into the school behind us and I guarantee you that 4 days out of 5 your first instinct will be "that's crap, I'm not eating that".

The sad thing is any positive that could have come out of the girls blog will probably end up lost in a row between the Daily Record and A&B council.

GG - did you read the piece I linked to?

I've had a quick scan through and TBH I have no problem whatsoever believing that it is, for the most part, written by a 9 year old. There are occasional passages where a quick C&P looks to have been used but nothing leaps out. Both of my kids were producing written work of a similar quality and tone at that age.

First, was the child ever fed just one croquette to get her through an entire afternoon? This is an exaggeration downwards and it's one thing I doubt a child wrote. It looks as though intended to convey something that is not supported by what the school/council says.

So either the school/council are telling porkies or the blog is not representing the whole picture.

Would a nine-year-old child really consider the mater of one croquette (doubtful anyway, as just explained) in terms of it not providing energy for concentration, rather than simply not stopping her feeling hungry? And asking if it would do so for readers too? There have been ideas put into this child's head, methinks.

I repeat: the council and the school say that the pictures in the blog do not represent the entire picture. Are they telling lies? And all the other questions that this case raises.

On the quality of food: as a bit of a foodie, I would certainly hope that the standard of school dinners would be far better than represented in the pictures - and even by what seems to be best practice in Scotland.

Look over the Channel at France. They do not offer children a choice. In schools throughout the country, children are given a multi-course meal, sat down properly. Remember, France has far less childhood obesity than we do.

Then again, the French do not seem to consider that school dinners are just something to fill up poor children.

Isn't that how education works?

I wasn't thinking of it in quite that way.

I am well aware of the situation regarding schools dinners, which has been a direct result of Conservative policies.

My kids grew up during the Blair years. Why weren't those old Tory policies reversed?

Well think about it in thsi way then:

Dad: "how do you feel when you don't get enough to eat at lunchtime?"

Daughter: "hungry"

Dad: "anything else?"

Daughter: "tired"

Dad: "do you know why that is?"

Daughter: "because I'm hungry?"

etc

The girl has never claimed to have been given only 1 croquette as a whole meal for the whole afternoon. If you actually read the caption with the photograph then I think it's pretty clear that she's talking about the potato element of her meal. It's extremely petty of newspapers, the council or anyone to take her comments completely out of context like that.



She mentioned the pizza, but focused on the croquette - where is the harm in that. If you read through her blog she regularly speaks more about one aspect of the meal. In this case she chose to speak about the disappointing part of the meal.
I also don't see why it would be surprising that a child who is doing a blog about her school lunches and the impact of them would mention the energy aspect? Far better to pretty much accuse the Dad of writing the blog than to give the girls parents some credit for the fact that their daughter has been encouraged to think about food in terms more than just not being hungry anymore? Is teaching her about the energy gained from food and an enjoyment of food not a good thing?

I'm not getting into the choice issue again. I don't understand the train of thought that suggests giving children any choice is a bad thing. How many people from the era of "here's your meal - eat it" have food issues? Simply removing choice teaches children nothing about food, in the same way that rewarding children with pudding for eating everything on their plate teaches them nothing about self control, learning to understand your body etc.

Minty - you mention France and the sit down meal, that can't happen in the majority of schools here for one simple reason over and above any food issues - 45 minute lunch break, maximised school rolls thanks to the loss of other schools in the area (so the primaryschools local to us have 283, 197 and 201 pupils respectively) with a dining hall that seats 80ish. The children get approximately 15 minutes each to eat their lunch. No chance of a sit down, multi-course meal with time to learn to enjoy food in that time.

Also on the Tory aspect of it, I left school in 1997, but have been in and out the local schools because of various groups using them. The meals have gone downhill massively since the change of "School cook" to "Catering Manager" - that wasn't a Tory choice/change. The Scottish Parliment should have repaired the damage since they took over too, so there's blame on all political parties.

That's one post. And people put ideas into children's heads the whole time - it's kind of how parenting and schooling works. Rather than some sinister motive it could simply be that she's been told on numerous occasions about the importance of food to concentration and is repeating the idea. It's certainly not beyond the bounds of possibility that the post was produced by a 9 year old girl.

Ask for asking other readers opinions - she does that throughout the blog.

Ah, that old chestnut.

You see, destroying something is easy, putting it in place again involves cost.
Brown is always accused of spending too much, are you saying he should have spent more?