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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Photos of your lunch
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Hairy Biker
Shipmate
# 12086
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Posted
When you spend £2 on a plate of food in a school canteen, do you purchase the right to photograph the food and publish the photos, or does the food remain the property of the school until you’ve consumed it?
http://neverseconds.blogspot.co.uk/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18455348
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there [are] four important things in life: religion, love, art and science. At their best, they’re all just tools to help you find a path through the darkness. None of them really work that well, but they help.
Damien Hirst
Posts: 683 | From: This Sceptred Isle | Registered: Nov 2006
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Raptor Eye
Shipmate
# 16649
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Posted
I think it's yours once the money has been handed over and accepted. If you want to take photo's of it or throw it in the bin it's up to you.
Is this another blow against freedom of speech and expression? Discourage them from rocking the boat while they're young?
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Be still, and know that I am God! Psalm 46.10
Posts: 4359 | From: The United Kingdom | Registered: Sep 2011
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Louise
Shipmate
# 30
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Posted
The council has had to back-pedal and lift its ban.
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Now you need never click a Daily Mail link again! Kittenblock replaces Mail links with calming pics of tea and kittens! http://www.teaandkittens.co.uk/ Click under 'other stuff' to find it.
Posts: 6918 | From: Scotland | Registered: May 2001
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lowlands_boy
Shipmate
# 12497
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Posted
I think the most likely explanation is that when the blogger set out, they never expected it to go viral. There have been other articles on the news about it, and the whole thing started out as a bit of a literacy project.
I think once you hit the front page of the BBC news website, it probably all gets a bit bigger than you expected. Once it got to the stage that it did, with a celebrity chef on the front page of the paper calling for the dinner ladies to be sacked, I could see why the staff in question might find that distressing - it being their job to cook what the council specify.
After it first made the national news a few weeks ago, I would have classed that as an opportunity for the council to start engaging with it in a constructive way. It's been reported in some places that they have a talent for PR cock ups.
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I thought I should update my signature line....
Posts: 836 | From: North West UK | Registered: Apr 2007
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Louise
Shipmate
# 30
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by lowlands_boy:
Once it got to the stage that it did, with a celebrity chef on the front page of the paper calling for the dinner ladies to be sacked, I could see why the staff in question might find that distressing - it being their job to cook what the council specify.
That was the Daily Record - a Scottish tabloid which can be a bit of a rag. It's hardly the 9 year old blogger's fault that tabloids behave like tabloids, but you notice that instead of taking on the Daily Record, the council decided to bully the nine year old. {other news sources picked up the story after that happened as far as I know]
L.
[ 15. June 2012, 16:48: Message edited by: Louise ]
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Now you need never click a Daily Mail link again! Kittenblock replaces Mail links with calming pics of tea and kittens! http://www.teaandkittens.co.uk/ Click under 'other stuff' to find it.
Posts: 6918 | From: Scotland | Registered: May 2001
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Chorister
Completely Frocked
# 473
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Posted
I was shocked when I discovered what my children had been eating in school (there was me thinking 'school dinner' meant what it did in the olden days, so I was only giving them sandwiches in the evening ![[Eek!]](eek.gif) ) - I wish they had been able to take photos of the dinners then so I could see that 'school snack' would have been a more appropriate description, and fed them accordingly.
If school dinners were nutritionally appropriate, there would be no need to hide what they are like.
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Retired, sitting back and watching others for a change.
Posts: 34626 | From: Cream Tealand | Registered: Jun 2001
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ecumaniac
Ship's whipping girl
# 376
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Chorister:
I was shocked when I discovered what my children had been eating in school (there was me thinking 'school dinner' meant what it did in the olden days, so I was only giving them sandwiches in the evening )
OK - I can only report on what they feed us at my place and 2 other schools I've visited, but what the kids end up with on their plate can vary wildly depending on what the individual has decided to put on it. I've seen students daily eating a small bread roll and a ladle of baked beans, while my own plate has a serve of vegetarian lasagne with a giant side salad and a hot dessert. All the adults get the same meal options as the kids get, for the same £2.10. (Also, these are all government schools, not private.)
Within certain limits, everyone gets to pick their lunch from the options available. No one is going to force the children to eat a balanced meal, but all the choices are there. Maybe I should start blogging my school lunches too.
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it's a secret club for people with a knitting addiction, hiding under the cloak of BDSM - Catrine
Posts: 2901 | From: Cambridge | Registered: Jun 2001
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Zacchaeus
Shipmate
# 14454
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Posted
A tangent I know - but what is a 9 year old doing with a camera/phone in school in the first place?
Posts: 1905 | From: the back of beyond | Registered: Jan 2009
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justlooking
Shipmate
# 12079
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Posted
From what I read of the blog and news reports the council may have been embarrassed by the school's practice of allowing fruit only if the child had eaten everything else, when the council policy was for free fruit to be available without condition. There's a blog entry about her father printing the policy and the girl taking this to school to ensure she was given fruit with her meal. Also the small portions and the comments about the girl being hungry apparently raised comment locally. The meals from children in other countries looked more substantial, including the free lunch that's provided for all schoolchildren in Finland.
Posts: 2319 | From: thither and yon | Registered: Nov 2006
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The Scrumpmeister
Ship’s Taverner
# 5638
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Zacchaeus:
A tangent I know - but what is a 9 year old doing with a camera/phone in school in the first place?
This seems fairly unremarkable to me. I don't have a great many friends with children but those who do have given them phones by the age of 10/11 years. 9 doesn't seem that big a jump from that. They can be very helpful for all sorts of reasons.
Besides, if a pupil at a school were doing a photo hobby project like this girl's, and said, 'Daddy, I want to blog my school dinners with photos. Please can you help me?' it wouldn't seem odd for me for a parent to help with that. Since the proliferation of the cameraphone, I'm sure there are plenty of people with old digital cameras knocking about unused in a drawer somewhere in the house.
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If Christ is not fully human, humankind is not fully saved. - St John of Saint-Denis
Posts: 14741 | From: Greater Manchester, UK | Registered: Mar 2004
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ecumaniac
Ship's whipping girl
# 376
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Posted
I think it goes a long way to making the food look nicer if it's presented on an actual plate, instead of a food palette. And there's probably an original reason for the fruit rule. Possibly they found there was a lot of wastage?
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it's a secret club for people with a knitting addiction, hiding under the cloak of BDSM - Catrine
Posts: 2901 | From: Cambridge | Registered: Jun 2001
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
I must say that the school lunch in San Fransisco looks far better than any of Martha's lunches!
Her charity is doing well out of this story and the council have back-tracked.
All's well that ends well?
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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orfeo
Ship's Musical Counterpoint
# 13878
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Raptor Eye:
I think it's yours once the money has been handed over and accepted. If you want to take photo's of it or throw it in the bin it's up to you.
Absolutely. You buy it, it's yours. Food is not intellectual property where you can buy a limited license.
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Technology has brought us all closer together. Turns out a lot of the people you meet as a result are complete idiots.
Posts: 18173 | From: Under | Registered: Jul 2008
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the giant cheeseburger
Shipmate
# 10942
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Zacchaeus:
A tangent I know - but what is a 9 year old doing with a camera/phone in school in the first place?
I agree, there are major issues involved there - cyberbullying, sexting, digital piracy, cheating, risk of it being stolen, privacy issues and of course that school is not a place to babysit young people while they play Angry Birds on their smartphone. I can't think of any legitimate reason that a student might need access to a mobile phone during the school day, anybody who has a real reason to urgently contact them (i.e. a parent/guardian or some other designated emergency contact person) could call the school office and request a message be passed on.
All schools should have a policy of accepting mobile phones from students at the start of the day and handing them back at the end of the day. Consequence for choosing to bring the phone in despite this rule - internal or external suspension if whoever catches them is in a good mood, add on dunking said phone in a bucket of water if they are in a bad mood.
Should there be any need to do a photography project or use photographic evidence to support something like a science experiment, any decent school should have a good number of high-quality digital cameras available for use by all students. This is just as much an equality issue as it is about allowing smartphones in schools, students whose parents do not choose to let them use a smartphone (or are not able to provide one) shouldn't have any disadvantage compared to those who do have one.
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If I give a homeopathy advocate a really huge punch in the face, can the injury be cured by giving them another really small punch in the face?
Posts: 4834 | From: Adelaide, South Australia. | Registered: Jan 2006
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The Scrumpmeister
Ship’s Taverner
# 5638
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by the giant cheeseburger:
Should there be any need to do a photography project or use photographic evidence to support something like a science experiment, any decent school should have a good number of high-quality digital cameras available for use by all students.
Which they probably aren't going to lend out to pupils for their private blogs. As far as I have been able to ascertain, this is not a school project but is Martha's personal blog.
Besides, a number of posts make it clear that it is a camera that she is using. She explicitly says so in the first entry, and a number of subsequent ones offer apologies for the absence of a photograph because she forgot her camera. If it were a cameraphone, I would expect her to have said that she had forgotten her phone, not her camera.
As I said earlier, when cameraphones took over the earth, a large number of perfectly functional digital cameras were sent into retirement. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that Martha's father gave her an old one of his, which she now uses for her blog or other photography that she enjoys. Or perhaps he bought her one to try to encourage her in this sort of inquisitive pursuit, if she enjoys it.
[ 16. June 2012, 05:15: Message edited by: Michael Astley ]
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If Christ is not fully human, humankind is not fully saved. - St John of Saint-Denis
Posts: 14741 | From: Greater Manchester, UK | Registered: Mar 2004
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mousethief
Ship's Thieving Rodent
# 953
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Posted
[QUOTE]Originally posted by the giant cheeseburger:
Should there be any need to do a photography project or use photographic evidence to support something like a science experiment, any decent school should have a good number of high-quality digital cameras available for use by all students.
Not in this country. Teachers end up buying basic supplies for their poorer students, stuff that the school used to buy when I was a young lad. Even tissues for the classroom. The school, buying cameras for students to use? Sounds unlikely.
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This is the last sig I'll ever write for you...
Posts: 63536 | From: Washington | Registered: Jul 2001
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Yerevan
Shipmate
# 10383
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Posted
I was reading a thread on this on a parenting forum I pop into occasionally, and at seems that this school is quite unusual in allowing photography. Photos of any kind are banned in most UK schools.
Posts: 3758 | From: In the middle | Registered: Sep 2005
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North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
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Posted
Originally posted by the giant cheeseburger:
quote:
I can't think of any legitimate reason that a student might need access to a mobile phone during the school day, anybody who has a real reason to urgently contact them (i.e. a parent/guardian or some other designated emergency contact person) could call the school office and request a message be passed on.
All schools should have a policy of accepting mobile phones from students at the start of the day and handing them back at the end of the day. Consequence for choosing to bring the phone in despite this rule - internal or external suspension if whoever catches them is in a good mood, add on dunking said phone in a bucket of water if they are in a bad mood.
Mine got mobile phones when they went to secondary school because they travel there and back by school bus. If they'd gone by bus in primary, they'd have had phones then. If the bus doesn't turn up / breaks down on the way home / takes a wrong turning and goes off on a Mystery Tour they can contact me. There's 60 kids on a school bus - I wouldn't expect the school to inform, say 40 sets of parents (assuming siblings on the bus) that they were stuck in a lay-by somewhere.
I don't know any child who travels by school bus and doesn't have a mobile. And I can't imagine the logistics of 800 pupils queuing up at the end of the day to have their phones returned.
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Yerevan:
I was reading a thread on this on a parenting forum I pop into occasionally, and at seems that this school is quite unusual in allowing photography. Photos of any kind are banned in most UK schools.
Not so. Our school, and all those I have been in (which is plenty) allow parents and children to take photos.
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
Not in this country. Teachers end up buying basic supplies for their poorer students, stuff that the school used to buy when I was a young lad. Even tissues for the classroom. The school, buying cameras for students to use? Sounds unlikely.
Most classes over here (UK) have at least one digital camera for student use. Our (primary) school has video cameras and editing software too.
<code>
[ 16. June 2012, 08:11: Message edited by: Boogie ]
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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ecumaniac
Ship's whipping girl
# 376
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Boogie:
quote:
Originally posted by mousethief:
Not in this country. Teachers end up buying basic supplies for their poorer students, stuff that the school used to buy when I was a young lad. Even tissues for the classroom. The school, buying cameras for students to use? Sounds unlikely.
Most classes over here (UK) have at least one digital camera for student use. Our (primary) school has video cameras and editing software too.
<code>
So does mine. And yet, our budget does not extend to purchasing enough textbooks for everyone. Priorities, eh?
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it's a secret club for people with a knitting addiction, hiding under the cloak of BDSM - Catrine
Posts: 2901 | From: Cambridge | Registered: Jun 2001
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Zacchaeus
Shipmate
# 14454
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Posted
Most secondary school pupils I know, have their mobile phones with them.
This child is aged 9 which is why I was wondering about the camersa/phone.
It may be a small and unrepresentative sample of people I know, but the primary schools do not allow the children to take in expensive equipment. This includes mobiles, cameras etc -
Most primary schools in the UK do not have anything near 800 pupils, by and large 800 (and much bigger) would be secondary school size.
And the primary schools I have know have strict photo policies, because of child protection issues and fears of pictures of children being used without parental permission.
I went to a school play recently and we were not allowed to take pictures during it, only of our own child afterwards.
Posts: 1905 | From: the back of beyond | Registered: Jan 2009
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North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
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Posted
Yes, I was just suggesting a valid reason for a 9 year old having a phone in school. Our primary has 600 pupils, with pupils being bussed in from four rural areas - I'd expect the bussed-in pupils to have mobile phones, however young.
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
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Schroedinger's cat
Ship's cool cat
# 64
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Posted
Incidentally, the just giving web page that she supports, has currently raised nearly 60K for Marys meals, up from 14K when I first look yesterday morning.
That, if nothing else, seems to be a major positive outcome from this. A lot of money raised to support people who do not get meals.
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Blog
Music for your enjoyment
Lord may all my hard times be healing times
take out this broken heart and renew my mind.
Posts: 18859 | From: At the bottom of a deep dark well. | Registered: May 2001
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Schroedinger's cat:
Incidentally, the just giving web page that she supports, has currently raised nearly 60K for Marys meals, up from 14K when I first look yesterday morning.
That, if nothing else, seems to be a major positive outcome from this. A lot of money raised to support people who do not get meals.
Yes - wonderful outcome. 700% of her target!
I hope the penny pinching council/company who they outsource to take note!
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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Chamois
Shipmate
# 16204
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by justlooking:
From what I read of the blog and news reports the council may have been embarrassed by the school's practice of allowing fruit only if the child had eaten everything else, when the council policy was for free fruit to be available without condition. There's a blog entry about her father printing the policy and the girl taking this to school to ensure she was given fruit with her meal. Also the small portions and the comments about the girl being hungry apparently raised comment locally. The meals from children in other countries looked more substantial, including the free lunch that's provided for all schoolchildren in Finland.
I've read quite a lot of the blog and there were plenty of positive comments about the food, too. Things she liked, for example macaroni cheese (aren't kids extraordinary?)
It seems a bit of a knee-jerk reaction from the council. The whole thing was completely harmless as far as I can see, and as Chorister says, if the school food is OK why should the council be worried?
Long ago when I was in primary school myself we had to write a diary every day. The school dinner featured largely in mine. This is just a modern update.
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The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases
Posts: 978 | From: Hill of roses | Registered: Feb 2011
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passer
Indigo
# 13329
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by lowlands_boy:
Once it got to the stage that it did, with a celebrity chef on the front page of the paper calling for the dinner ladies to be sacked, I could see why the staff in question might find that distressing ...
That's not really a fair reflection of what happened. While the A&B council undoubtedly made complete arses of themselves over the way they handled this (having suspended their communications manager a short while back for creating Facebook accounts to spy on local voters, they were a little understaffed in the PR department!) the Daily Record cover article which led to the furore looks more like a fairly poor punny tabloid headline which was misinterpreted. I suspect their use of the word "fired" was a play on words related to the accompanying photograph, and not an imprecation for people to be "sacked". Which just goes to show that headline writers are not all of the highest calibre, as a punny headline should be open to dual interpretation, not triple!
However, having watched the ensuing twitterstorm and media feeding frenzy yesterday, the immediacy and the fleeting nature of information exchange were brilliantly exemplified. Martha was the trending news yesterday, but has almost vanished today.
Posts: 1289 | From: Sheffield | Registered: Jan 2008
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justlooking
Shipmate
# 12079
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Chamois:
...I've read quite a lot of the blog and there were plenty of positive comments about the food, too. Things she liked, for example macaroni cheese (aren't kids extraordinary?)
It seems a bit of a knee-jerk reaction from the council. The whole thing was completely harmless as far as I can see, and as Chorister says, if the school food is OK why should the council be worried?...
Martha certainly seems to like most of the food but sometimes there isn't enough of it. That's why her blog is called NeverSeconds. Some of the meals she gives a fairly low health rating and she also mentioned when she would like fruit but because she'd left something - I think it was part of a cake on one occasion - she wasn't allowed any. Council policy is to provide free fruit to all children.
Posts: 2319 | From: thither and yon | Registered: Nov 2006
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Schroedinger's cat
Ship's cool cat
# 64
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Posted
I think Marthas aim was just to comment on the food, and some of the issues that she found. She made a few good points, and it would have been far better for the school/council to have just accepted some points, and made changes.
Having said that, I think the councils approach has been rather knee-jerk, and made them look stupid, but it was a reaction to a tabloid news story. At the end, the newspaper was largely to blame for sensationalising what should have been a good, human-interest story.
But of course that is what they do. And why they are scum.
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Blog
Music for your enjoyment
Lord may all my hard times be healing times
take out this broken heart and renew my mind.
Posts: 18859 | From: At the bottom of a deep dark well. | Registered: May 2001
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lowlands_boy
Shipmate
# 12497
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by passer:
quote:
Originally posted by lowlands_boy:
Once it got to the stage that it did, with a celebrity chef on the front page of the paper calling for the dinner ladies to be sacked, I could see why the staff in question might find that distressing ...
That's not really a fair reflection of what happened. While the A&B council undoubtedly made complete arses of themselves over the way they handled this (having suspended their communications manager a short while back for creating Facebook accounts to spy on local voters, they were a little understaffed in the PR department!) the Daily Record cover article which led to the furore looks more like a fairly poor punny tabloid headline which was misinterpreted. I suspect their use of the word "fired" was a play on words related to the accompanying photograph, and not an imprecation for people to be "sacked". Which just goes to show that headline writers are not all of the highest calibre, as a punny headline should be open to dual interpretation, not triple!
However, having watched the ensuing twitterstorm and media feeding frenzy yesterday, the immediacy and the fleeting nature of information exchange were brilliantly exemplified. Martha was the trending news yesterday, but has almost vanished today.
Well, I only read what was reported on the BBC news website. Doubtless other people only read what was tweeted about what was on the BBC news. And still more only what was retweeted etc etc, in an epic modern version of Chinese whispers.
Looking at that article, it is a crap choice of words - what else are people supposed to interpret that headline as inferring? That they should actually be lowered into the flames?
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I thought I should update my signature line....
Posts: 836 | From: North West UK | Registered: Apr 2007
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LutheranChik
Shipmate
# 9826
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Posted
When I heard about this girl's clever expose' of her school meals, my response was, "You go, little sister." Good for her. Shame on her school; if their lunches were anything to be proud of they wouldn't want to hide them from the public, would they?
I also had flashbacks to my own school meals of the 1970's...I think our roast beef over potatoes came from the last of the WW II K-rations. I wound up taking my own lunches.
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Simul iustus et peccator
http://www.lutheranchiklworddiary.blogspot.com
Posts: 6462 | From: rural Michigan, USA | Registered: Jul 2005
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Hairy Biker
Shipmate
# 12086
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Schroedinger's cat:
At the end, the newspaper was largely to blame for sensationalising what should have been a good, human-interest story.
But of course that is what they do. And why they are scum.
At the end of the day, had they not sensationalised it then it would never have been on the front of the BBC news page, I would never haver heard of Martha Payne; Mary's Meals would be £70,000 worse off and I would possibly never have come across Mary's Meals and been able to make my own contribution. (And I would never have started this thread!) Without media sensationalisation it would have been a far more mundane Friday an several ways. Even the media scum can be of use to use at times.
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there [are] four important things in life: religion, love, art and science. At their best, they’re all just tools to help you find a path through the darkness. None of them really work that well, but they help.
Damien Hirst
Posts: 683 | From: This Sceptred Isle | Registered: Nov 2006
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Hairy Biker:
At the end of the day, had they not sensationalised it then it would never have been on the front of the BBC news page, I would never haver heard of Martha Payne; Mary's Meals would be £70,000 worse off and I would possibly never have come across Mary's Meals and been able to make my own contribution. (And I would never have started this thread!) Without media sensationalisation it would have been a far more mundane Friday an several ways. Even the media scum can be of use to use at times.
Yes - the story cheered up my Friday too - and I am looking forward to seeing Veg's lunch tomorrow!
I hope Mary's meals goes from strength to strength due to the publicity. Starting the blog raised Veg's awareness and now the blog is raising everyone's awareness.
Well done her. Hopefully she has become one of the small tipping points we all speak of.
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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passer
Indigo
# 13329
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by lowlands_boy:
Looking at that article, it is a crap choice of words - what else are people supposed to interpret that headline as inferring? That they should actually be lowered into the flames?
I agree, it was poorly written and open to misinterpretation. I'm not a defender of the press, but there is a certain irony here in that the newspaper in question was (and remains) supportive of the child's enterprise and appears to have been using it to generate a local interest story, but their insouciance almost killed the golden goose, so to speak!
On the positive side, her charity appeal has reached nearly seventy five grand, so it's an ill wind that blows silver-lined clouds etc. etc.(leaving no metaphor unmixed!).
Posts: 1289 | From: Sheffield | Registered: Jan 2008
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Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by North East Quine:
Yes, I was just suggesting a valid reason for a 9 year old having a phone in school. Our primary has 600 pupils, with pupils being bussed in from four rural areas - I'd expect the bussed-in pupils to have mobile phones, however young.
Kid's taking photos of school meals is actually quite a reasonable research practice. The big struggle with most real life dietary research is getting accurate information on what people are eating. With children particularly young children it is seen as a good idea to get corroborating evidence. Taking photos of food saves the need for them to write down exactly what they ate.
Jengie
p.s. it is over a decade since I was involved in a research bid that used photos before or after of school dinners, to estimate what pupils were eating.
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"To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
Posts: 20894 | From: city of steel, butterflies and rainbows | Registered: May 2001
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ken
Ship's Roundhead
# 2460
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by ecumaniac:
So does mine. And yet, our budget does not extend to purchasing enough textbooks for everyone. Priorities, eh?
A cheap digital camera costs about the same as one-and-a-half school textbooks. So one camera for a class of thirty kids, who probably need a couple of hundred books between them, is hardly a huge add-on to the budget.
In fact you can buy a camera of a sort for the cost of a week's school meals. You can buy quite a good one for a month's worth.
quote:
Originally posted by Zacchaeus:
It may be a small and unrepresentative sample of people I know, but the primary schools do not allow the children to take in expensive equipment. This includes mobiles, cameras etc -
True, but neither do primary schoold serch the kids and take their phoines from them. Its really a CYA rule "Little Johnny says he lost his phone at school? YOu do know its against he rules to bring it, don't you?"
quote:
Most primary schools in the UK do not have anything near 800 pupils,...
Mine did! But then we had class sizes of well over 40. In fact the primary school I went to was bigger than the secondary school I went too next. But you are right, most primary schools (in urban areas anyway) are one to three classes of 30 in each year, so (allowing for a bit of variation) 200-650 students.
But even if there were only 200 kids, and only a quarter of them had phones, do you really want to collect and hand back fifty phones every day?
Anyway. It puts Lochgilphead on the map for a week. There are prettier places to live in Britain than Lochgilphead. But there aren't many of them and most of them are within a few miles of it.
And their school dinners are a hell of a lot better than the crap I had to eat in the 1960s.
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Ken
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.
Posts: 39579 | From: London | Registered: Mar 2002
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justlooking
Shipmate
# 12079
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by ken:
...And their school dinners are a hell of a lot better than the crap I had to eat in the 1960s.
They also have choice now. Take it or leave it was the only choice back then.
My very first school dinner was battered fish with white sauce poured on top, mashed potatoes and beetroot. The batter was soft and oily not crispy like proper batter. I can still smell it, it nearly made me throw up. I can't remember the pudding but things like sago and tapioca featured heavily.
Martha had fish, chips and peas, followed by a yogurt on Friday and the batter was crunchy. So a definite improvement there. She gave it a health rating of 5. I think her health ratings are sometimes rather generous - she rarely gets more than one of her five-a-day.
[ 23. June 2012, 12:46: Message edited by: justlooking ]
Posts: 2319 | From: thither and yon | Registered: Nov 2006
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ken
Ship's Roundhead
# 2460
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by justlooking:
Take it or leave it was the only choice back then.
It was take it or take it for us in primary school. If you hadn't finished, you satayd sitting down till lessons started than explained to the teacher why you were late. If you were unlucky or the teacher didn't like you, you could get sent to the Headmaster to get caned. I think the dinner ladies might have swiped a few kids round the head now and again as well.
quote:
I can't remember the pudding but things like sago and tapioca featured heavily.
A lot of what we had had imitation "custard" on it. It was disgusting. In fact thinking about it nearly fifty yuears later makes me feel queasy now. Its put me off custard for life - I quite like the taste of real custard (what's not to like about milk and eggs?) but the very notion of it is off-putting.
I did throw up after eating it sometimes. Once me and my brother both vomited at the same time. That's a result!
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Ken
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.
Posts: 39579 | From: London | Registered: Mar 2002
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Schroedinger's cat
Ship's cool cat
# 64
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Boogie:
Update - Martha has now raised £100,000 for Mary's Meals.
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
So Martha blog is back up and running, but the publicity has raised this amount of money. Win.
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Blog
Music for your enjoyment
Lord may all my hard times be healing times
take out this broken heart and renew my mind.
Posts: 18859 | From: At the bottom of a deep dark well. | Registered: May 2001
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justlooking
Shipmate
# 12079
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by ken:
A lot of what we had had imitation "custard" on it. It was disgusting.
There's no accounting for taste. You're talking about the stuff made from yellow powder presumably. For me this has always been real custard and so long as there's no skin on it it will do for me. You can get instant versions of it too - just add boiling water.
I don't think schools do custard now. Martha's photos sometimes show jelly or a cakey-type pudding but no cream or custard with it. ![[Disappointed]](graemlins/disappointed.gif)
Posts: 2319 | From: thither and yon | Registered: Nov 2006
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Chamois
Shipmate
# 16204
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by ken:
It was take it or take it for us in primary school. If you hadn't finished, you satayd sitting down till lessons started than explained to the teacher why you were late.
(snip)
I did throw up after eating it sometimes.
The system at my primary school was that we sat at tables of eight, and nobody was allowed to leave until everyone at their table had finished. I was very popular because I was prepared to eat 8 people's cabbage. We used to swap plates when the dinner ladies weren't looking.
The only time I can remember being sick was after eating 4 people's helpings of rainbow sponge suet pudding. With pink custard on it.
Everyone wanted to sit at my table at primary school dinner.
![[Biased]](wink.gif)
I'm pleased to see from Martha's blog that school dinners have definitely got a lot better since my day. Not to say that there isn't scope for further improvement. Anyway, I'm glad her blog has been reinstated.
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The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases
Posts: 978 | From: Hill of roses | Registered: Feb 2011
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Curiosity killed ...
Ship's Mug
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Posted
Chamois - oh, yes, that brings back memories, not of primary school, I could walk home then, but secondary school in my first couple of years. And although I wasn't willing to eat much extra to get us away, I did foolishly say I liked prunes one day. Eight portions of stewed prunes is a lot. I did get excused the custard if I'd only eat the prunes.
I can't remember how soon after I managed to get a packed lunch for a while.
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Mugs - Keep the Ship afloat
Posts: 13794 | From: outiside the outer ring road | Registered: Aug 2006
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ecumaniac
Ship's whipping girl
# 376
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Posted
My place puts custard on *every* type of dessert, though you can have the choice to get your dessert sans custard. I've started taking the plain ones and then sneaking a natural yoghurt pot and hoping the cashier ladies let it slide...
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it's a secret club for people with a knitting addiction, hiding under the cloak of BDSM - Catrine
Posts: 2901 | From: Cambridge | Registered: Jun 2001
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Pulsator Organorum Ineptus
Shipmate
# 2515
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Posted
What surprised me was how little veg was being supplied. One plate had about 10 peas on it, and another had two very slices of cucumber (ugh!). At that rate they would be lucky to be providing a portion a week.
And it all looked very dry and unappetising.
No wonder the council didn't want it widely seen - it was hardly catering to be proud of.
Posts: 695 | From: Bronteland | Registered: Mar 2002
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no prophet's flag is set so...
Proceed to see sea
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Posted
What surprises me is that schools supply lunch. Do the students or parents pay for it? or who does and why? Never heard of schools supplying food.
Parents have always been responsible for sending lunch to school with children here. If they don't, it would be a visit from Child Protective Services.
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Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.
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Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010
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Chamois
Shipmate
# 16204
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by no_prophet:
What surprises me is that schools supply lunch. Do the students or parents pay for it? or who does and why? Never heard of schools supplying food.
All government-run schools in the UK must supply lunch for children of compulsory school age. It's part of a UK-wide public health initiative to improve children's nutrition which I think started during the 1939-45 war. In my days at school (1960-70s) lunches were free for children from families below a certain income, above that the parents paid a contribution. I think that's still the same.
Some of the strands of the initiative, such as free milk at school for all children up to age 14, have been withdrawn over the years, but school dinners are still much needed. A lot of urban children in England still turn up at school having eaten no breakfast.
In my day you HAD to eat the lunch - no alternative was accepted. Nowadays parents are allowed to provide a packed lunch instead.
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The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases
Posts: 978 | From: Hill of roses | Registered: Feb 2011
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Chorister
Completely Frocked
# 473
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Posted
I've worked in several schools, and the lunches vary hugely. Some canteen staff have won awards for their imaginative provision, others provide insipid food of questionable nutrition (as Jamie Oliver exposed). I do find it interesting how, presumably given the same budget, school food is so variable in quality. I did find out that a significant proportion of the £2.10 goes towards costs (the staff and kitchens of the school), so only a fraction is actually spent on ingredients.
A caring parent could provide a more nutritious packed lunch, but then you can't guarantee your child will actually eat it. The best response is probably to trust lunchtimes to luck and cook a proper meal for the whole family in the evenings (for those children fortunate enough to have parents who actually cook meals).
Regarding camera/phones, every school in which I've worked had a ban on phones during the school day, except with permission for a specific reason. Therefore the girl would only have had access to one by either being sneaky (did I ever tell you about the boy who dropped his during the school photograph, so the whole school - pupils and staff - saw his misdemeanour?) or else by asking permission to photograph for her project.
But there has been a lot of media hype - probably what really happened was that the staff at the school, including canteen staff, supported her fundraising initiative and gave generously to the cause.
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Retired, sitting back and watching others for a change.
Posts: 34626 | From: Cream Tealand | Registered: Jun 2001
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by no_prophet:
What surprises me is that schools supply lunch. Do the students or parents pay for it? or who does and why? Never heard of schools supplying food.
Yes - and many schools (ours included) have excellent kitchens and cooks. Some schools and authorities outsource their meals to private companies - this is where problems arise, as the companies are profit making - which means they often give as little as possible to the children. Ours have plenty of food, fruit, vegetables and seconds. This little girl's blog shows OK food - but very meagre quantities, especially of fruit and veg.
At our school fruit is provided free every break time. (No other snacks allowed and the only drink allowed is water)
Families below a certain income get free school meals, the rest pay £2. All can bring a packed lunch if they choose.
I used to let my boys take a packed lunch - but only if they made up their own!
[ 24. June 2012, 09:07: Message edited by: Boogie ]
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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Chorister
Completely Frocked
# 473
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Posted
Until recently, you couldn't get hot school meals in Somerset. But, following reports of some children not being given proper meals at home either, they have been introduced.
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Retired, sitting back and watching others for a change.
Posts: 34626 | From: Cream Tealand | Registered: Jun 2001
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