School Dinners

[Ship called Dignity]

This little girl in Lochgilphead is causing concern at the school dinners being handed out at Lochgilphead Joint Campus. Surely this isn't the standard throughout Argyll & Bute but rather concerning to think this represents a school dinner at £2....

http://neverseconds.blogspot.co.uk/2012 ... h-may.html

[Govangirl]

First of all, that is horrifying! How dreadful that kids are served this kind of complete tripe for lunch. My own daughter had to stop school meals because her food was so awful (and cost £2.75 too!!!) - that's why we need more of Jamie Oliver!

Secondly, that is one fantastic blog!!!!!! What a clever wee girl and certainly a future journalist - so impressive!

[Ship called Dignity]

Yes, she does come across very well. Important to highlight this is in Lochgilphead just incase anyone thinks this is a dig at all school dinners in Argyll!

[the ringmaster]

Ship called Dignity the last time I seen food served like that was when I came to visit you in prison

[argylltourist]

Let's all get real here! Just because she has the food pictured on her plate, does not mean that the meals are sparse or

unnutritious. Show me a youngster who always eats as they should! They do tend to eat as their friends do sometimes and it's not the end of the world.

Primary school menus' have greatly improved over the years. Glenbarr gives each parent an outline of menu for the week

and It's well-balanced and filling.

[Swanseajock]

Let's all get real here! Just because she has the food pictured on her plate, does not mean that the meals are sparse or

unnutritious. Show me a youngster who always eats as they should! They do tend to eat as their friends do sometimes and it's not the end of the world.

Primary school menus' have greatly improved over the years. Glenbarr gives each parent an outline of menu for the week

and It's well-balanced and filling.

Don't take it so seriously (and its about her Lochgilphead school, not Glenbarr) If you read the blog, you can see that she praises some meals. I think that this article in the paper is just the normal concentrating on one part of the whole story. Bad news and starving kids always sells better than healthy enjoyable meals. I think it shows amazing initialtive for a 9 year-old.

[WC1]

I think it shows amazing initialtive for a 9 year-old.

Doesn't it, though. Amazing, too, that her profile says the blog was set up in 2009, when she can only have been 6.

[Ship called Dignity]

Let's all get real here! Just because she has the food pictured on her plate, does not mean that the meals are sparse or unnutritious.

The primary purpose of my post was merely to highlight a story that is going viral just now on the web. It was also merely for discussion as I think the story doesn't highlight that children can have bread etc along with the fact that a picture doesn't highlight the real facts. Saying that it's not worth £2.

If anything really just for discussion to see what others think. As you point out you are happy with Glenbarr.

[jdcarra]

Plenty of discussion on the radio today including a call in by Malcolm MacFadyen, Head of Community Regeneration, Argyll & Bute Council.Interesting listening to others views on this.

[Anne Baird]

There are a couple of problems with this. First, what's in the picture is what the child ate and that's a problem. 9 year olds need a bit more guidance than that. Second, the council's response was to ignore the idea that there might be a problem - most would agree that fried pizza shouldn't be on the menu at all - and proceeded to try and blame the 9 year old and her parents. The child's mother is a GP in Lochgilphead and her father is active with the swimming pool and the triathlon team and, while their child could be neglected like any other, the evidence suggests that her parents are very involved in helping with her education. This defensive attitude is how council officials respond to everything, with the result that problems are never resolved and people are left angry.

Hopefully this culture will change on 22nd May when the new administration is voted in and takes over. Mistakes occur, problems arise. The grown-up thing to do is admit that it's happened, look into it and try to find a remedy. It won't work every time, but the chances are it would most of the time.

[LANDROVER ROGER]

Excellent post Anne.

[WC1]

There are several issues in all of this, none of them simple. Firstly

fried pizza shouldn't be on the menu at all

From my long experience of school meals in Argyll and Bute, it's extremely unlikely to have been fried pizza. The kids get that 'doon the street'.

Second, the school meals service works under a number of constraints. One is to deliver the service on a tight budget. Another is to get hundreds of pupils through (in all but the smallest schools) in the short time available in the school lunch hour. It's the equivalent of half a dozen full coaches arriving at a motorway services at the one time. They would never get them all back out and on to the coaches in half an hour, nor would they be expected to. But schools have to manage it somehow. Thirdly, there are the nutritional requirements, which are subject to regular statutory inspection. What was on the first plate certainly doesn't look as if it would comply with the Nutritional Standards in Scotland's Schools Regulations 2008 (I remember them fondly!) but we need to dig to get the full story, which I don't think we have here. In the 'changed culture' post-election, our new political masters will have to work within those same constraints and they will find that to be a lot more difficult than sloganising about a wee girl's blog.

Finally, I have a concern about the 'back story' here. Did this wee girl's parents complain to the education authority or the school before starting this blog? If not, why not? The wee girl's mother is a GP. Would she be happy with patients blogging about her bedside manner or the way she runs her surgery without having had a direct approach first and the chance to do something about complaints before they 'go viral'? Doctors, of course, get to strike awkward patients off their lists.

Education, whether in terms of what happens in the classroom or what happens in the dinner hall, is about a mutually supportive relationship between teachers, other staff, parents and pupils. It's about partnership. Personally, I don't think partners in a relationship should treat each other like this. I'm sure the lady GP in the case would say the same about the doctor/patient relationship if the boot were on the other foot.

[Anne Baird]

Fair point about the pizza. That came from one of the reports I read and when I checked it doesn't say that on the blog.

I and a few others have succeeded in feeding seven coach loads in an hour and I totally appreciate the nightmare it can be. However, with a fixed budget, a fixed time, a fixed menu and a good idea of numbers you should be able to produce good food with adequate portions and that's not what was on those plates.

Martha had the permission of her teacher to take the photographs and put them on her blog as part of a writing project. No-one foresaw the resultant interest. In an ideal world the council would have responded by saying "That doesn't look good. Let's see what the problem is and how we can fix it." Then Martha's blog would be talking about that positive experience. There may be a problem and that's what needs to be dealt with. Instead the council, without time to find out, simply lets loose a senior official who's happy to assert that there's not and blame it on a child. The truth is a casualty. There are some contrary reports from the senior pupils that still take their meals in the school, but then that has to be balanced against the fact that the majority go to the town. Across Argyll & Bute, parents and teachers have now spoken of everything from first class themed meals at Halloween to completely inedible pork chops.

What escalated the issue was the attempt by the council to defend itself. This thing just happened because no-one predicted the press picking up a child's blog and making it a national issue. There was no malevolent intent, just a wee girl doing her writing project. For the council to respond as though it were being attacked and bring out the big guns on radio to sort out a 9 year old makes it foolish in the extreme.

You are right, people need to treat each other with care and respect. The council and its officials should be a good example of that, especially when it's dealing with children who have encountered unbidden fame.

[ultraviolet]

Excellent post Anne. You should have posted on here more before the elections and you would have picked up more votes!

[Govangirl]

I'm really surprised by your post WC1 as normally your thoughts are so spot on and intelligent. In fact, I've been known to cheer after some of them! But I think you're wrong on this. Anne, that was very impressive and yes I agree it made the council look foolish if this was indeed the reaction.
I am quite sure there are loads of people who have complained/suggested ideas/shared their concerns to those that serve them and I don't care if it's doctors, hospitals, schools, council offices, Post Office, or Tesco but in my experience, it gets them nowhere. According to the NHS Information Centre, written complaints about NHS hospital and community health services have seen the biggest year-on-year rise since annual reports began nearly 15 years ago. So has complaining improved the client's experience? Not a jot!

Welcome to the 21st century. It's all about profit-making and it's about time people stood up, were prepared to be counted and actually hit back at what's happening to them. A blog is one way of doing this and the fact it's from a wee girl makes my heart swell.