No such thing as a free lunch

ince

ince

ince

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There is a story on the BBC here.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-22855011

What are peoples views on this?

On the one hand the school are a bit OOT stopping a child eating because he did not have the money that day.

On the other the account was in deficit by £1.75 already (most likely a days lunch). This means that the school allowed the child one meal and then when the parents didn't pay after that they refused the next one.

Should the school have allowed the meal or should the parents be more responsible. Should the parents ensure that they arranged the child's dinner money for the week.

Also if the school allowed it here could this cause then problems with others not paying.
 
Totally absurd. School should be ashamed.

(Disclaimer: assuming article is accurate that the parents were usually in credit and weren't successfully contacted to be informed of the debt prior to the refusal.)
 
Our school did thius once with one of my children.

I didnt know anything about it until hometime when my son was hungry. I asked if hes ate his dinner and he said he wasnt allowed any.

Confused i asked at school the next morning and i was rather annoyed to find out dinner money had gone up and id sent in the wrong amount. Cant remember how much i was short, but it wasnt much.

I was pretty annoyed because they didnt refund you if your child was off sick, and it was the same amount, even for 3 day weeks at the start/end of term.

So now i send in the exact amount.
 
Hence why i dont let my kids have school meals. I had issues something on the lines too when my son started Reception back in september. Ditched School meals. As my son wasn't really liking any school meals then.

Packed Lunch everyday now. At least i know what my son will be having in school everyday. And he prefers it too.
 
I would be apoplectic if someone made one of my children go hungry with no option. I would expect to be contacted to rectify, it is the parents fault not the child.
 
Horrific behaviour by the school. Kids at primary school age totally take this kind of thing to heart. As said above, feed the kid, bill the parents.
 
seems to me that the school are totally in the wrong here,


even if the payment account for the child is in arrears the child should not be made to suffer, the school should and could have took action to contact the parents to sort this out
 
Let him starve, the parents should get some responsibility, poor people expecting handouts, bloody immigrants, why should I as a tax-payer pay for others peoples children.*

































* may not be serious.
 
Seems a bit draconian, but when I was at school you just paid cash at the till depending on what you had so if you didn't have any cash on you, you wouldn't even bother going to the dinner hall and went hungry.

An 'account' based system using photo swipecards or whatever they use now is probably better in some ways as it means the child can't lose or have their money stolen, or spend it on other things (sometimes I'd just buy sweets or whatever) but I guess it also means the child has no way of knowing if their account is actually funded or not before they queue up for dinner as the account will be controlled by the parent.
 
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The School should be ashamed. My wife pays for school meals but sometimes our son goes on day trips with the school so in theory we should be in credit. The wife's real tight and demanded a refund when they said no she deducted the amount from the next check she sent them.

My wife knows where every penny goes and will squabble over a penny!
 
A failure by the school there IMHO. Not communicating with the parents in this day and age is just poor, have they not heard of the telephone.
 
HangTime said:
Seems a bit draconian, but when I was at school you just paid cash at the till depending on what you had so if you didn't have any cash on you, you wouldn't even bother going to the dinner hall and went hungry.
Click to expand...

They aren't allowed to have cash anymore in case they get bullied and robbed!
 
apeksdiver said:
They aren't allowed to have cash anymore in case they get bullied and robbed!
Click to expand...

odd, i used to see lots of them shovelling sweets and energy drinks down them on their way in and out of school when i lived near one - bought from the shop on the way in i mean. they must have had cash "on them" to buy it

B@
 
It went on to say: "Mr and Mrs Lynn were notified on three occasions prior to the mealtime of interest that their debt was due and that their son would not receive a meal if the debt remained unpaid."
Click to expand...

They had notified them multiple times, he didn't pay.. kid doesn't get a meal.

Really dont see the issue, be responsible parents and you wont have an issue.

Did the above people even read the article :S
 
I missed that when I read it earlier, that's fair enough then. It's their fault not the schools.
 
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