Girl banned from photographing her school lunches

Arygyll and Bute is the 2nd largest council by area in Scotland - 25th by population - it's not that small.

Is it any wonder kids can't eat properly when they dont eat off proper plates. That meal is a disgrace in the picture - where's the gravy and the proper meat?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-18454800
NeverSeconds blogger Martha Payne school dinner photo ban lifted

Always first with the news

oh, ok (I did skim the thread honest) ...

A load of empty fields don't require PR people. The 25th biggest council in Scotland (with less than 90,000 residents) makes it pretty small in my books and certainly not in need of at least 3 PR people.

It has Faslane naval base, where nuclear subs are based - so I'm guessing the PR people keep close tabs on that.

And empty fields? Not so many, mostly hills.

Full hills or empty hills?

Full of hillwalkers, this time of year.

From my experience of council PR and schools, it would probably involve some council senior committee head deciding the whole situation had got totally out of (their) control, then going appoplectic and burning the ears off the Director of Education, who in turn would dispatch one of his deputies to put the fear of god into the head teacher and get the thing quashed, as quickly harshly as they could get away with.

The only thing that would scare them more would be if their efforts turned back on them and bit them in the backside, which in this case is exactly what seems to have happened!

Not that I had a small role in a few PR "disasters" in my time working in schools, oh no, no, no!

We had the same thing at school as well!
You were doing well if you didn't get a load of custard in your first course. Grim.

When did schools stop using normal plates?

School dinners are a complete bugbear of mine. The worst thing they ever did was gove (freudian slip) kids tons of choice. One meal for a set price - eat it or starve. Never a problem in my day - meat, potatoes, veg, gravy every day virtually.

And put dessert in a separate bowl!!!

Bah!!!

Nope - Any Faslane PR issues would involve Babcock/Serco and MOD PR, not the council. The Defence Estate in Argyll and Bute - and there is a fair bit of it, is pretty-much a fiefdom of its own and has been at loggerheads with council policy many times before - eg Glen Fruin and Coulport development.

I dunno but I remember the metal tray thingie from middle school and that's going back to the early eighties. Tbh their food wasn't too bad most of the time - it was high school it turned to shit they tried to do 'fast food' cafeteria like system except everything was really horribly done. Stale pizza and nasty tough burgers. Urgh

There was no choice at primary and that was okay but these days more aware of veggies, caeliacs, allergies etc and religious stuff.
All I remember seeing at my sons school was what looked like quite small portion sizes which might be okay for the 5 year olds but not really enough for a permanently hungry teenage boy.

eta: there's not any real need to go back to the 1970s red meat at least twice a day tho!

The school I work in got tray plates and I complained to the head that it made it look like a prison, they got rid

I'm watching the page views, they are flying up.

I'm not saying the council would issue PR statements about the base, but they'd want to be kept aprised of anything, surely?

it's better than eating turkey twizzlers.

Meals should be hot, with gravy, not cold in a tiny container.

Veggies can always have packed lunch. Don't really see how kids can have chosen to be veggies - they can always eat the hot meal without the meat bit.

My sis is currently a temp dinner lady in some private posh school in Cheltenham. I'll have to ask her what the dinners are like! She gets a free meal with it so if she's eating it it must be quite good.. she's quite picky.

Remind me of the metal trays the Royal Navy used to use/probably still does

Not particularly - They have a history of being very tight-lipped round there, not least because the highly mobile and reactive protestors at Faslane have this annoying habit of turning-up at anything before anyone else!

I also remember a time when there was a very obviously disabled Trident Sub floating just off one of the towns on Bute and the council were stuck with the MOD line that there was nothing there and there would be nothing wrong with it anyway. We could hear them hammering hard under a tent over the missile hatches from the shore!

What, scrape the mashed potato off shepherd pie and give them that? Or just the peas or carrots or whatever hot veg goes with it? Hardly nutritious.

Kids might not have 'chosen' to be vegetarian in the same way that many adults have, but some might not like the taste/texture of meat. Doesn't mean they shouldn't get a hot meal if they want one.

Don't be silly, if you're paying the same as everyone else it's fair enough to expect the same amount of food.
Of course kids can choose to be veggies. I think I was 16 when I became veggie and had two more years at school. I didn't really eat school dinners at all at high school they were so gross. And my parents so tight that that £3 a week was the only real money I had until I got a part time job.

I was slightly surprised at allowing a kid to have a camera/ phone on them during the day actually.

I have never had a turkey twizzler

They're not stopping at all