School Dinners ? Love em or Hate em !


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Apart from fish every Friday, dinners were ok at HPGS... I used to pride myself on being able to sweet talk the head dinner lady - Mrs Edis? - into giving me seconds of pudding.

The pilchards with salad on Fridays were the worst. An alternative to fish we got sometimes, I remember, was grated cheese with chips and salad.

It was Mrs Sales ('Ma' Sales) in my day.

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As the title says. Personally I loved them. With the only exception of Bread & Butter Pudding, URGGGGGGGGH ! Attending school in the 50s fom a poor background school dinners were loo

I hated school dinners, except for the fish we had on Fridays and cornflake tart. I once wrote a note allegedly from my mum to say I was allergic to mashed potato and mustn't be forced to eat it. Un

It certainly was just water Smiffy. Now it's in plastic jugs as the metal ones were aluminium and that is probably why we are all batty

I hated school dinners, except for the fish we had on Fridays and cornflake tart. I once wrote a note allegedly from my mum to say I was allergic to mashed potato and mustn't be forced to eat it. Unfortunately I was sussed out when I got carried away with my masterpiece and embellished it with threats of setting the police on to the teachers if they carried on making me eat it............

One week I didn't hand in my five bob, intending to go to the chippy each day instead. However I blew the lot on the first day in the chippy and sweet shop, sharing my hoard with my friends. For the rest of the week I had no dinner, and each evening when mum asked what we had had that day I had to make something up. I Never did it again!! :)

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Didn't stay school dinners in primary school but when I went to Annie holgate tech grammar, dinners were brill. Roast lamb, roast spuds, veg, mint sauce - my favourite. Puddings were cornflake tart and custard or Manchester Tart that was my favourite pud

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I know it's a common thing to mock school dinners (and I've certainly had my share of bad ones), but in actual fact they weren't that bad!

It's very difficult to please everyone under normal circumstances.

In general, schools tried to provide a balanced diet and so stuck to a 'meat and two veg' policy.

I can remember being forced to eat certain things that I didn't like (beetroot, chopped liver etc) which didn't help, and even in the 60's there was still a 'post war austerity' attitude where no food should ever be left to go to waste.

I certainly remember some of the bizarre things that they made us eat and which I've never had since, like swede, semolina, sago.

Looking back I think that the milk break that we used to have mid-morning (with those one third pint bottles) was a good thing. Even in the 21st. century lots of kids have been found to have deficiencies in calcium and vitamin D.

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I think I could count on my hands how many times I had a dinner at school. However, more times than that I saw the resultant pavement pizzas in the playground.

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I didn't have school dinners. I used to nip back home have something to eat while watching an episode of Crown Court then I'd change the books in my ruck sack for the afternoon lessons and then, when my mate called we'd set off back and arrive just in time for the bell. Thinking about it the only time I did take school dinners was when I worked at Trent College.

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I loved the school dinners and puddings when I was at Trent Bridge school and we could also buy biscuits. There'd be a table in the hall that was full of assorted biscuits for sale. You'd pay a little more for chocolate biscuits but they were all inexpensive. I can remember finding a strip of five dinner tickets in the Assembly Hall and my first thought was, 'Wow, double dinners everyday' but my upbringing made me hand them in to the dinner lady. I can't remember if it was the same day or the next day but I was told that I had to go to see Mr Green, the Headmaster, in his office. I was trying to think what I'd done wrong but when I entered his office he praised me for handing in the dinner tickets. He took me out into the Assembly Hall and to the front of the queue at the biscuit table and told me to take what I wanted. I wanted to take a full box of Custard Creams for my mates and I but I shyly took two Lincoln biscuits. "Is that all you want?" he said, " Do you like these and these?" as he filled my outstretched hands with biscuits. The following morning Mr Green even mentioned my honesty in the morning assembly. Anyone would think I'd saved the school from disaster after finding an unexploded bomb, haha. I took some ribbing from all my mates after that and they'd keep asking me what it was like to be the 'teacher's pet' :biggrin:

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When I was at Beeston Fields Junior School they didn't have any kitchens or indeed a dedicated place to eat.

So the assembly hall became the canteen at midday and then they had to have two sittings for the food which had been cooked and brought in from some outside kitchen. It wasn't great - but it was OK.

Secondary School (Bramcote Hills) was much better because it was fitted out with nice kitchens and a proper dining hall.

In fact, that school was superbly designed because it had complete facilities for things like school dinners.

It had a library, a gym (with proper changing rooms and showers) a complete theatre with cinema facilities and artist changing rooms - even cloakrooms. Obviously built at a time where schools and education were regarded as an investment.

Makes you laugh when you see the crap that New Labour had built during their time.

PPP rubbish that is now costing the taxpayer an arm and a leg and which falls over in a strong wind !

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I was very bold at school,had a lunch at the first sitting and then to my mates for welsh rarebit,Pebble mill at One or Crown Court.

Before printed paper tickets were introduced- they had Formica squares of various colours...whilst the Woodwork teacher was absent I found 6ft lengths of said material in the storeroom.. Dawson got busy with the saw!!

For two years this practice continued.

The raw veg as a starter was a nice touch..still eat it today- Mrs Casserpy was a dinner lady- her husband was in the RAF with my Dad..crash landed in WW2 and escaped thru Lifeline... she sure shovelled on the chips ..bless her!!

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I used to loveschool dinners...

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We had Exeter Stew, Caramel Tart, Chocolate Sponge with Pink Sauce and many more delicious recipes..........Always biscuits to buy 2, for a penny to munch with school milk at break times............My mum thought school meals were good value, 2 courses for a 1/- a day - we were pushed out the door at 8.30am and not seen again until after 4.30pm.......she had all day to herself getting housework done, just had to cook for herself and dad (Who incidently, was faddy and awkward)..........I have good memories of school dinners....

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My favourites were meat pie (although not when it was mincemeat pie) and lots of the puddings. Treacle sponge, concrete (which was really very hard shortbread) with pink custard, butterscotch tart, manchester tart. In fact any old tart!

The posh kids with fancy lunchboxes whose mums gave them sandwiches didn't know what they were missing.

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I remember school dinners yes I loved them even though my mam was a good cook.I attended Players secondary school and the puddings especially caramel tart and treacle tart YUMMY.

Just reminded about the custards sometimes chocolate or pink, yum.

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Does anyone remember a cookery teacher at Players secondary in the early 1960s her name was Miss Parsons, she used to be so strict frightened the life out of me.But she taught me how to cook,I can still remember her dark permed hair glasses sitting at lunchtime eating her sandwiches with a knife and fork.!!

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I remember school dinners yes I loved them even though my mam was a good cook.I attended Players secondary school and the puddings especially caramel tart and treacle tart YUMMY.

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I used to enjoy them and have brilliant story to recount (Although I have a funny feeling I may have told this one before on here, if I have then I appologise)

Whilst at Frank Wheldon one of my favourite school dinners was 'sausage and mash' everybody cramming them down their throats and then queuing up for 'seconds' although for some reason there always seemed to be loads of sausages left, I hit on this great idea of putting a plastic bag in my pocket and loading up on them for the rest of the day!

In our year there was a member of a family we'll call "Brown" you possibly all had one of these families, at least one family member in each year, sometimes two , all of different ages and where the lift didn't quite go to the top floor with some of them, if you know what I mean! I let him know about my little scheme but left out the bit about the plastic bag.

Next time we had 'bangers and mash' I'm quite happily chomping on a sausage at afternoon break, he's busy scraping the fluff off of the mashed potato and gravy he'd shoved in his pocket!!

:jumping:

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