Calls for change to school lunch as pupils go hungry

A mum has said her son has repeatedly come home from his new school hungry because the lunch break has been too short and the queues too long for him to get food.

Pupils at Holgate Academy, in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire, have 40 minutes for lunch, and usually the whole school goes at the same time.

Hannah and several other parents told the BBC this led to long queues and their children, including those on free school meals, not being served.

The school said it had made temporary changes to help Year 7 students "adjust to life in a large secondary school" and were confident the situation would "settle into its normal rhythm".

Those changes include allowing Year 7s to go 10 minutes early and letting pupils on free school meals get food during the late-morning breaks.

This will be in place until half-term, but several parents said they wanted a more permanent change.

Hannah, 34, said her 11-year-old Jack, who is in Year 7, missed out on a meal three times in one week, before the changes came in.

She said he had told her the queues sometimes reached out the building and older pupils pushed in front of the younger ones.

"It is appalling," she said. "They're growing children, they need their food.

"How are they meant to really function properly?

"And as soon as I find out he hasn't been able to get anything, I'm like, 'right, I'll make a sandwich or something to send him with'.

"But he's on free school meals. I shouldn't really have to resort to that, especially with how things are at the minute with the cost of living and things."

She agreed the situation had "slightly" improved, but said the queue was still long and feared the changes only helped Year 7s.

She also believed it would become a problem again after half-term.

"I think they should extend the lunchtime or send the school years out at different times," she said.

"If they don't make it permanent, they're going to keep having the complaints about it. It's going to keep going on for God knows how long. Enough is enough, they need to sort it permanently."

Another mum, Lauren, 34, said her daughter in Year 9, who gets free school meals, had been coming home hungry - although she had had more success getting food than her daughter in Year 7.

She said the changes would help, but also that it would make it harder for older children to get lunch, and that Year 7s were being blamed for a recurring problem.

She added: "We'll end up in the same position when they change it back.

"This has been a long-term ongoing issue, which we've experienced over the past three years. It seems to be worse this year.

"[With the changes] they're heading in the right direction - but if they were to stagger lunches, like other schools do... or provide a longer lunch rather than shortening the day, that would really help.

"They're still not listening to the other suggestions, when there's so many parents saying the same thing."

A spokesperson for the school said there was "always food available for every child at lunchtime".

They said they were reviewing the procedures to "see what else we can do to improve the flow of students" through their two canteens.

They said: "We are at the beginning of a new academic year, and some of our Year 7 students are still adjusting to life in a large secondary school, including navigating the lunchtime and catering arrangements.

"We are confident that, as new students become more familiar their timetable, our systems and finding their way around our large site, the catering service will become quicker and settle into its normal rhythm."

On the question of more permanent changes, they said: "We are always open to reviewing our systems and processes, but the early issues we have experienced this term have largely been around our newest students settling in, alongside the practical process of scanning biometric fingerprints for use in our canteens at the start of the year.

"Our other year groups are familiar with the catering system, and we feel that 40 minutes is a sufficient period to ensure all of our students are served."

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