It's a far cry from the lumpy custard, congealed semolina, and unidentifiable stews brought to mind by school dinners of yore.
Children in East Renfrewshire are tucking into a new range of healthy, balanced meals after school chiefs brought back the role of dinner monitors, with an increase of nearly 70% in school dinner uptake.
Unlike their traditional predecessors, the new lunchtime monitors refrain from shouting at five-year-olds who won't eat their meat. Instead, the Primary 7 pupils encourage younger children to try healthy lunch options, picked from laminated menus laid on each table.
Council leaders said the scheme, launched in Calderwood Lodge Primary, Newlands, in October, was already being hailed as a success, and could soon be rolled out to schools across the area.
Catering staff have likened the system to family meals, because each table accommodates the same children each day, with the older pupils acting as "parents" to their younger colleagues. The new system, with staggered sittings for different age-groups, has banished lunchtime queues and upped the number taking lunch each day from 60 to more than 100.
Christine Haughney, head teacher of Calderwood Lodge, Scotland's only Jewish primary, said: "The results have been astonishing. Uptake has soared and pupils are learning social skills sitting at the table.
"Our monitors are using waiting skills which include food promotion, handling, and communication. This has boosted our healthy eating agenda enormously."
Pupils at lunchtime yesterday said they liked the new arrangement, and several had been surprised by how effective it had been so far.
CHRIS WATT
