{"id":4649,"date":"2013-09-20T09:00:42","date_gmt":"2013-09-20T08:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=4649"},"modified":"2013-09-20T09:00:42","modified_gmt":"2013-09-20T08:00:42","slug":"schools-meals-for-all-probably-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2013\/09\/20\/schools-meals-for-all-probably-not\/","title":{"rendered":"Schools meals for all \u2013 probably not"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, we shall see whether the government's new policy<\/a> of free school meals for all under 7s will deliver its desired outcomes in terms of increased pupil concentration in the afternoon, and greater attainment \u2013 well, in the narrow sense that government sees attainment. \u00a0The general evidence for both of these is pretty plausible, though context is likely to be a confounding factor.<\/p>\n

The government's new policy is based on two pilot studies, and the BBC Radio 4's More or Less<\/em> asked the researchers involved in these to comment on how soundly-based the policy seems. \u00a0You can listen to them here<\/a>. \u00a0Needless to say, it's not at all clear-cut. \u00a0One snippet from the research was that the amount of fruit eaten at lunchtime in the experimental groups went down. \u00a0One question is, did it go up at home to compensate? \u00a0 Another is what does this say about school meals?<\/p>\n

It will be instructive to see whether the policy, which is both a middle-class subsidy\u00a0and an electoral bribe<\/a>, will succeed in getting anywhere near 100% take up. \u00a0I suspect it will not come close. \u00a0There are (at least) two groups who will resist:<\/p>\n

[i] \u00a0those parents who think that the standard of food in the school meals\u00a0offered to their child is too poor and that their own packed lunch is better nutritionally. \u00a0Generally, these are parents who know and care about food and nutrition. \u00a0They may (or not) be organic in preference, and they are not all in north London. \u00a0A recent Woman's Hour<\/em> feature on BBC Radio 4 saw this bunch well represented \u2013 and vocal.<\/p>\n

[ii] \u00a0those parents who think that the food in the school meals\u00a0offered to their child is not to its liking and so opt for the packed lunch\u00a0quiet life. \u00a0By and large, these are not parents who know and care about food, though some obviously do. \u00a0They are largely invisible to Radio 4.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We shall see. \u00a0We'll also see how many school meal fascistas try to ban the packed lunch \u2013 probably on equal opportunities grounds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, we shall see whether the government's new policy of free school meals for all under 7s will deliver its desired outcomes in terms of increased pupil concentration in the afternoon, and greater attainment \u2013 well, in the narrow sense...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4649\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}