Thousands of pupils take part in school meal survey

A pupil survey on school meals has revealed huge variations in uptake on a school-by-school basis across the country.

More than 17,000 pupils from almost 200 secondary schools completed the survey, drawn up by the Scottish Poverty and Inequality Research Unit at Glasgow Caledonian University.

The proportion of pupils in schools who reported that they typically had a school meal at lunchtime ranged from 9% to 75% between individual schools.

Pupils who reported that being able to eat with friends was a reason for taking school meals ranged from 7% to 67%.

Catering staff came out on top with the majority of pupils rating their efforts as ‘good’ or ‘really good’ in 97% of schools.

Detailed school-specific research briefings will be issued to headteachers from secondaries in 28 of Scotland’s 32 local authorities today.

Professor John McKendrick, of the Scottish Poverty and Inequality Research Unit at GCU, said: “Most pupils reported that this was the first time that they had been asked to share their opinion on school meals.

“There’s no doubt these findings demonstrate the need for school-level analysis, as there was much variation in opinion and experience across schools at a local and regional level.

“We hope these school-specific reports help everyone in these schools better understand what works and what could work better to ensure that Scotland’s secondary school pupils have a first-class school meals service in the years ahead.”

Jayne Jones, National Chair of local authority group ASSIST FM, said: “As we begin to emerge from two years of the pandemic, caterers across Scotland were keen to hear from our secondary school pupils what their thoughts and concerns were about school food.

“The school-specific reports give these schools an excellent starting point for developing pupil-led improvements, and are a good way of helping to build lunch services for the future in partnership with the catering teams.”

A spokesperson for East Renfrewshire Council added: “The data returned from these surveys will be very important to the department's Catering Team and school staff in identifying and taking forward improvement actions to continue to improve the lunchtime experience for pupils, and to ensure healthy and nutritional meals are on offer.”A pupil survey on school meals has revealed huge variations in uptake on a school-by-school basis across the country.

More than 17,000 pupils from almost 200 secondary schools completed the survey, drawn up by the Scottish Poverty and Inequality Research Unit at Glasgow Caledonian University.

The proportion of pupils in schools who reported that they typically had a school meal at lunchtime ranged from 9% to 75% between individual schools.

Pupils who reported that being able to eat with friends was a reason for taking school meals ranged from 7% to 67%.

Catering staff came out on top with the majority of pupils rating their efforts as ‘good’ or ‘really good’ in 97% of schools.

Detailed school-specific research briefings will be issued to headteachers from secondaries in 28 of Scotland’s 32 local authorities today.

Professor John McKendrick, of the Scottish Poverty and Inequality Research Unit at GCU, said: “Most pupils reported that this was the first time that they had been asked to share their opinion on school meals.

“There’s no doubt these findings demonstrate the need for school-level analysis, as there was much variation in opinion and experience across schools at a local and regional level.

“We hope these school-specific reports help everyone in these schools better understand what works and what could work better to ensure that Scotland’s secondary school pupils have a first-class school meals service in the years ahead.”

Jayne Jones, National Chair of local authority group ASSIST FM, said: “As we begin to emerge from two years of the pandemic, caterers across Scotland were keen to hear from our secondary school pupils what their thoughts and concerns were about school food.

“The school-specific reports give these schools an excellent starting point for developing pupil-led improvements, and are a good way of helping to build lunch services for the future in partnership with the catering teams.”

A spokesperson for East Renfrewshire Council added: “The data returned from these surveys will be very important to the department's Catering Team and school staff in identifying and taking forward improvement actions to continue to improve the lunchtime experience for pupils, and to ensure healthy and nutritional meals are on offer.”