Maris Stella High

[SPIES]

dinofan:

I found out that there is this stall in canteen , a la carte, that charged $2 for everything . It seems that this takes place wef fr today. I called school to clarify, spoke to canteen in charge a Ms Ng. She was rather high handed and defensive. Claimed that the p1s were briefed by buddy and that there were parents volunteer there too. She started by blaming my boy for not collecting the change back.


Excuse me. I know what I gave my boy. No notes were given.

So as p1, you take the blame. Together with the buddy. Canteen operator can charge as much as they like because the little kid queued there.

Btw, my boy bought a plate of wanton noodle and was given a single wanton, some char siew and a little bit more noodle, which he cant finish. According to Ms Ng, that stall served a bigger portion. If the boys wanted smaller portion, should go to noodle hut. Ie longer queue, no wanton, just char siew and some noodle. But longer queue, meaning it could be your turn only when the bell rings.

I feedback to svhool personnel that this should not be the case and that the caterer has been with the school long enough to understand. Previously hmy boy bought hokkien noodle at $1 per plate from that stall. No problem. What reply I got fr ms Ng was that, uncle pity him so gave him less and charge less.

We parents are not allowed in since day 1 to accompany, you expect the p1 to remember so much. Such tactics are unreasonable.

I hope the school will do something about it, since admin manager is not around today. Will call again tomorrow speak personally.

I was about to ask about the canteen food also... My boy bought 2 roti prata today and he told me that 1 plain prata costs $1!!! That's more expensive than eating outside! A bit ridiculous.Any of your son bought that before?

[scang]

SPIES:

dinofan:

I found out that there is this stall in canteen , a la carte, that charged $2 for everything . It seems that this takes place wef fr today. I called school to clarify, spoke to canteen in charge a Ms Ng. She was rather high handed and defensive. Claimed that the p1s were briefed by buddy and that there were parents volunteer there too. She started by blaming my boy for not collecting the change back.


Excuse me. I know what I gave my boy. No notes were given.

So as p1, you take the blame. Together with the buddy. Canteen operator can charge as much as they like because the little kid queued there.

Btw, my boy bought a plate of wanton noodle and was given a single wanton, some char siew and a little bit more noodle, which he cant finish. According to Ms Ng, that stall served a bigger portion. If the boys wanted smaller portion, should go to noodle hut. Ie longer queue, no wanton, just char siew and some noodle. But longer queue, meaning it could be your turn only when the bell rings.

I feedback to svhool personnel that this should not be the case and that the caterer has been with the school long enough to understand. Previously hmy boy bought hokkien noodle at $1 per plate from that stall. No problem. What reply I got fr ms Ng was that, uncle pity him so gave him less and charge less.

We parents are not allowed in since day 1 to accompany, you expect the p1 to remember so much. Such tactics are unreasonable.

I hope the school will do something about it, since admin manager is not around today. Will call again tomorrow speak personally.

I was about to ask about the canteen food also... My boy bought 2 roti prata today and he told me that 1 plain prata costs $1!!! That's more expensive than eating outside! A bit ridiculous.Any of your son bought that before?

name of stall for Ms Ng? a la carte?

name of prata stall?

[emdad]

dinofan:

I found out that there is this stall in canteen , a la carte, that charged $2 for everything . It seems that this takes place wef fr today. I called school to clarify, spoke to canteen in charge a Ms Ng. She was rather high handed and defensive. Claimed that the p1s were briefed by buddy and that there were parents volunteer there too. She started by blaming my boy for not collecting the change back.


Excuse me. I know what I gave my boy. No notes were given.

So as p1, you take the blame. Together with the buddy. Canteen operator can charge as much as they like because the little kid queued there.

Btw, my boy bought a plate of wanton noodle and was given a single wanton, some char siew and a little bit more noodle, which he cant finish. According to Ms Ng, that stall served a bigger portion. If the boys wanted smaller portion, should go to noodle hut. Ie longer queue, no wanton, just char siew and some noodle. But longer queue, meaning it could be your turn only when the bell rings.

I feedback to svhool personnel that this should not be the case and that the caterer has been with the school long enough to understand. Previously hmy boy bought hokkien noodle at $1 per plate from that stall. No problem. What reply I got fr ms Ng was that, uncle pity him so gave him less and charge less.

We parents are not allowed in since day 1 to accompany, you expect the p1 to remember so much. Such tactics are unreasonable.

I hope the school will do something about it, since admin manager is not around today. Will call again tomorrow speak personally.

First, I must admit that it is unethical for the canteen operators to resort to such tactics. Thank you for providing the feedback to the school. You may also want to raise it at the Meet the Parents Session this coming Friday. If anything, I would think the P and VP should be there?

But I think we should all let the school investigate and exert pressure. Let's not link everything to back to the school not allowing parents to tag along for 1st day of school. The truth is, even if we were all allowed to tag along for the entire week, I think canteen operators may still resort to such tactics (the unscrupulous ones, I meant). Btw, I have heard similar stories from colleagues where their kids study in other schools ... and yes, they were allowed to tag along for several days during the first week. I agree with you that we can't expect the P1 boys to remember so many things. But as in many things in life, when we individually gets \"cheated\", we either choose to swallow it or we band together with other good people (friends, neighbours, consumers, citizens, etc) to report to the \"authorities\" for appropriate actions to be taken. If no actions are taken, then let's escalate upwards. Give them time.

[dinofan]

I will formally drop a note to the principal. I will not hide behind a smoke screen and just air here. The ones affected are innocent, defenceless children at the mercy of the canteen vendor, who had been with the school for a long time. Don’t get me wrong. I am not blaming the fact that we were not allowed during first few days that’s why such incident occurs. I just dont like the statement that the vendor, MS Ng made to me that the $2 stall should be made know to the p1 by the older buddy and that other parents were also presents, meaning to said that parents volunteers, so long as they are there, its ok.


its infuriating!

[snail]

Yes the food sold at the canteen is abit steep. Even my p1 son told me he found the $1 prata so ex that he didn’t dare to buy, haha

[SPIES]

scang:

SPIES:

[quote=\"dinofan\"]I found out that there is this stall in canteen , a la carte, that charged $2 for everything . It seems that this takes place wef fr today. I called school to clarify, spoke to canteen in charge a Ms Ng. She was rather high handed and defensive. Claimed that the p1s were briefed by buddy and that there were parents volunteer there too. She started by blaming my boy for not collecting the change back.


Excuse me. I know what I gave my boy. No notes were given.

So as p1, you take the blame. Together with the buddy. Canteen operator can charge as much as they like because the little kid queued there.

Btw, my boy bought a plate of wanton noodle and was given a single wanton, some char siew and a little bit more noodle, which he cant finish. According to Ms Ng, that stall served a bigger portion. If the boys wanted smaller portion, should go to noodle hut. Ie longer queue, no wanton, just char siew and some noodle. But longer queue, meaning it could be your turn only when the bell rings.

I feedback to svhool personnel that this should not be the case and that the caterer has been with the school long enough to understand. Previously hmy boy bought hokkien noodle at $1 per plate from that stall. No problem. What reply I got fr ms Ng was that, uncle pity him so gave him less and charge less.

We parents are not allowed in since day 1 to accompany, you expect the p1 to remember so much. Such tactics are unreasonable.

I hope the school will do something about it, since admin manager is not around today. Will call again tomorrow speak personally.

I was about to ask about the canteen food also... My boy bought 2 roti prata today and he told me that 1 plain prata costs $1!!! That's more expensive than eating outside! A bit ridiculous.Any of your son bought that before?

name of stall for Ms Ng? a la carte?

name of prata stall?[/quote]My son said he bought the pratas from noodle hut.

[seestar]

My DS has been eating the roti prata everyday since last week. It’s so expensive !!

I requested him to buy one home for me to try. Surprise surprise, it is really tasty >> sweet & fragrant. ( I’m still not happy that he is eating it so often)
By DS needs 2 to fill him up and that’s $2 … For empty calories !
He said its from Noodle Hut (?) thought noodle hut would sell only noodles ?

As for the wanton noodles, my DS wil sometimes have it for recess, ordering the smaller portion, $1, due to the limited time. But for lunch, he wil order the big portion, $2.

I recalled that we also made similar complaints and feedback to the Sch that $2 was too steep for P1/P2. ( when my DS was in P1, recess was still under catering, they hav only started allowing the P1-P3 to purchase their own food during recess last yr, 2012). Since then, there were adjustments, my DS told me that he could hav noodles & rice for $1, small portion , just nice for recess.

[emdad]

If my DS eats prata everyday, he will definitely get a good lecture from us. You are right, it is empty calories. I find the recess time too short. My DS asked us recently if he could skip eating altogether and just PLAY! Needless to say he received a lecture from us. Off course we had to also tell him nicely that if he doesn’t eat then he probably would always be caught when playing catching with his friends.


During the School orientation, I had breakfast with my DS at school. I was actually pleasantly surprised that the food was reasonable, in terms of price and quantity. I must qualify that I probably have lost touch with school canteen food since for us working adults, food is never really that cheap (even at food court). What I am trying to say is that we have to recognise the fact that the school may be facing difficulties in finding willing stall operators. The cost of business in itself is rising, and yet, the school (and us parents) are expecting them to maintain a very low price. Even if the stall operators are enjoying subsidised rental for the stall, that doesn’t defray their cost of raw materials which is rising along with inflation. Weigh that in against how much mark-up they can charge … then we could probably figure why not many are keen to operate.

My only request if anything out of this, is for the stall operators and school to ensure that they operate ethically, i.e. if you charge $2, please make sure the food is worth $2.

[flyboy744]

All hail emdad, for he has spoken again…


And again, let’s not judge the school, the the teachers, the administration, the bus operators, the canteen operators,the boys… but let’s evaluate ourselves, not overreact, manage our expectation, our judgement…

You must be surely the number 1 model parent all school is hoping to have…


Cheers!

[Dreamgear]

maybe to give you some reference point, my DD sap primary school in the east selling price for prata is 60cents and noodles is 80cents to $1.20…