A secondary school headteacher has criticised “completely unacceptable” meals served to pupils at his own school, demanding to know “how difficult is it to bake a potato?”.

Jason Ashley, head of Redbridge Community School in Southampton, sent a letter to parents complaining about school lunches on 12 March.

In it, he writes: “I can no longer keep this from you. You’ll often hear me say ‘if it’s good enough for my own children, it has to be good enough for yours’.

“Frankly the food that is served in the canteen is completely unacceptable, so much so, that if my own children’s school served this I would be exceptionally unhappy.”

He explains the school has “no control” over what the contracted catering company, Chartwell’s, decides to serve.

Southampton City Council said the school has a private finance initiative (PFI) contract for outsourced services, which means a management company recruits specialist firms to provide what the school needs.

In the letter, which has been widely circulated on social media, Mr Ashley included a selection of photographs of meals served at the school, including baked potatoes, chips, and a roast dinner.

He said he and his colleagues have been in “numerous meetings” to discuss concerns but: “I am simply fed up with the lack of progress being made.

“We have concluded with our photo evidence that Chartwell’s do seem to be unable to ‘bake a potato’ correctly. In recent times, portions have gotten smaller, whilst prices have risen.”

He added that for “many” of his students, “a school meal is so important”, meaning: “I can no longer tolerate, provide reasons for, or even justify to you the unacceptable nature of the food.”

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Mr Ashley signed off the letter: “I will leave you to decide with a selection of photos taken (and this is served to staff) for you to make up your own mind.

“I hope that you are as angry and as disappointed as me. Finally I keep asking myself ‘how difficult is it to bake a potato?'”

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‘Staffing challenges’

A spokesperson for Chartwell’s said there had been “operational and staffing challenges” at the school in recent weeks and it has “put in place a project team to rectify issues at the site”.

“We apologise that in this instance our usual level of service has fallen below the high standards we demand,” they said in a statement.

“We are committed to working in collaboration with the school and are implementing an immediate action plan to rectify these issues.”

They added that prices have not increased in two years despite “exponential increase in costs” and their portion sizes have not changed.

A Southampton City Council spokesperson said: “Under normal circumstances schools within Southampton manage their own catering contracts.

“However, Redbridge Community School is a PFI school. This results in the school having little or no control over the quality of the services provided.”

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