Friday 15 April 2016

M is for Milk Monitor

Welcome to my posts for the A to Z Challenge 2016.
This year, I am posting 
Special School Stories
 tales from either my time as a teacher or teaching assistant within classrooms in the U.K. or from my own school days growing up around the country.

When I was a child attending infant school, we used to have milk in little glass bottles delivered to our classroom every day.  The job of milk monitor was to give out the straws at the designated time when everyone lined up to collect their bottle from the crate at the back of the classroom.  I can’t remember anyone not having milk.  Milk was good for teeth and bones and every child should drink it, seemed to be the message of the day.  It was also free to every child in infant school (ages 5-7) so everyone just drank it.  I liked milk and even though I can remember sometimes on very hot days the cream on the top of the bottle being a little difficult to break through with that straw – I always drank it same as my fellow students!

Today in England, free school milk is still available to the under-fives (in little cartons) but milk to infant aged children (although subsidised) has to be ordered and paid for by parents which is probably why so few children seem to have it these days although on those days when the nursery children were not in school and my class were handed their milk most of the children would ask for some and drink it up!

Now it's time for you to tell me ... did you have milk at your school when you were young?  Were you ever the milk monitor?  Can you remember milk in glass bottles or are you the carton generation?
Leave me a comment below as you know I'd love to know :)


8 comments:

  1. Boy, you are asking me to really stretch my memory muscles. Yes, I believe we did have milk in school, early elementary.
    It was not free, we had to pay. We had to remember to bring our milk money. I'm pretty sure it came in a little carton.

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  2. We never had milk delivered in bottles at school but did at home. The milk at school was warm and gross, something that persists to this day if my students are telling me the truth. These days I'm not much of a milk drinker, which I blame for having been forced to drink so much as a kid. Now I'm finishing my ice cream!

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  3. We had plan cartons when I was in elementary school, k5 through 5th grade. It was included for free for free and reduced lunch students. I still love milk, although I am drinking Cashew Milk by Silk now. Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

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  4. Yes, we had milk but I think it was always in cartoons, but I do remember in the first grade there being a milk monitor... I think milk was a nickle then--in 1963

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  5. Ah, Milk! We only got it for free in Kindergarten, but being milk monitor was a HUGE thing. My kids receive on free milk per day to the 2nd grade. They can purchase a 2nd for another snack time, but as of the 3rd, no more milk.

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  6. We never had this at school, although you could buy milk or chocolate in little cartons with your lunch.

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  7. Milk in little cartons was the only drink that came with school bought lunches, which I got for 25 cents each. I hated it because all my friends brought lunch from home and had cool juice boxes. But every once in a while we got chocolate milk, which was awesome.

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  8. Yep we had milk, it got warm, I hated it, I don't like milk (will take it in tea/coffee or on cereal but never ever ever as a drink, yuck!)... funny thing was... my Dad was the milk man!

    Mars xx
    @TrollbeadBlog from
    Curling Stones for Lego People

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