It is lunchtime at Richard Challoner school, a Catholic comprehensive for boys in New Malden, south-west London. The familiar smell of school lunch is beginning to waft around the corridors.
In the canteen, there is a moment of calm as the kitchen team make final preparations before year 7 descend – a mass of chatting, laughing boys, with backpacks swinging and empty tummies grumbling.
It all happens so fast. One minute there’s an orderly queue, the next they’ve made their selection, completed payment and are sitting down – huddled with friends – to eat. The food vanishes and they’re off.
In comes the next sitting. Bigger boys with bigger appetites. Wednesday’s menu includes a main meal of sausages (Cumberland pork and…