10 school dinner puddings from back in the day that are still absolute classics

Many moons ago, long before Jamie Oliver got his hands on them, school dinners were pretty different to what is served up to kids these days.

The actual main meals could often be a bit hit or miss. Days when it was lumpy mash and watery cabbage weren’t great, especially if you had a dinner lady who insisted you cleared your plate before you were allowed to have your pudding, and that would never do!

The puddings, well, they hit differently. Nowadays, while some of us can’t remember what we walked into a room for, we can still remember just how good the puddings served up at school were.

We’ve gone old school, literally, and have rounded up some firm favourites.

1. Sponge cake, topped with jam and desiccated coconut, and custard

2. Chocolate sponge with chocolate sauce/custard

3. Jam tart and custard

4. Chocolate Concrete with green (mint) custard)

5. Cornflake cake/tart

6. Sponge cake with icing and sprinkles with pink custard

7. Apple or rhubarb crumble and custard

8. Arctic Roll

9. Jam Roly Poly and custard

10. Spotted Dick and custard

Plus a special mention for the ‘Marmite’ of school dinner puddings – the one you either loved or hated – Tapioca/Semolina. Also affectionately known as ‘Frog spawn’ but, if served with a dollop of strawberry jam on top, it was always fun mixing them together to make the pudding pink.

Did we miss any?

Image Screengrab, Screengrab