To wonder what will happen about the government's 'free' breakfast club proposal?!

Of course healthy and as much unprocessed foods as possible are better for DC. Completely standard in most other European countries.

I’m sorry do you think that there are people who don’t realise bread is processed? Do you think people think bread is pulled out the ground?

no wonder you’re so taken by the idea of avoiding processed foods if you think it’s some special information to help you feel superior to other parents.

however, thinking and using phrases like “crap carbs” is orthorexia language, as is demonising bread / cereals and claiming that “healthy” is such an overarching aim in your life

@AquaPeer ”They’ll get an eating disorder at home too, the way you talk ”

What because I try and avoid processed foods for my DC?
You do realise that toast bread and breakfast cereals are processed? And that British children consume the most UPF foods in Europe?
Perhaps do some research.
I would never feed my DC shop purchased toast bread regularly. It is not healthy. Neither are many breakfast cereals routinely sold to families.

Because it's all about the soundbite of "free breakfast clubs". Populist policy

Apart from cost and staffing issues (which are major considerations) I do also feel sad that there will not be equality of provision across the board. Why do Labour insist on doing this. Failing to cost it and provide sufficient funding.
What is offered will vary widely in terms of staffing, food etc
Promise big and falling short.

If a parent is unable or unwilling to provide breakfast for their child then the solution is not for the school to provide it.

The solution is to investigate why the parent is unwilling or unable to do this.

That will mean home visits to check accommodation, to check that food is in the house and that children are not left to fend for themselves.

Providing breakfast on days when the school is open does not help these children, no matter how much of a warm glow it may give to the govermenrt.

We need to step back and ask what type of parent is unwilling or unable to provide breakfast for their children and deal with that because being unable to give your child a couple of slices of toast in the morning is a massive fail and maybe that parent is not fit to have the care of a child.

A breakfast club is not the answer.

Labour are especially bad at considering unintended consequences on policies. They have always been heart in the right place and arse and elbow at the same time.

This is also MN which means that’s parents on here are invested in their children. People assume lack of food is because people are struggling for money but some really do not care about their children. Some parents will neglect their children to the point they do not feed them. It happens far more than most care to admit. I have been involved with food projects with initiatives on feeding people and research in to poverty,

Unless you have directly worked with or been involved with issues like this it is hard to fathom just how neglected some children are. Initiatives like this mean children at school are going to get fed. It is the best way to facilitate feeding children. I’m no biologist but it’s pretty obvious the body and brain aren’t coping if it doesn’t food have and some children and adults misbehave if hungry.

Illiteracy in the UK is at 16%, within the prison population it’s at 57%. If people want a better society the push should be about educating at the most basic level.

The problem is this will not have been costed properly and there will yet again be unintended consequences for the already overstretched school staff.

Schools are there to educate children. They should not be providing free breakfast, teaching children how to brush their teeth or how to use cutlery. These are jobs for parents. We are simply asking too much of schools and letting parents get away with doing nothing. There will be very few families who can’t (rather than won’t) afford a piece of toast or bowl of porridge for their kids in the morning and those who genuinely can’t will be known to the school and can be given a free place in the current breakfast club. Let schools get back to teaching and make parents look after their kids.

Working parents, a 30 minute breakfast club made a huge difference for us as it meant we could drop off from 8:00am (so technically a 35 minute breakfast club, rather than the school start time of 8:30am. So we could both be at our work before our start time of 08:30am.

30 minutes could make a big difference for a lot of low paid jobs. Its fairly common for retail or preschool staff for example to have a 9am start, so that half hour would allow them to get there in time without spending a large % of their first hours pay on childcare.

It's this. Recruiting TAs is hard anyway. No one wants to start at 8am because what do they do with their own chuldren? We've advertised various shift patterns for breakfast club, after school club, midday and TA positions over the past year and had zero applicants. Nice school, nice village.

It will be as successful as their target for building 1.5 million houses.
There is no money and there are no staff (TAs or Trades).

Life changes, circumstances change.

It's been free in Wales for a while. It only starts 20 minutes before the school day so there's never been an issue staffing it because teachers are in anyway so they just rotate through, and it's often the non-teaching Head or Deputy with one of the catering staff.

There's not a massive uptake, probably because some kids prefer breakfast at home, and because it's such s short period of time it's not helping with childcare hours enough for people to rely on it.

Not at the same time though. With ours it's over an hour and a half.

They all eat dinner in school.

Many primaries don't have space for all kids at the same time. Ours doesn't - there are 3 shifts for lunch in the hall. We could only offer a breakfast club for maybe 50% of pupils to eat during the same half hour.

They’ll get an eating disorder at home too, the way you talk 🙄

Well mine are too old but I would not be sending them for crappy carbs when they get avocado, eggs, sour dough, Greek yoghurt and berries, proper smoothies type breakfast at home. I suppose I may have sent a packed breakfast if it were an exercise club. Young Kids in this country need exercise more than anything else. And healthy food, not cheap carbs.

Probably. But we have to draw the line somewhere, and I'd say kids from good homes who just don't fancy breakfast (or stubbornly refuse it) are not a societal problem.

Precisely ! This would immediately lift up those in poverty

We pay £2.50 for 45 minutes with no food.

I’d quite like to save £400 a year on this to make up for the VAT I’m now paying for my other child to attend school 🫣

How is it panning out in Wales then?

My DC secondary school has a breakfast club with free food for all. It’s run by Y10/Y11 prefects who liase with the catering staff about stock etc. it’s always seemed quite popular when my DC has talked about it.

Bizarre statement. I can drop my DC at school from 8.30 and easily be at my desk by 9am (it’s a 15 min cycle from the school gate). I could then finish work at 5pm and collect him from after school club, which closes at 5.30pm. Full time hours without breakfast club…