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

Childcare aspect would still be needed. Just call it morning club. Should be cheaper too.

Sounds lovely with the book aspect - they could even have a nice piece of music to listen to chosen by a different child each day to bring another educational aspect to it.

Minimal clear up too with one big plate ☺️

I guess the issue is also what happens to any existing paid for breakfast clubs in school? Do they still offer this with longer hours, or do they stop that and move to only offering the free 30 mins?

I'm not finding problems. I'm simply asking a question.

Presumably those TAs weren't sat doing nothing between 3:30-4pm and presumably that work still needs doing. So if they aren't doing that work, who now is?

Another question - where does the breakfast club take place? We would have to open up classrooms to fit in more children than come to our 'restricted in numbers' paid for breakfast club. As an old school building we don't have a big hall - lunch is staggered - and no separate dining hall. We don't even have our own kitchen.

This!!
They are making it more difficult than it needs to be!

@Inertia
They don't start till 9am here.
Obviously- it would start 15-20 mins after your particular school started.

Lots of people here who look for problems, not solutions.

Our TAs either work 8am-3.30pm (and support breakfast clubs) or they work 8.30-4pm (and support homework club). All contracted and paid for the same number of hours.

I've got one lady who works 7.30-3, her choice. She requested it to be able to do PM pick up of her grandchildren, for her daughter. Works out nicely for us. She picks up the Asda order first-thing and sets up for breakfast club. That's the sort of thing that comes with finding solutions, rather than problems.

FWIW I think the major supermarkets should be required to pay a local levy that covers the cost of feeding children in schools - it would make minimal impact to their profits.

It's a good initiative but underfunded. Let's say a school had take up of 50 children. They will receive funding of around £30 per session.

30 minutes will cost the school:

X 2 TA wages for 0.75 hours - including set up and tidy after plus on costs of 30% - £26.50

Leaving £3.50 per day to feed 50 children (7 pence per child) which will not cover the cost of bread/porridge/fruit.

Schools might be able to break even if limiting numbers to 30 (£18 funding, £13.25 staffing cost, £4.75 to feed 30 children - 16p each).

Welcome to working in school leadership where the government think money grows on trees!

I think a few headteachers already said their schools were will not take part as it's so poorly funded, so the schools will have to top it up. Just wonder also what on earth schools are supposed to feed the kids on this sort of rate of 60p. Won't be anything else but processed shit. I also bet that disabled children will be once again excluded as there won't be enough staffing to cover this cost. It's just a poorly thought out idea. I have no clue what they were smoking when they cooked this idea up.

Luckily there are more supermarkets than there are schools.

Even without the goodwill of our local Adsa, the cost of proving the food/drink is minimal. We spend over 10 times more on proving free school shoes to children who need them than food budget for breakfast club.

The TAs hours haven't changed. They either stay until 4pm and staff the daily homework club, or start at 8am and staff the breakfast clubs. They're already contracted for those hours and have been for many years, it's nothing extra.

Who is now doing the work that those TAs did until 4pm?

Are the TAs still having to do the work but cram it in or end up working later but with no pay?

Or are other teachers and TAs now having to cover that work for them?

If every school in the area had to offer free breakfast then the likelihood of local supermarkets giving them all free food is minimal.

@Redlocks30 what is your role?

Lots of assumptions being made here, surely it makes sense for each individual school to sort out the detail about how it will staffed, how it can be booked what food provided etc.

As mentioned above it’s already happening in many schools so not beyond the capabilities of schools, just because you don’t know doesn’t mean all these things haven’t been sorted out or answered.

Also just because it’s there doesn’t mean that all or even most will use it. We use breakfast club 2 days a week and when we work from home the others 3 days we don’t use it, that won’t change when it becomes free. I’ll be on maternity leave shortly and won’t use it then unless it’s an emergency.

I agree with the person who said people love a good moan.

I'm glad I left teaching 4 years ago.

I had enough to do and think about in the mornings without serving food and drinks, remembering allergies and making sure vegan or allergic children got the correct food, wiping tables, dealing with messages from parents complaining about the food...

I used to arrive at 7.15am in order to set up for the day. Add in serving breakfast and those extra tasks?

It's a nice idea but it needs to be properly funded and staffed.

I agree. Children should be ready to start lessons well fed - not start the school day with a late breakfast in the classroom. Whether this is achieved at home or by some kind of breakfast club, I don't mind. But the school day shouldn't be cut short because of this, and a trained teacher shouldn't have to spend their time acting as a meal supervisor. I can't imagine the faff of having to turn your classroom into a café then turn it back again to start lessons.

Children are in lessons from 8.45! At 9am we are teaching lessons for which children’s progress is measured.

If the teacher is the only adult in the room, who is making the good and cleaning up while the teacher teaches?

Accessible breakfast clubs are a laudable idea, but the government need to provide ongoing funding for staffing (to cook, supervise children, and clean up) , good and equipment.

But you cannot direct teachers to do this: unions will be - quite rightly- up in arms. More unpaid work. Our TAs start at 8:30am. No one will do it. It’s totally unrealistic.

This sounds ideal

Yes, it's all quite relaxed. School cook toasts bagels and delivers on a big plate. Children either take some or not. Everyone looks at a book as a morning 'job' in every class. I get my child who doesn't like to go to assembly to take back the big plate as we go to assembly. Done.

Oh fucking hell Redlocks, the naivety.

What's your job title?

No, Breakfast club is very unlikely to be teacher directed time. There will probably be a member of SLT overseeing it, because it's unlikely to be prioritised within classroom teacher's directed time. Or maybe it will be a TLR responsibility. But the operational staffing will be support staff.

TAs being "unable" to come in for 8am wouldn't be a barrier. The initial aim would be to seek flexible working and shift working hours through agreement. If that isn't fruitful though it's perfectly possible to change the hours of TAs whether they like it or not, if there's a clear business need for it. This would be a business need. Some TAs will leave as a result. You just advertise for the replacement with hours of work 8am-3pm (or whatever). noone is irreplaceable. And, sorry to say this, especially not support staff. Term time only jobs are coveted roles, replacements are not difficult to source.

No they aren't! Think you need to go back and read the actual sums.

This sounds ideal - my son's school used to offer a piece of fruit everyday (free).
So you could in theory do breakfast at 9 - 9.15am as part of registration with toast/bagel, fruit and milk/juice. Any children who were in earlier as part of 'before school care' could wait to have their breakfasts with the others as a nice social thing. Older children could help out with prep (we used to have milk monitors in my day back in ancient times!).