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

Exactly. But they surely wouldn't be able to discriminate and say that these children cannot access the breakfast club...so that will definitely pose a problem, especially with the runners. I don't see how even a headteacher would be able to supervise these children without having more support.

Devil is in the details!

The "free" breakfast club will be very short, the planned one here (my friend is setting it up) is just 20 minutes long, you drop off at 8.30 rather than 8.50, there's a paying option to drop off at 8am.

she's the leader and preps the food (very basic) and has one assistant from 8, then there's a rota of teaching staff as extra supervision from 8.30 as it basically replaces playground duty (you can already drop off into the playground from year 3 from 8.30, years r-2 straight into classrooms at 8.50).

The school has 140 students so not huge, hence her prepping, they have ordered those toasters you get in hotels last week. It opens after Easter

The ones this is aimed at won't attend, it's hard enough getting those children in as it is.

Mmm - primary play work ratios are 1:8. You can’t have one member of staff preparing food and supervising 30 children safely, Pension contributions, employers National insurance. Heating, lighting. Staff training - food handling, first aid, paediatric and adult, positive handling. Cost of materials for some activities when they’ve finished eating. Including the fact that the majority of schools are already setting deficit budgets at year 2……glad I’ve just left education!

This is one of the labour policies I can get on board with. There is absolutely no reason why a parent shouldn’t be at work once their child is old enough to be in school unless you can physically afford to support yourself. In which case it’s nobodies business what you do.

The terrible state of NHS dentistry, and the NHS in general, is due to years and years of Tory government neglect.
I can’t see how the breakfast clubs will work though. I’m a TA and I am not going to staff them, neither will most of my TA colleagues - most of us have become TAs to work around family commitments.

At every school I’ve worked in, the staff get in between 30-60 minutes early to prep for the day. They’re probably relying on that 🙄.

I don't feel it's motivated by wanting to feed children, it's about cheap childcare to get more people into work.

Anyone tried to give breakfast to a child who doesn't want it?

My foster son goes to a special school that has funding for a breakfast club. He insists on going because his friend does. He is given cereal and half a toasted bagel. I don't know where this finding comes from but every morning I cook sausages and hash browns with a poached egg, or scrambled eggs and plum tomatoes on toast for breakfast so I'd really prefer him to have some of that. He has school hot lunches but they don't get much food he has told me only tiny portions for a teen boy. One day he told me he'd had pizza. I said oh you like pizza and he said he was only given 1 🍕 slice. It will be good for some DC who don't get any given breakfast at home and go to school hungry.

Staffing is definitely an issue that hasn't been considered. Those saying TAs flexitime, they are still being paid - the example given was just some start and then finish earlier.

My other concern is what about children who require 1:1 TAs. There are a number of children who have this support in the school day, usually linked to one or two adults. Will these adults be willing and even able to come in early to support their 1:1 and also will the school paid for this povision.

You need to appreciate there is a massive difference between large city schools which are staffed with money from higher rate per pupil, EHCPs LACs and pupil premium compared to a primary with 3 classes, 57 pupils and no TAs.

Are school buses gonna change timetables to pick up earlier to get all kids to this? Or do you only get to eat if you live nearby?

A lot of schools offer paid for breakfast clubs, as the name suggests many provide food but they're mainly just to allow for an earlier drop off so working parents have time to get to work rather than people paying for food (it'd cost way more for the club than to just have something at food, so really paying for the time). The government has said all schools will now offer this to all pupils free of charge but without providing any further financial assistance to already tight school budgets, not support on the logistics of providing this.

We tried to run a breakfast club in our secondary a few years ago , offered to all but hoping to catch those more in need. Run voluntarily by a couple of teachers and myself as support staff. Problems included finding someone to order the food - ended up being me during my normal working day. Trying to find somewhere to hold it , had to be in the corner of a classroom, so someone had to quickly clean up. Somewhere needed to store equipment eg toaster which needed PAT testing. Somewhere to store food , lockable or else it got nicked . A fridge for milk etc - no money for one so had to use staff room at other end of the building. And all this had to be fitted around our usual jobs. It fizzled out in the end, the majority of pupils associated it with being a PP pupil so wouldn’t come. Most pupils came by bus so couldn’t come earlier anyway. Such a shame really, it was great seeing pupils all sitting together round a table chatting, but there was no money, it relied on volunteer staff which wasn’t sustainable and there were just too many problems.

It’s to help families on low income with the cost of feeding children.

My dcs are now college/secondary but their primary opened doors at 8:30 and we could drop kids off, there was breakfast available (cereal/toast/fruit). They also ran a breakfast club to help working parents that you paid for and could drop off at 7:30am.
They subscribed to fare share to help provide the free breakfasts, they sold the surplus to staff and parents to partially help pay for fare share.

Do school pupils in the UK really not get breakfast at home before they leave for school? You are all talking like it's the norm for schools to offer this - is it?

I'm in France, I don't think there are breakfast clubs here at all. And school starts at 8am, with pre-school care starting from 7:30am.

"the cost to school is literally nothing"

Staffing - salaries and on costs for a start.

I can only guess the person who made the above comment isn't managing a school budget ? We have had to think very creatively as to how we can man our breakfast club.

Do you have any idea how tight school budgets are? A lot can't afford supply staff if a teacher is off, have cut right back on support staff, can't afford basics such as glue etc and so any additional spend is too much.

Yet another under-funded government ‘win’. Meanwhile many of those very politicians will be claiming their breakfasts on their expenses no doubt, and at a rate of considerably more than 60p per day.

Not sure, but the same who expect the government to provide stuff like this are usually the first to call out government interference and state my kids not the govs xoxo

30 children, 60p each is £18, £14 ta wage? And £4 to cover a few loafs of bread and jam. Probably 80p per child would make more sense but it doesn't seem completely unmanageable

I understand that we are in the middle of an economic crisis but when did so many parents become unable to feed their children due to lack of money that the government had to feed all children?