To think that funding free breakfast clubs is wrong-headed?

Could part of the reason for breakfast club be maybe to alleviate the pressure on parents that might have other issues like a disabled child that requires more energy and attention that might not be the child receiving breakfast but possibly a sibling that needs taking/organising transport/medical appointments etc.
Breakfast club in this case might not be about finances but a little assistance with child care for a small amount of time.

Well, most childcare policy is about making sure women (mostly) go out to work rather than stay idly at home rearing their own children. It's a win-win, more workers (so wages stagnate) plus more business for low-wage paying industries like nurseries. What's not to like?

Who is going to run them? Current teachers and LSAs don’t want to do it. I can’t imagine there are that many people who want to do it.

Well the millionaire's kids are not generally going to state schools. And you'd be surprised. One of the most deprived schools in London is in one of the highest income per capita post codes. It's not the kids from the neighbouring £10m houses filling the classrooms.

Congratulations you have just blown through the directed time allocation in schools. What are you willing to take out to make this extra teaching happen.

And I was with you until you did this the free breakfast is a cheap and easy way of getting brownie points from the electorate whilst getting parents in to work.
Very little to do with improving education at all.

You’d need to be using about 200ml of milk to get 150cals out of it, your 40g of oats would be absolutely swimming in milk.

And even then, it’s essentially a bowl of gloop with very little in the way of goodness, it might fill you but it’s certainly not fuelling your body particularly well. Where’s your protein, your fruit, your healthy fats etc in there?

A healthy balanced breakfast could be oats, milk, peanut butter with some fruit for example, but calling 40grams of oats swimming in milk just to hit calories a great breakfast option is madness

Its the lack of honesty about it that people are objecting to.

Well the money wasn't there in the first place. Someone came up with an initiative - 1 in 4 kids in the UK are in poverty. We need to encourage parents to go to work. Ah I know! Free breakfast club. Great. How are we going to fund it we don't have money. Let's tax someone else.

It wasn't the other way round - we think of taxing this group more, what shall we do with the money?

What programme would you launch instead?

I agree. The money could be better spent on improving school libraries, more sport or showing parents how to pour cornflakes in a bowl, stick milk on it and serve it to DC with a spoon.

So if the parents don't, or can't, we as a society should sanction the children bearing the brunt of that?

FFS

I’m assuming this isn’t about a few slices of toast but about productivity and enabling people to work.

So you don't agree with breakfast clubs full stop.. even when the parents are paying.
I used a breakfast club for my son throughout primary school so I could get to work on time, it cost me £10 per week. Paying a childminder to do the school run would have cost me £15 per day, surely you can get that finding that money would be impossible to a lot of families.

Understand (former teacher, trained in a deprived part of Birmingham), but anything highlighting FSM kids is to be avoided since it can embarrass them into declining. General funding of schools is woeful, but taking a piece of toast from a hungry child will not fix everything else.

Breakfast club at our school is over £4. They don't make a profit. So if the government are funding it at 63p per child, how are schools possibly going to make it work?!

I make it with milk, that takes the calories up to 300

Christ, are you for real? How long does that take, how much does it cost, and who feeds the child in the meantime?

It is different with the free school meals because the staff are already budgeted for. This is an extra that they aren't funding staff for. Provide school with money that they can provide something during registration but don't add extra time without providing staff costs

Nope, it’s not.

40g of oats is around 160 calories. The general guidance is that breakfast should be anywhere from around 300-400 calories.

On supporting the children whose families actually need it. Not just a blanket policy. Breakfast club for those who qualify for pupil premium?? Fantastic idea. Perhaps even extend who can access pupil premium. Breakfast club for all including kids like mine who are very lucky to have multiple options for breakfast sitting in their fridge at home? Pointless waste of money.
Money for an extra TA to support the SEN pupils, money to provide free uniform or extra curricular for those that can’t afford it. The list is endless.
My school would be grateful for some money for basic supplies!

I’m for anything that makes it easier for parents to be able to juggle parenting and work

Breakfast club aside I personally think universal free meals is pointless it would be better to raise eligibility threshold it used to be the parents income under 16k now it's 7.4k which is insane when you think about it.

I wouldn't worry about "stigma" even when I was a kid I had free meals and no one knew because you paid with your fingerprint. Now it's all booked online at least at primary age so no way for the other kids to know who gets it free.

Apparently in London all kids get free school meals just why when certain neighbourhoods in London everyone is a millionaire. Why do they need free meals??

Absolutely this. I have wrap around care only for one of my children and only two days a week (we have been on waiting lists for the others). It has affected me being able to apply for jobs, change hours or do overtime… if there was easily available wrap around (as a universal thing rather than very much supply/demand/waiting list arrangement) so many parents could find/change/expand their working potential.

also my kids are terrible for not choosing/getting on and eating their vreakfast at home but would eat with the others at b.c.