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

Actually 30 minutes makes a lot of difference, it means you can start work at 9am (which is the standard 'office' time).

I live in Scotland so a fair few things are free because the cost of means testing would outweigh the revenue gained. Breakfast club would be one of them. My kids school has free breakfast club which we use to make me working a lot easier logistically.

Probably a good example as the catchment is small and predominantly council estate. Most people are local for several generations so there are no 'commercial' wrap around providers, just ad hoc (free) after school clubs for various sports some times. The local ASCs pick up from other primaries but not this one. Having breakfast club every day means one end of the day is covered so a parent working earlies could pick and a parent starting at 9 could drop off. Thus facilitating work for those that want it.

It's also possible that having a bigger target arrival time helps as if you're late for breakfast club you're not "late and in trouble" but being early for school means waiting in the weather/hanging around with the usual arrive between 8.45 and 8.50 window... So easier for parents to get stressier kids into school.

I agree

And I'm against the mother being replaced by institution and also against children spending even longer in school. As per usual, the entirety of the childs psycho-social wellbeing is being overlooked in favour of booting women into what for many ends up being little more than wage slavery. Children having breakfast in school is grim in my opinion, it isn't the same as lunch.

I remember lots of nice morning pre-school breakfast conversations with my children. Sure sometimes we had the crazy manic rush, but they started their day with a meal at home.

You can buy a big bag of oats relatively inexpensively in most supermarkets that will provide many breakfasts. Left overs from dinner can also be utilised. It's unfortunate that eggs have become so expensive.

I think the funding could be better spent providing more quality school trips, which varies widely among schools.

Not a joke, just an elitist arse thread.

Sorry but I had to check the children in poverty statistic. PP stated that 30% of children are living in poverty. That seems to me unlikely. I am currently doing cover work in schools in a city with traditionally endemic levels of poverty. I am in and out of lots of schools. Kids are almost always clean and well presented, usually mucking around rather than working but clearly in high spirits and with lots of energy. I checked the statistic online and it comes from the percentage of children living in household with income below 60% of the national median. I don't think this will give people a very good idea of whether children are well fed or not. Sorry, I'm just not seeing starving kids when I'm out and about. Quite the opposite. And growing up I did see malnourishment in my own school. Kids were weedy and shorter than those from other schools (a former teacher told me this when I went back to teach in the same school as an adult).

Please let this be a joke thread...

This. I retired from teaching after 30 years. One morning on the playground I overheard an older brother tell his sibling to “drink lots of water–it’ll fill you up.”

I’m only in my thirties so not completely ancient, our nine year old was educated in the UK until recently, he could work out who was FSM once they hit KS2 and asked us why the school pays for some lunches. When I helped on a trip again it was obvious to everyone as the FSM kids had a school packed lunch, rather than one in lunch box.

You must be a lot younger than me. We had to hand an envelope of money into the school every Monday to pay for the school lunches

You are probs older than me I had free meals and just used my fingerprint like other people who's parents paid. Now my kids also get free meals and it's all ordered online same as people who pay.
Its been decades since kids got bullied for free meals there's just no way for other kids to know.

@cadburyegg , this is why schools chosen for the trial are already pulling out. There is £500 to set up, ie buy the crockery and £1000 from April to July for admin costs and then 60p per child per day so of course this won't cover any teacher participation and I agree the teachers then can't be in their classrooms during the set up time for the day.

It's more about the childcare than the food.

Coke is really expensive. She wasn’t giving her that to save money.

I was on free school meals, we were given tokens to pay for our food, its also obvious on school trips as FSM children will be given a packed lunch by staff. At our school bullying against FSM children was awful and relentless.

You seem to have enough to say on this topic which presumably doesn’t concern you personally either. Surely people taking their children out of school for any reason that disrupts their education should concern fine upstanding citizens like yourself too? Surely you don’t reserve your judgement only for poor people? Because that wouldn’t be very nice would it?

I do indeed! In Europe they do not start formal learning till 7.
And the teaching our children receive is based on a deeply flawed curriculum. It puts many children off school. And is repeated when they get to secondary school.
Childhood is a precious thing, and time spent eating breakfast together is valuable time.

It would be a great idea if it was properly funded.

If schools are only going to be receiving 60p per child how will they fill the gap? Are they expected to fill it out of their own budgets? Will the fees for those paying for wraparound care in the non-funded period (ie from 7.45 onwards if the funded period starts from 8.15) increase to cover the gap, so working parents have to pay even more?

Are teachers and TAs expect to cover this period? Most teachers get into school early anyway to prep for the day, if they have to staff a breakfast club when do they get to do their prep work? If they get the time back during the school day, will it be a qualified teacher covering their class? If they don't get the time back at all and are just expected to so even more work at home, is this just going to lead to more stressed and overworked teachers?

I don't really see how it can be done without disadvantaging some people even further, and I said this as a single working parent who already uses wraparound care.

It’s a self serving look what we did exercise. There will be plenty of people that take the option up for the child care.

I don’t know why you’ve phrased this as a bad thing?? I work and we have to pay for breakfast club currently. I’d welcome a subsidised breakfast club.

@totototo I don’t think most on this thread not in support of the breakfast club programme are opposed to spending that money on supporting children and families who need it. I personally just feel that the money could be better spent in other ways.

It's not just about the food. It will be really good for families with children in different schools. But it needs to be properly funded or means tested.

There's no stigma for free lunches I say this from experience I had free lunches as a kid and my kids have them now. Nobody knows the parents order online even the school dinner ladies probably don't know. And when I was at secondary school everyone paid with their fingerprint so no one knew who had free meals.

Its been literal DECADES since kids got bullied for having free meals.

Sorry for the derail

They should be thought of. But we don't even offer a level of standard free/ heavily subsidised childcare in the UK that would enable a parent to work full-time in an average wage job without being massively worse off.

My European friends that have decided to start families have simply moved back to their original country as they find the raw deal and severe penalties that mums/dads get here for simply existing unimaginable and unmanageable.

Yet we seem to be telling ourselves that this is fine, everyone should pay, and if you can't work your life around the 9-3pm routine then tough luck.

We're so far away from this and we are actively protesting against more provision for parents here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21784716

Most public nurseries offer care from around 06:00 to 18:00. But with the numbers of parents working flexible or unconventional hours going up, local councils are increasingly providing overnight and weekend services.

In south-east Sweden, the small, former industrial city of Norrkoping is among those already leading the way in out-of-hours care. There are four council-run nurseries open overnight here, the first of which launched 20 years ago.

"I am a single mum and I wanted to go back to my job, which is at night," explains Maria.

The problem at primary age though is that the parents who don't care about their child going into school hungry are not going to bring their child in early to get the breakfast.
Of those who do care and can't afford it, a fair number are struggling just to make sure they get their child into school on time, let alone early.

So it's something that looks like it might help, but the reality is that the majority of children for whom it would help won't get it.

The children that come in hungry, aren’t going to be the ones that come along to breakfast club. The ones using the now free breakfast club will be the ones already paying. This money they did pay, is the money I use to fed the children who didn’t get breakfast at home when they turn up to school at any point in the morning, they often haven't had breakfast and come in late not because there isn’t food but their home life if chaotic.

Money would be better spent getting a member of staff to collect them.

This is about getting mum working outside of school hours.

I’d be angry that the resources weren’t being spent where they are needed most, rather than feeding kids whose parents can afford to.