To think that free breakfast at school is a bad idea due to the quality?

Ours is £3.50 a day and it is toast, cereal or bagels. No fruit or yogurt. It's a deprived area too.

Breakfast club at the school I work at (we're in Scotland) offer:
Weetabix or porridge
Wholemeal toast with spread or jam
Fruit (usually apple, satsuma or banana)
Yoghurt
Sometimes have bagels or pancakes.

Always think this when I see the ‘French kids dont eat junk’ stuff on here.

The ones I taught absolutely did, they ate a lot of it. They also went home for lunch where, by their own account, a lot more junk was consumed although granted the food available at the university canteen where we could also eat as student teachers was pretty great. Presumably location/ socio-economic demographics played into this as they do here in the UK, I was in a ZEP.

Also spent lots of time in Spanish schools/ living with a Spanish family. Breakfast there was usually cake and nesquick too. Lunch (at home after school day finished at 2) and dinner (usually about 10pm earliest) were pretty great though, but plenty of junk in between.

Granted it was many years ago now, but all the kids I taught in France had Nutella eaten straight from the jar for breakfast. Sometimes with a croissant or similar.

This! And then follow it up with 'just some logical thinking' as if bloody schools are not thinking of how to manage things. It is infuriating.

That is because you seem to imagine up things that will not work as if schools are too dumb to have thought about it and then along you come to save the day because they cannot have logical thought processes can they. Or is it that they have had logical thought processes but still have found it a bloody nightmare to work around and it pisses them off when along comes someone who says 'just.....' as if it is that simple. Many schools have spent hours trying to figure out a way to make it work. Many are still working on that.

I agree with the fact it should be parents feeding but many have learnt helplessness these days and that needs to change.

The problem does apply but when you have fresh things that go off in 2 or 3 days that are expensive vs things that will keep that are cheaper I know which the school will work with.

I'm not making any food for the kids it isn't my job as I am usually busy prepping for the day around the breakfast club and trying to clean my classroom in 1 minute before the day starts. Not sure if you have ever left porridge or weetabix in a bowl. You could build houses with those things if you wanted to! I don't eat breakfast as I do not have time as kids in school are more important than staff having breakfast so nope not made any porridge in about 20 years! That is another argument that while staff are doing everything for the kids they are prevented from looking after their own basic needs but hey I am sure you will have a solution to that too.

Crack on turning your phone off. I could tell you how you could make your job less stressful if you just.....think logically!

They didn’t have breakfast clubs when I was a child, shame because along with there being no sanitary products in my childhood haven there was also no bloody food.. Do you know how many children in this country would love a couple of slices of jam on toast in the morning. They maybe crap but my shitty free school dinner was sometimes the only meal I got, this was the 80s but unfortunately I think there’s still a big chunk of children still living like this.

I bet lots of children end up having two breakfast, and putting on weight. There should be some sort of opt in so if your names not on the list you don’t get it

The breakfast club at my kids school is toast, cereal, fruit and yoghurt, not great but not terrible and it's a deprived area- problem is just now, before it becomes free, for working parents it costs £2.50 a day which is a lot for toast or cereat.

Because on this website people don't read all your comments and if you don't repeat yourself in every comment someone will come along and bring up some point you've already addressed 😂

Sorry nothing personal to you, Im Not completely opposed to breakfast club I just don't think it will solve the issue of kids not eating breakfast because all the families I know who don't give their kids breakfast aren't getting to the school on time for lessons let alone a breakfast club

Why do you keep repeating the same thing to me?! You’re repeating yourself over and over that you were under 25 etc etc and I haven’t at any point said that is an excuse? I don’t get your point? I’m not engaging with you anymore because I don’t think you’re reading anything I’ve said!! I support free breakfast clubs, end of.

Im Not a complete asshole, I know families where the kids don't get breakfast and I've tried helping giving them uniforms which were turned grey/brown within a couple of weeks and trying to help them get rid of headlice (which came back within a couple weeks). None of those families were getting their kids to school on time for lessons let alone earlier for a breakfast club. I'm not being an asshole I just don't think it will make a difference.
And because I've been pretty much the brokest you can be in this country having no job and being under 25 I can't bring myself to buy the excuse they can't afford 70p cereal. Even the unemployed older ones get way more money than I did just because they're older and they still try to say they can't afford breakfast cereal? Priorities aren't right

They already eat what he is eating because white bread and rice krispies are the norm at breakfast club at his school and it won't be changing any time soon. He has to stay away from certain cereals too but he knows which ones.

I'm not expecting his school to change their menu because breakfast at his school is never going to change to porridge only, it just isn't going to happen for many reasons.

I'm very happy that he can enjoy breakfast with his friends and not stand out.

It’s not fair to get ten or twenty other kids to eat what your child is eating though? Anyway, the answer here is you simply don’t send your child in. If you can feed your child breakfast at home then this isn’t for you.

no one wants their child to stand out, but you cannot expect a school to change their entire menu and feed children unhealthy food so your child duesnt stand out, that’s ridiculous and self entitled.

if you are that bothered, feed him breakfast at home.

Don't forget ensuring there is cold running water and a first aid kit in every classroom because it's difficult to ensure that porridge isn't so hot as to cause serious burns/scalds but hot enough to be edible twenty times in ten minutes.

Would you want your child (who already stands out anyway) to stand out more than they have to? I really don't think so.

Not to mention the questions from other children
Some parents complaining that it isn't fair their Johnny has to eat shitty porridge when Bob can eat what he wants etc

I know exactly how it would go.

Because the government put them in those areas? That was their decision? Because at one point (example right here) some parents genuinely couldn’t afford to feed us kids and typically were from high poverty areas. I

I don’t know why you keep repeating that to me, I have not - at any point - defended parents not feeding their children. I have and am literally agreeing with you. However, it’s the kids who are suffering, it’s the kids who need the chance to eat and they are the ones I give a fuck about. And imagine that teachers who are aware that kids are going hungry will be able to give them a little of the leftover breakfast if their parents don’t get them to school on time. However, as I’ve said many times, if some parents who don’t feed their kids do decide to take their kids to school a bit earlier and those kids get fed then it’s all worth it in my eyes.

I agree. I only said classrooms as that is where a ta on this thread serves their breakfast.
i agree eating in the hall sounds better.

if there are no kitchens in a school, where does lunch get heated up and the plates washed? Or is it all taken off site and washed?

I agree. I only said classrooms as that is where a ta on this thread serves their breakfast.
i agree eating in the hall sounds better.

if there are no kitchens in a school, where does lunch get heated up and the plates washed? Or is it all taken off site and washed?

I just can't picture groups of children carrying trays down the several flights of stairs unsupervised and it not causing any issues with dropping food, throwing food etc.

It's much easier to just keep food in the hall. Children don't eat in classrooms.

So you think that all children should eat white bread and Krispies so your son doesn’t stand out?

wow .

Yeah but why is the area being high poverty relevant if you don't think it's poverty related? The people using those clubs aren't necessarily not going to feed their kids if the club didn't exist.

There's no one broker than a jobless under 25 who doesn't live with their parents so if I managed to feed my kids breakfast every day and know other jobless under 25s who's kids are fed every day I'm not buying the excuse anyone can't afford 70p cereal (which with milk is actually a nutritious meal with the calcium from the milk and fortified cereal).

Thing is, surely it won’t be 34 kids in most instances? It’s optional. I wouldn’t be sending my DC in for it, and I’m guessing lots of parents won’t (based on this thread anyway)