Will the free breakfast clubs mean the school start time is officially earlier ?

[breakfastTimes]

Or will the clubs be totally optional and 2 different start times for those who do take up the offer and those who don’t ?

In our school's experience, those families don't come.
The often struggle to get to school on time, and can't make the earlier start

At our school we used to feed breakfast to the children who we knew weren't getting breakfast at home. Usually those children would be late for school but the priority was helping them get ready to learn.
It was handy having the cereal/bread from breakfast club. After all these are the children they are trying to reach.

"Researchers also found that pupils who reported being tired or hungry at school performed worse on average than their peers.
In Year 5 maths, more than two-fifths of pupils reported they were hungry when they arrived at school every day or almost every day."

I don't think that more than 40% of pupils struggle to get to school on time. They are hungry though.

https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/year-9-maths-gender-gap-england-widest-timss-international-study

No. Breakfast club will always be breakfast club: optional to attend and with no impact on the length of the school day.

Not saying breakfast club is a bad thing but there is an obvious correlation between a child who feels hungry and poverty. Breakfast club on its own won’t solve the issue of poverty.

No, but it might make a child feel less hungry.

No. We are in a trial area and it is already been used a stick to beat parents on UC who are out of work with. Your child's school provides a breakfast club so your availability for work is now from 8.15. Our school is already talking about pulling out as it's underfunded and a nightmare.

All it would do at our school is put a bunch of people out of work. We already have a paid for breakfast club. We don’t need the workers to loose their jobs!

The free breakfast club would still need staffing?

To feed children at risk of hunger, at primary level it would be better to provide a nutritionally balanced snack at break time eg a wholemeal savoury vegetable & cheese muffin plus a piece of fruit. The most vulnerable children may not be at school early enough for breakfast!

I know they are hungry, and need breakfast.
The point I made was that they didn't come to breakfast club.

So if the point of the club is to give those kids breakfast, it isn't working, they just don't come.
If the government thinks that providing breakfast clubs will mean that those kids are being fed, it isn't going to work.

I also recognise that in many schools the TAs will find breakfast for some of these kids when they come in hungry, and that is great, but in that case it doesn't matter if the club is running or not, the TA will feed them during school time. And having cereal or toast on hand or available because there was breakfast club this morning, seems like a convoluted way of providing food for those kids. Cheaper to keep a loaf of bread in the freezer.

There have also been quite a few parent complaints. From what I've heard the "free" breakfast bit is "sponsored?" "Provided?" By Kelloggs but it's whatever comes so not really a choice. I know there was quite a bit of drama as the provided free breakfast club breakfast was cornflakes and milk but the paid for breakfast club children are given toast/ crumpets/ choice of cereals. There was also a thing about allergies as of course the government did not think of what if children have allergies. So all there was was normal milk provided by one of the dairy companies no dairy alternative milk and Kelloggs cereal for the free breakfast club children.

Of course the paid for breakfast club children start at 7.45 at our school and breakfast for those children is provided from those breakfast club funds. Whereas the free breakfast club is "sponsored" by Kelloggs and overseen by a couple of tas in a separate hall.

I know they are hungry, and need breakfast.
The point I made was that they didn't come to breakfast club.

My point was that you are aware that some kids are hungry and not making it to breakfast club.

How many were hungry and were making it to breakfast club? If were are talking about over 40% of pupils coming to school hungry, breakfast club is surely feeding some of them?

No, but it’s easier to make some toast than fix ‘the issue of poverty’.

This would be better. There did used to be (not sure if still happening?) the free fruit for children in eyfs and ks1. Extending this to whole school and allowing all primary pupils a free snack would be a much better use of funds. Perhaps extend it to fruit and wholemeal toast? That way schools can tailor to their pupils individual needs. Some schools would do snack at 9.15 or 9.30 others maybe not until later in the morning or afternoon or as part of morning break time.

My child's school is part of the trial. What it meant was that they shut down the paid for breakfast club, with two weeks notice, as it was both loss making and oversubscribed, while they "investigate" implementing the trial. This came 4 weeks after the after school club was shut down with 2 weeks notice at christmas. I'm now paying £15 an hour for a babysitter in the mornings and afternoons.

The last we heard is that they "may" "possibly " so the free breakfast club after Easter. So zero wraparound options, and no childminders in the area for school aged children. I don't hold out much hope that they'll have everything in place, within budget by then.

well the club I was talking about was not free, so those who were coming were paying for it.

Which takes us back round in a circle to say that this new measure of free clubs is not going to be significant in helping families in poverty.

But then I have always assumed that the point of the free clubs was to get parents back into work. I don't think they actually care about the kids turning up to school hungry.

I do think this may be a lot to do with UC

No way! Teachers aren't just going to agree to change their contracts to start at 8! And even if they did, where's the extra money coming from to pay them for that extra time?

Are there any guidelines on what they’re fed? Wouldn’t want my kid to start every school day on UPF bread and margarine, personally.

So your point was that kids who come to school hungry weren't coming to an expensive breakfast club?

I'm not sure that proves that free breakfast clubs would be a waste of time because they wouldn't feed kids who were coming to school hungry. You're comparing apples and oranges.

Well, the choice is yours to feed them breakfast at home then! The kids who are going to benefit the most from a free breakfast will probably prefer a UPF slice of toast than a rumbling tummy.

Exactly!

That's a good that these children would still be able to have something to eat.

I think @fashionqueen0123 means that the private provider would lose their contract in favour of the state provider.