to think the new free school meals for all KS1 children is a ridiculous idea?

[Flexibilityiskey]

I just don't see the rational behind it, when benefits are being cut to the bone, why give free school meals to people who don't need them? Yes it may benefit the odd family but there will be loads who just don't need free meals, and at what cost? My DS's school will have to build a new kitchen as they currently don't have the facility to provide hot meals. There must be loads of schools with similar issues. Add to that the cost of feeding all the children in KS1 for each school year, the cost must run into millions. Surely the money could be better spent being targeted at those who genuinely need it or am I missing something?

I have spoken to plenty of people who work in schools who can see its nothing more than a daft vote winning gimmick.

DS wouldn't qualify for FSM under the normal system (but probably would if the threshold was risen slightly) so in theory I will 'benfit' from it. Can still see its stupid though!

Those other kids that may NEVER get to eat a meal with fruit and veg in unless it's given to them at school, let's just ignore them. As plenty of pp have been quick to point out, they'll still get junk when they go home, so there's really no point bothering with them

No ones said they shouldn't bother with them

We said it's not changed anything for them. Three years of a shit meal that's better than shit they get at home and straight back to square one in juniors.

Expand criteria so these kids do qualify or use the money for classes so their parents can have help. Rather than giving it only to take it away again

It's stupid to provide every child with a balanced meal at lunch time??Really?? We should be putting more money, not less, into school nutrition. Yes, schools are stretched at the moment and it will take a lot of initial investment. But it's important, young children's eating habits will impact on their health for life. There is an epidemic of childhood obesity which is massively expensive to the NHS.
There's a lot of room for improvement but schools won't provide better food unless they are forced to do so. If more parents considered nutrition to be a priority there'd be a lot less obese kids around.

I'm bowing out of this thread now because it's making me depressed.

But we aren't providing every child with a balanced (questionable anyway) meal at lunch time. We are providing THREE years worth of children with a balanced meal, leaving NINE years of their education with what?

If we want to make changes it needs to be across the board, not starting somthing and not seeing it through

You are completely missing the points raised. I'm starting to think it's on purpose.

ChronicallyExhausted - thanks for that link about the free fruit. Yes it's a state school so I really can't understand why our school don't claim it! I will have to ask.

We had to pay for milk in reception too - is that the norm?

Sorry I got your name wrong!

It's a crap idea that wasn't thought out.
The Lib Dems used to be able to come up with airy fairy ideas that couldn't work in practise because they hadn't a hope in hells chance of ever having to do so!!
Unfortunately due to the other 2 parties being inept they now hve a chance to implement these unworkable ideas.
I don't want free crappy school meals chucked at my child in a rush, I want to pay for them and get decent quality ones.
My son has really good school meals at present but we have been told that due to the universal free school meals the menu will have to change ( unlikely to be for the better). I'm horrified to hear that the schools will have to subsidise this as well.
It's ridiculous

Think you can get free milk for under 5s and FSM children. Not sure if that's a newer thing though, as when I worked in Foundation Stage a few years ago (maybe 5 years now) I remember children bringing in milk money.

I'm still waiting for sienna to come back and explain how three years (less if kids just about to hit yr 2) of relieving parents of feeding their own children a meal they don't see is going to help the obesity problem?

Has it educated the parents in any way? Can jr recreate it at home through learning at school how to cook?

Has it held the parents accountable for the shitty job they were doing? No is the answer to that! All it's done is give them five days off of feeding their kids a meal a day and quite possibly got them used to the exta money making it even harder to budget properly when it runs out in yr three

Which quite possibly could lead to that kid having a worse diet than before

Interestingly Giles the studies on the fruit experiment of giving all stage 1 children fruit showed that it increased the fruit intake of the children directly but it didn't translate into their parents giving them more fruit or them asking for more fruit which was the hope- that it would stimulate children to experience different types and perhaps place a bit of pressure on parents to buy grapes at the supermarket or whatever. It doesn't work- the only achievement is that of them having the fruit or the better meal, which is not insignificant, but isn't the same as changing a whole culture around healthy eating.

poster Gileswithachainsaw

Amen nick Clegg thought he could curry favour with this he has not many children will end up with hospital type means when parents are happy to pay for better quality

And the schools will be left with the bill what prey tell are those rural schools that only have about 20 children in the entire school who have have or need a kitchen how will this big idea work (hmm)

The milk is free until they are 5. DS is 5 in November so my understanding is he will get free milk for the first term

So those who know this is not cost effective will no do out mean schools like my nephews will loose valuable class room space loose thousands out of their budget to put in new kitchen so a fat child can have a apple who is unlikely to ever be slim due to his parents feeding his smash well as long has bob has a pear

Fuck all the other children loosening two class rooms and the school having to find an extra 5k to re fit the kitchen

And where are they all supposed to do pe in winter while classes are in the hall half the after noon eating?

Excercise is important too I thought

I don't even school dinners add particularly balanced meals. Seems to me to be a load of cheap carbs. They can have fruit. IF they chose to. They can have pizza with a side of bread, followed by cake.

Pfft that's where school dinners fell down for me, my children didn't exercise good food choices when faced with sticky buns and sprinkle cakes. Now I've taken choice away and provide an extremely plain and not calorific packed lunch with no pudding! That leaves plenty of room for a biscuit when they get home, rather than spending the whole evening telling them they can't have anything else as they've already had puddings galore at school.

Cock Clegg has taken something people were roundly happy with a fucked it leaving nobody happy

Schools that have no kitchen will have to install them at huge cost along with paying lunch time staff

People on welfare will have to switch the children to lunches which they will have to pay for (my friend had a preview of the new free dinners and they are tiny her daughter was famished)

People who were paying and happy with the meals will now have to switch to packed lunches

He tinkered when no one was un happy now every one is

Those other kids that may NEVER get to eat a meal with fruit and veg in unless it's given to them at school, let's just ignore them

But no-one who has expressed reservations about this ill-thought-out policy has said anything like that.

Some of us have explained that giving all infant school children poor quality lunches at the expense of teaching resources probably isn't the best way of helping that particular subset of children.

You could just provide a big trug of apples at break, free to all kids, if getting some fruit'n'veg down everyone is your aim. Cheaper, & far easier to see who is actually eating it & who isn't.

people don't think it will benefit their kids - their packed lunches are better, the money should be spent on stuff their kids will benefit from.

Fair point - I don't think it'll benefit my daughter, & I've acknowledged that it's lucky for her that we're a sufficiently affluent family to turn down the meals if they're as rubbish as I think they'll be. But my argument is that I don't think it'll benefit any kid, unless & until the quality of provision is given a total overhaul.

This is NOT happening. The existing guidelines allow for very poor quality food to be served. This initiative will further burden schools who are trying to serve decent meals, better meals than they need to in order to meet the guidelines, & put added pressure on them to downgrade the quality in order to minimize the hit to their budget.

It's really not about beaming rosy-cheeked urchins sitting down to a table groaning with lovely shiny apples & crunchy carrots, the like of which they've never clapped eyes on before...

So under 5's are supposed to get free school milk! My DD was only just 4 when she started in reception. We paid for the milk all through reception.

I just can't understand why my school are not claiming for this stuff for their pupils.

Could they be claiming the cash but not passing the savings on to parents?

...yeah, it's probably all being poured into the Head's bath every day .

No reason why they shouldn't have claimed it, although it's a bit of a faff I believe then charging the 5yos in Reception for their milk. I'd ask them why they aren't claiming it.

With the free milk, our school I think claims it for nursery children as they are all 3 or 4, but not for reception children as they turn 5 during the year, meaning that either children's milk stops or parents have to pay. But then our reception children don't have milk on a regular basis- the nursery children used to pay for milk (if they wanted it of course) till it became free.

I think this is a waste of money when there are so many other ways children could have benefitted. The threshold for free school meals is very low, why not raise it a little so that more children from struggling families could get a free meal. Or provide fruit to KS2 children as well as KS1 children.

All the kitchens in our county were closed in a cost cutting exercise and the food has to be brought in from outside. It doesn't sound very healthy from the menu choices - pizza with pasta anyone? There often is no fruit and the veg always seems to overcooked.

I think if the government can not afford to do it for the whole of the primary school, they shouldn't do it at all, do children 7+ not matter. I'm a single mum on a low income, I make about £7000-£8000 a year but can not apply for free school dinners as I am not on job seekers/income support but receive working tax credit. No wonder there's so many people with kids choosing not to work, there's no incentive! It annoys me to think people who make 30 grand or more with infant children will be getting free school dinners and not not noticing the benefit. I pay £40+ a month and would definitely notice the difference!