To think breakfast club should offer more than item?

[Ellieboolou27]

DD 4 has started reception, I booked her in breakfast club.

They offer either toast (with jam/marmalade) orcereal.
The cereal is multi grain shapes, weetabix, cookie crisp, chocolate boulders, Frosties.
I'm not too impressed by choices of cereal but hey ho, however my dd asked for toast and cereal and they said it's either / or!

Now, I'm not a fuss pot helicopter mum by any means, however I was a bit miffed as it seems quite poor.
My mum runs a breakfast and after school club, she's been doing it for 18 years and she agreed with me that this was poor offerings.

So, would I BU to take it up with the school? They are a "healthy eating" accredited school btw.
My mums clubs offer, fruit, yoghurt, cereal and toast, cereals such as porridge, fruit n fibre, etc, kids also get 2 or 3 choices.

[ChickenSalad]

Great stuff. I bet the kids will hate the loss of Frosties though :)

[Toffeelatteplease]

Good result! well done you

[PikachuBoo]

Good! Sounds very sensible.

[Ellieboolou27]

Another update
Head contacted me today to state that the school is going to reform both breakfast AND after school clubs as she has had "a number of complaints regarding the food and snacks available"
They are to offer whole grain cereals only, they are banning all chocolate and sugar laden cereals such as Frosties and chocolate boulders (I'd never head of chocolate boulders prior to dd starting bc)
Toast AND fruit will also be available in ADDITION to cereal, yay!
Not sure what the asc changes will be, as dd doesn't attend.
I feel better knowing that I mustn't have been the only parent complaining, however it may cause a nominal increase in costs. Increase has not been confirmed yet.
Thanks all for your input, it's amazing to see how vast the costs differ for these clubs, from 0 to £10 per day! I think the cost should be more balanced, as well as the food choices

[hawaymanlasses]

I think you are being perfectly reasonable to ask if they offer both, it does seem a little stingy.

[icelollycraving]

Very envious of some of the bargainous breakfast clubs. I pay £10 a day!

[LaContessaDiPlump]

£2 per child per day at our school. DC attend because it's a social occasion for them, they hardly eat anything!

I, OTOH, come home and have a leisurely 40 minutes before starting work at 8.45am. Bliss

[Matilda11]

My DC's are very active, eat maybe 2 pieces of toast, an egg and cereal. 1bowl of (sugary) cereal not enough IMO

[PikachuBoo]

I don't think toast and cereal is too much for breakfast. My kids aren't fat at all, and the nearly-teen is very skinny (and has been since about three/four). His average breakfast is four pieces of wholemeal toast with peanut butter with a (nestle avoiding) bowl of not-shreddies to follow. He's always been an early riser and a big breakfaster.
He never liked breakfast club, which in our area was a commercial affair run as childcare (for profit), as it was a choice of toast or sweet cereal. Fortunately he was always up so early he had time for a first breakfast before he went to breakfast club. For me it was all about childcare anyway, so I just took it as a 'snack'. When my kids were little they all had 'second breakfast' anyway, normally around the time I felt awake enough to eat ...

Some kids just live for breakfast. I have to say when I'm away at a conference/business stay, I have a big breakfast and a banana for lunch and it suits me too.

[EverReadyEddy]

Is it one slice, or two?

My DCs couldn't survive on just a slice of toast. Two at a push, but I'd insist they have a large cup of milk with it. And they are both at the lower end 'normal' BMI!!

My 7yo just about manages to fit in two weetabix, a glass of juice and a piece of fruit. But of a weekend offer a croissant on top and it won't be declined!

[CheerfulYank]

YANBU. Here they have to have a choice plus fruit, so it's waffles, milk, and fruit etc, or oatmeal, hardboiled egg, milk and fruit. Something like that. Today was bagels with a choice of cream cheese or peanut butter with fruit and milk. If they don't like what's on offer they can choose cereal or cheese and fruit.

[KateLaw]

I pay £7 a day 3 days a week for my 5 yo DD and she gets no sugar cereals, juices, toast, porridge, milk and a choice of toppings for the toast, yoghurt and fruit. You can have as much as you want. There's no waste as its part of a larger private day nursery where my 1yo DD goes so any leftover fruit is used for snacks.
When at home both my kids have cereal or toast but followed by a yoghurt and some fruit or dried fruits (on Fridays a pain au chocolat though!)
I'd say it's a small offering but if portion sizes are reasonable and there's a drink on offer too, it's certainly not going to do any harm. Maybe she could have a snack in the car on the way?

[UsainWho]

Love all your free/cheap breakfast clubs, I'm in an 'affluent' suburb of Glasgow where I pay £4.20 a child to a private firm for 7.45 - 9am, offer of cereal, yogurt, various bread items. I think they can have what they like but my kids have home brekkie too so this is second breakfast and they're aren't so starving!

We are definitely paying for the staff (1 to 8 ratio) plus they have to hire the hall and do all the Ofsted-equivalent paperwork. We mustn't have a legal requirement for breakfast club as they are definitely charged. In Glasgow I know they get cheap breakfast club but it doesn't start until 8.20 so wouldn't be any use for me anyway. Who knows where they get the money from to run it cheap, our area would never take money off the education budget as imagine what might happen to the results :-o

[SpaceDinosaur]

Still nothing back from the school OP?

[Bumpsadaisie]

PS in our school the healthier options (porridge, beans on toast, boiled egg) came about as a result of the parents asking for it.

[Bumpsadaisie]

At our school its £2 from 8am.

The kids can have porridge, boiled eggs, cereal (these are still sugary but they've got rid of sugary shockers like Frosties or Chocolate Honey Balls).

They can have juice (hmm) milk or water to drink and for "pudding" there is wholemeal toast or a whole load of baked goods like muffins, crumpets, pancakes.

So its a real mix. Its possible to have a really healthy brek there, and also possible not to!

There is def no rationing of portions. Our breakfast club manager is like your favourite auntie and she is on a personal mission to make sure the kids in her care eat LOADS of breakfast.

[Buster5187]

My son attends breakfast club and is offered (white) toast and cereal.
I don't think the issue is 'toast and cereal' being too much - its the cereal offered. It is also the same at my sons schools, considering I thought schools push healthy eating, sugary cereals aren't really ideal.
I tend to give him a homemade smoothy / fruit before school and he usually just opts for the toast. I do wish there were more options available.

[LyndaLaHughes]

That's absolutely extortionate and that was six years ago? My goodness no wonder they were making money- how on earth did they get parents to pay it? Needless to say that is absolutely not the norm. But just proves the point of how cheaply most schools are doing things and how much needs to be charged to make any money out of it. Schools are not ripping people off - private companies are a different matter which is why academisation should be so frightening to parents- but that's a whole other thread!

[24balloons]

Breakfast club £6/child for half an hour 8-8.30 then the kids went into the playground. Probably at least 20 kids X £6, 3 staff. More kids after school £15 as a one off no matter how long the kids stayed, open until 6. If regularly booked it dropped to £10. This was 6 years ago so don't know how much they charge now. They also took nursery kids before the pm session & nursery kids after the am session, not sure how much that was, think it was around £20/session.
They definitely didn't spend much on food.

[LyndaLaHughes]

24balloons Can I ask what the charge was? I ask because I was referring to schools not making profits not private organisations. I presume the uptake of children was very high was it as it's virtually impossible to make money in this way unless that is the case. I'm intrigued as to how they managed it!

[24balloons]

LyndaLaHughes the breakfast club my sons attended was privately run on the school premises. There were about 3 staff & a lot of children. I used to sometimes see the staff shopping in Tesco buying the cheapest value ham & bread for the afternoon club. It was definitely run as a profitable business.

[JeSuisUnChocoholic]

It's free by the way.

[JeSuisUnChocoholic]

At DS' primary they have either 2 slices of toast or cereal with milk. They have toast on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and cereal on Wednesday and Friday.
Choices are:
Toast:
Just butter
Strawberry jam
Mixed fruit jam
Lemon curd
Marmalade
Cereal:
Weetabix
Rice Krispies
Cheerios
Shreddies
Porridge with golden syrup

I suppose the difference is that they can come back for seconds. Our breakfast club relies on food donations from parents and volunteers.

[LyndaLaHughes]

I'd just like to make another point about running costs. What about the time spent ordering the food or physically going to a shop and buying it? Calculating the amounts required etc. This then also has to be recorded and done in a way to meet strict financial requirements. What about the time spent tracking and chasing payments from parents and the admin involved? What about the cost of the food hygiene courses etc that staff strictly speaking should have in place? What about the time spent ensuring people have receipts etc as this is now also a requirement for financial standards schools must meet. This all incurs a staff cost. The list is endless. Schools that can run them very cheaply usually receive funding to do so or else take that money from other areas of the budget. I don't know of any school that runs a breakfast club for profit - quite the opposite. As I've previously said I don't dispute a criticism of the menu as that is fair enough but this insinuation that schools are ripping people off or that £4 is too much- honestly what planet are we living on? I'd love to know where else you can get your child looked after for an hour and fed for £4 and not consider it an utter bargain. People want things for nothing these days.