Tories going to axe free school meals

[cannotbelievethistoday]

So I have 2 children in private school.

Labour want to put VAT on private school fees, and extend free school meals to all primary children.

Tories are going to remove infant free school meals.

Bloody hell. And still people will vote Tory.

(My 2 kids are in private school - I totally agree with labour on this one)

I believe you'll find that article is a matter of opinion "Jamie". You'd be quite entitled to agree with it, but it isn't a statement of fact.

"Ous school is V middle class but we are borderline, "

Absolutely. IME it is the few families who are struggling economically at 'naice' schools in 'naice' communities who suffer the worst. In schools where more families struggle, teachers are better at spotting the issue, lots of systems are in place to ensure that families don't slip through the net, schools often go above and beyond to address the needs of the children in their care (I have e.g. filled in forms for illiterate parents or those without access to a computer; provided clothes / food; arranged tiny weekly contributions towards trips for parents who want to pay but can't afford it in one go; assigned PP money to various things and adapted letters home so the parents don't feel they have to pay out of pride etc etc)

In schools where children with high needs are few and far between, their needs can often be missed under the gloss of 'it's a nice MC school / community'.

Free school meals for all has saved the government a lot of money, far more than it costs to provide the meals, because parents of disadvantaged children in reception and year one and two don't bother registering them for free school meals because they get them anyway.

Registration for free school meals as a means tested benefit provides the school with around £900 a year extra funding called 'pupil premium' which is used to try and 'close the gap' caused by financial disadvantage.

The school I'm a governor at hasn't changed it's in take and I know of a number of families who are out of work with kids in infants but none of them get pupil premium. We have no 'disadvantaged' children in reception and year 1 however we have 9. In year 6 and 8 in year five with similar numbers in year 3 and 4.

Free meals for all has had a negative financial impact on school and, as much as I support ensuring all children have at least one good meal a day, from a school finance point of view going back to means tested only will be a good thing.

Britain will grow faster than any other major advanced economy over the next three decades as the EU’s share of global output diminishes, according to PwC.

Unhappy? Hell, it's good to see a ray of sunshine.

Again, we have the fundamentals. There are no juntas.....bridges get fixed if they wash out. We don't even get natural disasters - tsunamis and things.

Why won't the Tories grab that ray of sunshine instead of constantly focusing on cutting benefits to the sick and aged? Put more into education....we are going to need it if the economy grows! Make sure the people are healthy and ready to go!!

JamieXeed74
The Tories have plunged us deeper into debt BTW, if you think national debt is important

I have never got the idea that socialists complain the Tories and Lib Dems have got us into more debt, yet they simultaneously think we should borrow more money. confused

The deficit has come down massively and I want it to keep coming down until the debt is being reduced. I dont want fiscal flusies like Jeremy putting the deficit and ours children's debt back up all over again.

Wow, you really are confused, arent you. the deficit has increased with austerity measures, as has the National Debt.
People are worse off, the country is worse off. People are dying. A few people are wealthier than before.

I'm actually very grateful to the posters who've immediately leaped to phrases about "hungry children", taking food from "the mouths of babes" and all the rest - even when it's been mentioned again and again that the genuinely poor will quite rightly be protected

Next time there's a thread about evil Tory attacks, wars on the disadvantaged, etc, it will help to remind me what utter claptrap some of it can be, and how quickly the facts get twisted ...

Debt which increases does not always snowball if stringent reduction plans are not put in place Hmmm, so why bother with taxes? Why not just borrow our money, why is Labour wanting to put taxes up to 73%

Which countries have successfully followed this policy? Zimbabwe? Venezuela?

"Free" school meals, or more accurately "paid for by every taxpayer" regardless of how many children they have in whatever kind of school and whether they choose to send them in with sandwiches or not.

Depends on if you class someone earning over £16,195 as rich?

Jamie seriously, why not just use Google or we're going to get even more off topic than we already are. We here in the UK have had fluctuating national debt, and fluctuating economic success; not Zimbabwe, not Venezuela, us. Google "economic stimulus". Taxation is a different thing. The nuance is in balancing all revenue streams.

National debt trebled under Labour from around £350bn to £1tr - it was rising even when we were supposedly in the "boom" years under the idiot Brown. Remember the way he constantly extended his "cycle" to try to worm his way out of his pledge to balance the books "over the economic cycle", desperately hoping that some year he may actually stop borrowing and start repaying. That should have been easy in boom years, but he still couldn't balance the books. It takes a special kind of incompetent idiot to be unable to balance the books when things are good!

Wow, you really are confused, aren't you. the deficit has increased with austerity measures Why dont you give some facts rather than just opinion. UK net borrowing has decreased every year from 153.5 Billion in 2009 to a forecasted 43.1 Billion in 2016.

People are worse off Yes that's because we were previously living beyond our means and a lot of people/services have still to make the adjustment to something more sustainable.

Free breakfasts apparently for all primary children. How will the logistics of that work? That's going to be one massive breakfast club per school.

More staff needed. More breakfast space so's not to clash with assembly, earlier school opening?

Good job Brown's not on the scene for Labour these days isn't it Badbad.

This thread is ridiculous.

So someone says, 'you do realise that the government is going to scrap FSM for everyone' complete with a link to an article, someone else says 'er no they are not, they are scrapping universal FSM'.

And the answer to that is 'oh....well......I bet they will scrap it for everyone one day'.

National debt went up dramatically when Labour bailed out the banks - and the Tories have been using that as a stick ever since. The deficit was lower than it has been under the Tories, the economy was growing and there was time to address problems.

The Tories cut gdp and increased national debt dramatically. Austerity policies havent worked and they have to make more cuts in future - so they called an unnecessary election so they can back out of tax pledges and the triple lock on pensions and claim they have a mandate to destroy the NHS.

Quite so, Edsheeran - it sometimes seems that, if the facts don't fit a certain narrative, then the facts have to be either changed or just plain ignored

School meals may not be expensive but in my situation - single parent, fixed income, not poor enough to be eligible for free school meals but struggling to make ends meet month on month - it does actually make a difference. It's an added cost that means less money for other things since other essentials are going up all the time and wages are stagnating. And there are many in the same boat.

I'm curious to know, in what way do you think this will benefit the country and - more specifically - your family? Because national debt is not like having a great big credit card balance hanging over your head. Serious question, what is it you believe to be bad in real terms about national debt?

I am surprised at this question. Do you think national debt is free? That we don't pay interest on it?

We pay 46 billion on interest payments on the national debt per year. Do you know what 46 billion could do for this country if we didn't have to pay the interest on our debt? Reducing our debt is hugely beneficial to our country and people.

The breakfast club also relies on parents in chaotic houses getting their act together to take their children there. If they can't get to school on time how will they get to a breakfast club on time.

growth in UK national debt www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/uk_national_debt_chart.html

the big increase was the bailout of the banks but it has continued to grow rapidly under the Tories

Epoxy I am baffled by your argument that w should keep universal FSM to prevent parents receive by benefits feeling singled out and humiliated. Surely by the logic, all benefits should be universal - all children get 15 hours funded nursery at 2, all children get pupil premium funding etc.

Actually IME it's the pupil premium that creates more stigma that the FSM themselves. While most parents in our school are happy for their children to receive extra support, we do have some who refuse it specifically because they don't want their kids to be singled out. Should we scrap PP or give it to everyone?

Also I think some people misunderstand how FSM works. Before the new system came in, the children receiving FSM didn't have to line up separately and wearing a special badge you know. Actually before the pupil premium sometimes I didn't know exactly which kids in my class were on FSM, so why would anyone else care? And if the universal system is scrapped, it won't be that it's only children whose.parents receive benefits who will have school dinners. My DD certainly won't be getting a packed lunch, it will still be school dinner all the way!

MY DS school have always run a free breakfast club for all. We are in-between a deprived and a well off area. The reality is that only the children that really need it use it regularly. It is much better than those children waiting for lunch before they get hot food and it has the knock on effect of them actually being in school at the start of the day rather than dawdling in late. Its also easier for staff to interact with them as at lunch time the canteen is so much fuller. So good policy all round.

Free school meals to all should never have been introduced it was a waste of money. This is only a recent thing, I have no objection to funding free school meals to those in need but all children? even those privately educated? ridiculous.

National debt went up dramatically when Labour bailed out the banks - and the Tories have been using that as a stick ever since

Your just on here to Tory bash, get over it.