School toast

[Fairycake89]

Today I forgot to pay my 6 year olds toast money which they have at morning break. They gave every single child a slice of toast besides my daughter.

I have never forgotten before. Could they not have just put a note in her book bag as a reminder? Or sent a text.

You pay online for the term so I have paid it now (20p per day) including todays… even though she didn’t get any.

Should primary schools be more understanding? It’s not the child’s fault, it was mine.

Is it fair to single them out ? Toast for you, toast for you, NO toast for you , toast for you….

Yanbu that's horrible to leave a child without food!

@KarmaStar it was a snack not a meal

When DS was in KS1 they used to get free fruit or vegetable as a snack once a day. Some children didn't like the particular piece of fruit or vegetable on offer that day, in that instance do you expect the teacher to nip down to the local shop and buy snacks the children will eat?

All those people frothing at the profit made on a slice of toast may like to consider where that goes - we use it to make sure the children who get FSM can have toast, because the money we get in certainly doesn't cover their lunch, let alone extra toast.

Yeah I think it’s a bit rubbish OP, as it was only once.

But equally I don’t think your dc will be traumatised for life, vividly as you can imagine the scene as an adult.

I know I calculated how much profit is made on the toast sold - but just to make it clear, I think it's a brilliant idea and entirely reasonable.

I was a school governor and I know just how hard schools have to work to find money and resources. I think charging 20p for a slice of toast is absolutely fine, and a great help to the school.

But equally, our school would 100% give out slices here and there if children had forgotten their money or hadn't prepaid. And that was my point - with each slice costing around 3p to produce, that's not going to have any huge impact on the school's revenue, especially if it's a child that usually has toast.

our school would 100% give out slices here and there if children had forgotten their money or hadn't prepaid.

How would you tell the difference between a child whose parents didn't want them to have toast anymore and one who hadn't paid?

I'm not sure where these extra slices are meant to be either when the correct number is delivered to the classroom.

Can someone explain how the person who has been given the extra slices of toast for the children who missed out easily tracks said children down in the playground?

I'm amazed they have staff to make toast and distribute it to classes.

Our support staff are timetabled to the hilt doing intervention, covering breaktimes and supporting in lessons.

And which task they're not doing in order to track down extra toast in the first place?

@Sherrystrull I assume it would be catering staff, who once toast is sorted will be sorting out lunch.

If it is support staff, is it more important they carry out intervention work or spend time sorting out toast for children whose parents forgot to pay

It wouldn't be an indefinite thing - so in this example, first day of term back and usually paid in advance via Parentpay, they'd be given the benefit of the doubt with maybe just a slip in the bag at the end of the day. Our school tended to do things the old-fashioned way rather than email etc 😅

Also probably easier at our school as the children usually paid for the toast themselves at playtime. So there were always a few extra slices going spare. It wasn't an exact science. Children sometimes lost their 20p or forgot it and they were always given a bit of toast, not made to go without.

Milk was a different matter as that was a lot more expensive per bottle and had to be ordered in.

I completely accept that different schools have different systems - ours was one class per year so the teachers, lunch staff etc knew the children really well right across the years. I moved the DC from another school which was a three-form entry per year - that was very different and the large size meant the pupils weren't known as well by other teachers/lunch staff etc.

Thanks for your response and I do see all the pitfalls. Being a psyc I see the ramifications on the longterm. Frankly I think the expectation on both school staff and parents being fractured and leads to such issues. Too much autonomy has been taken away from both these with interference from governments and local bodies.

I don't "expect" teachers to pay for anything, but I know that many of them do.

However a single slice of toast wouldn't even be noticed in the grand scheme of things.

If OP's DD was being bullied at all, not being given it would give her tormentors further ammunition; if she wan't getting fed at home it would leave her hungry; if she was shy it would humiliate her.

The school could have let her have a slice and sent a note home with her to remind her mother that her "toast club" bill needed to be paid.

And frankly, I don't care how offensive you find my comment. You aren't someone whose opinion I give a toss about. You can make your remarks as unkindly as you want - there's no need to try patronise me by "softening" them.

The school could have let her have a slice and sent a note home with her to remind her mother that her "toast club" bill needed to be paid.

And what happens if the OP then told them that her DD didn't have toast paid for because the OP no longer wanted her to have toast every day (maybe she has toast for breakfast already) hence why she had stopped paying for it?

Or the OP comes in and is pissed off because her DC is on a restricted diet that excluded toast (eg no gluten) and by giving her DC toast, despite the fact she hasn't paid for it, it has made her DC ill/affected their exclusion diet?

Or the OP has to come to school and tell them to stop giving her DC toast because she can't afford it and would be sending her DD with a snack from home instead?

There are so many reasons why a parent may choose not to continue paying for something that they had paid for previously but, unless there is a contract agreement where there is a notice period eg for music lessons etc, they are under no obligation to justify their decision to the school.

It should be taken as read that no payment = no toast. If that turns out to be an admin error by the parent then it's on them to rectify it, not the school.

Wow. What that level of pedantry really necessary?

Besides, when we plan for terms, we plan for six of them. Spring 1 and Spring 2 are almost never referred to as one term. When necessary, we might say something happens "once each big term", because if we did clarify, people would assume we meant six times a year.

That is appalling. I bet it wouldn't have happened in front of an inspector!

I would be extremely annoyed about this. You aren’t be unreasonable at all!

Ridiculous. It's 20p ffs. Poor child.

If it's the same as my school not every child has or wants toast so can understand a child not getting help. It's the same as milk not every child has it

Did an adult from the school tell you this. I can say with confidence that if this is accurate the member of staff responsible will be subject to disciplinary action. This would be shocking and not acceptable in the slightest.

This is ridiculous. Most head teachers certainly would not condone that, you should complain directly to HT.

Oh wow I didn’t realise this post would get so much attention .. both sides ! As I’ve said at the start yes it was 1000% my fault and I already feel enough mum guilt for it (thanks to those reminding me) I am no way expecting any teacher to pay for my daughters toast. It’s paid for online and I have still paid for Mondays (albeit it a few hours late) even though she didn’t receive any. She had queued up for toast and then refused as she got to the front. That’s what upset me. She’s only 6. Thankfully her best friend let her have a bite haha! She’s absolutely fine of course. I however lost total respect for the school. I put a £10 donation in for crafts in the book bag. Funnily enough they took that!

It’s not about if she will starve or not.( Clearly she won’t). It’s the principle of it. It wasn’t so long ago I paid for an old man’s shopping at Tesco because he couldn’t find his money. Yes it was HIS fault but since when did everyone become so heartless.

Thanks for the responses , the good and the bad 🫶

It’s the principle of it

The school have to work on the assumption that if a parent hasn't paid for an optional snack then it is because you don't want them to have it for whatever reason. If that turns out to be an admin mistake on the parent's part then all that has happened is your child has missed one slice of toast.

They can't just assume that every child's parents who didn't pay did actually want their child to have the toast but just forgot because the school may be wrong.

In 99% of cases being wrong will just result in the parents being annoyed but in 1% of cases there may be actual harm caused if the school ignores the "no payment = no toast" policy eg if the child has an allergy/intolerance or they have another medical issue that has them on a restricted diet (eg no dairy/no fats/low carb) etc and the schools cannot take that risk, especially at primary level where children don't always understand the seriousness of not eating things they've been told not to.

What if you were a family with 4 kids in the school and looking at finances decided that toast club was something you could no longer afford. Children weren’t going to starve and you would send them in with a cheaper snack. How annoyed would you be if you got a bill at the end of the week for toast club when your children weren’t meant to be having it any more