Free breakfast clubs for ALL primary school children? Why?

[Safi7]

I’ve been overseas since the election so a bit out of the loop, but is it true that Labour are going to make it standard that all primary schools must now offer free breakfasts to all children, regardless of need?

Fair enough for children from deprived families - but all children?

Where is the money for this coming from?

Are Labour actually saying that in 2024, its now to much to expect parents to actually bother to feed their own children breakfast? This responsibility can just be pushed onto schools instead - as if they haven’t got enough on? Teachers are leaving in droves as it is. Du much is out in them - the jobs is becoming more like social work in too many cases. Who will staff these breakfast clubs and make sure kids are actually eating?

Surely this is just encouraging lazy parenting - ie parents who can well afford cereal / toast / eggs etc it but just won’t bother if their kids can eat at school instead. Plus children will be dumped at school earlier than necessary, just because parents can now get away with it?

Surely it’s better to direct resources where they are actually needed, rather than turn schools into free cafes? Makes no sense.

You can't really go wrong with breakfast, surely? It's just milk and supermarket cereal or porridge, or toast, maybe fruit on offer.

From looking at my DC's school menu, they try to put on a variety, I can't imagine it tastes that bad tbh, a bit bland perhaps

What? Are you in Wales? There certainly have been interventions, as when I became disabled, I was entitled to FSM and my son was at school. I was asked if I wanted him to participate in the FSM interventions, which were targeted at literacy and numeracy, whereas my son was above average in both so wouldn't have benefited.

Aside from that, I regularly had staff coming into my own class to take a group of children out while I was teaching.

I've no idea why two of you are intent on making comments that accuse me of lying, but you're wrong. I'm not lying. Why on earth would I?

Breakfast club is predominantly about childcare and working parents.

Also yes, agree @Mamidri2024 re staff also benefiting from this, definitely a good thing for all

Are you in Wales? You certainly can't be a teacher, because your spelling and grammar is awful.

Well get yourself back into the loop. You ex -pats annoy me. You are so out of touch. How do you know how many children go to school without breakfast. You have lived well out of the country probably well off tax free earnings, free private schooling. Welcome back to the real life.

No they don't. There's a world of difference between absolute poverty and relative poverty.

My son’s before school club doesn’t even give breakfast and it iso oversubscribed that there’s a waiting list.

I think it should be at a minimal cost but also, as a teacher, I’d love for it to be even 15 minutes earlier at 7:45 for me to get to work before my class.
It’s the main reason I can’t work certain days as DH is already at work and I do the drop offs and then couldn’t get to work on time.

Um rude? I worked there but wasn't a teacher no. iF Wales is singeling out the fsm kids for interventions as if being fsm automatically makes them stupid and embarrassing them in front of the other children then I'm glad I don't live there 😊
That's a big if btw because I don't believe you

The move is now fully funded - by removing the Winter Fuel Payment from 10million pensioners.

@JassyRadlett the big difference is poorer kids don't usually have money to buy stuff if they are hungry- adults do and can make choices based on budget- if it means many kids from either poor or negligent homes ( or both) are at least getting toast, cereal, fruit, juice etc plus a free school dinner every day ( even if they are a bit shit- it's better than no dinner) then I think that's a good thing- I don't give a monkeys if some middle class kids with working parents use it too if it helps those parents to be able to work or drop off a bit earlier.

“But the ones I do know, it's because the parents don't care.”

so? How does it make life better for the children to make this point to argue against free breakfasts?
It doesn’t matter WHY children need breakfast club. While there are children who need it, we should be providing it.

What time did you start work? If 9am strict, then with 8:50am drop-off, your employment options would be limited to working within 10 mins from the school.

Appreciate you probably have a more flexible and remote job, but there are parents that need to be at work exactly on time, not even a minute late (anyone working in a shop, bank, call centre, factory, ...) or need to attend in person (doctor, nurse, barrister on court days, police, fire service, hairdresser...). They can't leave at 2:30pm either.

There are also many jobs that cannot be performed from within a very short distance of the school, many people have longer commutes.

With the new system, we aren't limiting the jobs parents can do without paying through their nose for a nanny to a tiny part-time list of jobs near the school with post-9am start times. Not every mum can be a TA, yet I know many mums that have left long-established careers to be a TA as that's been the only job where the hours and location line up.

@Glitterbomb123 I don't think it's solely about that though - it's about socialisation and a more gentle start to the day for some. I don't know many families like this either- but as teachers on here will tell you there are families who think a bag of crisps or a couple of biscuits or sweets constitutes breakfast -

No I don't disagree with the breakfast club for all. I think it's a good thing.

I had read posts saying children can't have breakfast because of cost of living, parents working full time and not being able to afford food. And I just don't believe that parents working full time cannot afford anything for breakfast

I teach in England and we also monitor our FSM pupils closely as they’re more likely to fall behind statistically. It’s great if they’re not but we do have interventions if they are to try and catch them up.

Well you must be very privileged.
Our energy costs have doubled. Our food prices have doubled. Some of my friend’s mortgages have doubled.
All within the last two to three years.

Their salaries remain mostly the same.

I believe there are working people out there who are really struggling.

Yes, this was my thought too. I see all the positives however this is a nice to have not a universal essential. When spending is being trimmed, it seems money ill spent. The cost isn’t just in the food, it’s the staffing. Parents who work already have arrangements in place. I don’t begrudge needy children but you can’t take a universal benefit away with one hand and then replace it for another cohort with the other.

All children deserve to be fed. Feed all the nation’s children a hearty and healthy breakfast and set them up for the day. We are talking about feeding children FFS. How can anybody object?

You may well have been asked if you wanted him to take part in Pupil Premium interventions. There are a few reasons a child could be PP, one of them is FSM, but it's not the only one.

Organising interventions for all PP children, regardless of their academic achievement or individual needs, would not be considered a good use of PP funds and would be criticised by OFSTED.

Teaching staff thinking PP=FSM would be very worrying and a sign of poor staff training.

TAs announcing that they were at a classroom to collect all the FSM children is appalling and I'd be surprised if any school caught doing that wasn't in special measures.

I imagine it's because this is an investment. Fed and educated children = productive adults. And their parents will work more hours = more tax.

Read all of mine and that posters comments they originally claimed school staff come into classes and ask for all the fsm kids for an intervention in front of the other kids.
I'm calling bullshit, at least I hope it's bullshit because those poor kids must be so embarrassed. It's definitely not something that happens in many schools.
I believe the conversation originally started because someone said all the kids in primary schools know who the fsm kids are and I said they don't my child gets fsms and I doubt the dinner ladies even know as it's all booked online.
Online booking for school meals is more common in schools than not btw

I'm sure we are privileged compared to some but we're not massive earners. Our mortgage has also almost doubled, energy costs gone up, obviously food bill. We don't live in a city but a more expensive area than some. It's a struggle sometimes yeah, but I can still afford bread and cereal for breakfast for my kids. I can even afford lunch and dinner for them.

Bloody hell this thread is so desperately depressing.

I think there's a lot of people who run out of food sometimes. One unexpected bill, the cupboards are almost empty and it's a week until payday. How would you even know?

I dare say a lot of people COULD afford to pay for private health insurance if there was no NHS, or COULD scrape up the fees for a private school if there were no state schools, but we've decided, as a society, that everyone should get access to those basic necessities, regardless if they could afford it easily, with a lot of sacrifices, or not at all.

Perhaps we are starting to recognise that for most working parents, early morning care is a necessity, not a luxury, and all parents should be able to access it.