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.

What are most parents providing at home?

At home I mostly offer porridge, cereal and toast so lots of UPF there. Shoot me down but I am in a hurry in the morning.

I manage finances for a number of primary schools and the main problem for us is supporting children with additional needs. We are seeing an increasing number of children who need significant support, don’t know if this a Covid impact, including 1-2-1 support. We don’t get sufficient funding for these children and the process to obtain an EHCP is awful, drawn out and usually proceeds to appeal. We don’t have class TAs except in Reception the majority support specific children. The top funding we get is £8k and it costs roughly £18k to employ a TA to support that child so the main budget funds the rest. This is manageable for 1 or 2 children but not more depending on the size of the school. We are also in an area which has a lower funding per child than the rest of the country. I wish we were funded properly to support children in school and I would prefer for SEND to be funded before providing breakfasts to all children. (I bet it won’t be fully funded anyway and the school has to be pick up part of the cost).

OP have you got any evidence to back up any of your assertions or are you simply trying to rubbish a policy that will make life a lot easier for a lot of families on the basis that you personally don’t like it?

Seems that you just want to pick an argument- many posters, teachers included have given you the 5/6 reasons why free breakfast clubs are a positive for schools and kids, but you insist on coming back to shit stir over offering some kids inexpensive breakfast…

Some form of food is served, but the ‘breakfast’ part refers to the time.
If you are worried about the food served, don’t send your children, or send with their own food.
It will not be compulsory.
It will be helpful for some parents to get to work.
It will be helpful for some children to have a soft start.
It might make life easier for a lot of people. For some it won’t, they don’t have to participate.
Teachers will not run it, it will not affect anyone else who attends or doesn’t, there is no stigma attached.

It possible - and usual - for a good policy to do several things at once. The driver is poor families who dont have enough to eat. Benefits extend to all sorts of people who are then invested in it. All children and the school benefit.

Your post is utterly stupid and offensive. So I'm a lazy parent because I drop my kids at 8am so I can go to work and earn money to pay for their home to live in. Get a grip. It's going to be 'offered' not mandatory.

If they want to get people working it’s a great idea.

people who are low income and working less arguably have lower need.” For it.

Does this mean the school day will start earlier and they have to have breakfast there or it’s optional ? I don’t want my dc at school at 730 or whatever time we like our mornings and breakfast time it’s family time the little ones still sit together at the table and it’s not rushed we wake them at 730 am I don’t want school start time to be that early !

Obviously it’s optional. FFS.

Nope, not mandatory, you choose whether to send your children or not. Whatever works best for you and yours

No we don’t. Primary 6 and 7 children do not get free meals

30% of children are in poverty and they are the ones who need help and who the resources should be targetted at.

But in general, it’s parents’ responsibility to feed their primary own kids and get them to school on time.

How on earth is it ‘provoking’? Is there no topic on here that is not considered goady/controversial/sensitive? To the extent questioning a government policy is seen as ‘provoking’

I assume it’s more for childcare than for the actual food

It’s an absolutely impossible policy as everyone who works in a school knows

they will be massive demand and the issue is not ‘cornflakes are 5p per serving’ but the fact that staff are needed for safe ratios and it’s a massive struggle to find staff for breakfast club anyway. People don’t want these hours. You rely on TAs and midday meals wanting to do a couple of hours of overtime.

The only way I have seen this done well is when a few TAs did playground toast 10 minutes before school drop off time. You can serve food at low cost but the childcare aspect isn’t viable with capping demand and absolute murders from the parents.

Ofc vulnerable kids will get priority but you’ll end up with working parents losing their morning childcare out of fairness to other parents who want to use it because their kids want to hang out with their friends/they just want to dump them off early

Also I’d be worried about the quality of the breakfast offered. Currently at dc school it’s toast or cereal- so they may get kids attendance rates better but long term health will be affected. We have fresh fruit and porridge or eggs wholemeal toast and porridge (except my 2 with arfid who eat dry cereal 🤦‍♀️) schools won’t be able to offer such a wide range of healthy foods it’ll be convenience stuff

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?

Teachers don't staff the breakfast clubs, though? They have other staff who come in and run them. At the schools round here, anyway.

This sort of thing does my head in. If people can't afford to feed their own children, why should the state (and in a roundabout way, me) provide for them. If you have children you need to take responsibility for them.
I know the mumsnet village worthies will be all over this, telling me how awful I am that I dare to suggest parents be parents, so have at it, I don't care! LOL

The cutoff for free school meals is horribly low so I wonder if this policy is aimed at helping parents who are just above this threshold. Also,this will be helpful for parents who get into temporary financial strife.

I'm highly skeptical of the use of the word 'free'. London schools for example have 'free' school lunches, however, what the schools receives doesn't cover the actual cost of this provision, our school says it needs an extra £50 per child per term if they're to cover expenses. Of course am happy to pay, but it would be so much better if it could be given to just those who genuinely need it, though funding a means testing system to implement this would probably cost a fortune.

Then there is the new 'free' 15 hours free childcare, which actually just meant every nursery had to up their fees by min 10% every month, so those of us not entitled to it are just having to spend more every month to cover the deficit.

Whatever they do you can be fairly sure it won't be free.

My son’s school has had a free breakfast club for years. I use it because I have another child who needs to be at another school for usual start time and cannot use their (paid) breakfast club due to high needs. He loves it! Don’t know if he eats there (I give him breakfast at home but he’s very picky in the mornings due to own SN), but insists on going even on the odd occasion he doesn’t need to attend.

I think it’s a brilliant idea, I could afford to pay but also have to pay for after school care so it’s one less cost and it makes my life just that little easier. It gives a much better set routine, gives a wider time range for ‘being at school on time’, it’s run by school staff so I feel far more comfortable knowing who’s care he’s in, he can eat more for breakfast if he’s up for it, he has that extra step to transition between home and class mode, so many positives. I can absolutely see how all these points would work for children who currently dont have access to a breakfast club and make life easier for them and their parents.

The British school day is really short and badly designed. It doesn't start early enough or finish late enough for parents to work. It's plain impractical. Breakfast clubs make things a little less of a logistical nightmare, helping working parents, and provide a positive start to the day for those who don't get a good breakfast at home. Check, check.

I think a universal breakfast club is a good idea, as long as it's properly funded.

It's not about feeding the children of feckless parents, although they do exist. Parents have to leave the house so early these days to get to work that many children, my DGS included, just didn't have the appetite to eat at 07.30 but did at 08.30.

It's beneficial for society as a whole that all children are properly fed.

Ha yes, it's so LOL that children are living in poverty in this day and age because of years of austerity by the tory government, a cost of living crisis, zero hour contracts, a global pandemic etc LOL LOL LOL
If only we could all be as wonderful as you.