To wonder what will happen about the government's 'free' breakfast club proposal?!

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They have been talking a lot today about saving families £450 a year, but I just can't see how this is going to work?

They are paying 60p per child per day, which might pay for a Weetabix and a bit of toast, but doesn't take into account the staffing (and any energy costs) that this will require!

We already have a small school with a successful breakfast club running, with smallish numbers but all can sit down and eat together. Parents pay a reasonable amount for it and this pays for 1/2 members of staff, depending on numbers. If this was opened up to all parents as a free option, we simply wouldn't have enough space to put everyone in the hall-it would be mayhem.

The school budget doesn't have any spare cash in it for TA staffing costs (normally paid for by parents paying) so where are schools expected to find this money from?

I have the same worries too. Our wraparound provision is ran by an external private company but on school premises. They rent the hall from the school to use for the provision before and after school. I'm worried that they will either be forced out to give the space to the free sessions or our fees will increase to cover the running costs for the free spaces that will be joining our paid childcare.

Well sure at the moment it’s tough luck until lunch time. But there is no denying she’d perform better at school that morning if she had eaten something

True, but those children will currently exist and manage til lunchtime or schools already know of these children and feed them breakfast anyway.

I am a working parent. There is already morning childcare provision available, which i can afford. I don't use breakfast club because i think its too long a day for children to regularly be in where they get such low levels of adult engagement.

You obviously don't work full time then if you don't use breakfast club

30 minutes is going to make no difference to working parents

I was not in a deprived area or a poor family. I often went to primary school hungry.

I think finding space is red herring, you can have different classes eating at different times.

The other problems with staffing I think are bigger problems.

It's been a thing in Wales for years.

Why can’t children have breakfast provided at home?

But ultimately that's the responsibility of parents, not schools.
Schools should be for educating kids ie reading/writing. They should not be a form of social services, although they are heading that way!

Get rid of the two child cap policy for one.

Good luck finding the staff. We've had to stop after school club Thursdays and Fridays because we couldn't find anyone to staff it.

Or maybe don't have kids that you can't afford to pay for. Some of us limited our family size because of what we could afford.

You obviously don't work full time then if you don't use breakfast club

I work hybrid, as does my DH. On each of our 2 days wfh school gate opens 8.35, we drop and start work at home at 9. The 5th day they walk to school with my friend.

I think finding space is red herring, you can have different classes eating at different times.

The government offer is going to be 30 minutes before the start of school for childcare and breakfast so finding space for all of those children for that same half an hour is not a red herring.

They all eat dinner in school.

Bizarre statement. I can drop my DC at school from 8.30 and easily be at my desk by 9am (it’s a 15 min cycle from the school gate). I could then finish work at 5pm and collect him from after school club, which closes at 5.30pm. Full time hours without breakfast club…

How is it panning out in Wales then?

My DC secondary school has a breakfast club with free food for all. It’s run by Y10/Y11 prefects who liase with the catering staff about stock etc. it’s always seemed quite popular when my DC has talked about it.

We pay £2.50 for 45 minutes with no food.

I’d quite like to save £400 a year on this to make up for the VAT I’m now paying for my other child to attend school 🫣

Precisely ! This would immediately lift up those in poverty

Probably. But we have to draw the line somewhere, and I'd say kids from good homes who just don't fancy breakfast (or stubbornly refuse it) are not a societal problem.

Well mine are too old but I would not be sending them for crappy carbs when they get avocado, eggs, sour dough, Greek yoghurt and berries, proper smoothies type breakfast at home. I suppose I may have sent a packed breakfast if it were an exercise club. Young Kids in this country need exercise more than anything else. And healthy food, not cheap carbs.

They all eat dinner in school.

With staggered lunch sittings for most schools with large numbers of support staff supervising.

They’ll get an eating disorder at home too, the way you talk 🙄

They all eat dinner in school.

Many primaries don't have space for all kids at the same time. Ours doesn't - there are 3 shifts for lunch in the hall. We could only offer a breakfast club for maybe 50% of pupils to eat during the same half hour.

Not at the same time though. With ours it's over an hour and a half.

It's been free in Wales for a while. It only starts 20 minutes before the school day so there's never been an issue staffing it because teachers are in anyway so they just rotate through, and it's often the non-teaching Head or Deputy with one of the catering staff.

There's not a massive uptake, probably because some kids prefer breakfast at home, and because it's such s short period of time it's not helping with childcare hours enough for people to rely on it.