School turned down funded breakfast club

[MightyGoldBear]

The school my children go to were part of the 750 selected, as the first roll outs for funded breakfast club. They turned it down! And said they won't do it even when it's rolled out for all schools.

It would of helped so many children and parents. Their reasoning was the school is too small. It's absolutely not.
Am I being unreasonable to find this so frustrating?

They don't offer after school club they don't offer any holiday clubs. I have a sen child who would really benefit with a soft transition into school. He has had periods of school refusal.
This is our nearest school. I don't drive (cant afford to learn, working is difficult with care needs) My sen child can't tolerate other transport than with me or his dad. We have no outside help.

It's just so frustrating that the school made all the right sounds at one point that they were going to offer more for children and parents. Only to turn it all down. With the cost of living crisis there will undoubtedly be children going to school hungry or sometimes just life happens and that chance to have breakfast or a soft transition would set more children up for the day. It just seems really rubbish of them to not even try a reduced scaled down version of it.

Not every child will attend for breakfast club - it is not compulsory!

This is what I envisage the scheme to be - just something quick and easy. People are making mountains out of molehills in all this.

@BurntBroccoli as a number of schools are refusing to take part I think there is a good reason for that. It is meant to be an extra 30 minutes at the start of the day, so can't just lump it into normal school morning

Government is selling it on an extra 30 mins "free" childcare, so I think it's reasonable to assume extra staff costs that can't be covered by 60p per child.

Could the teaching assistants be on a rota to start at 8.20am work and finish a bit earlier with Years 5 and pupils as helpers? I’ve on various posts that’s how some schools manage to provide it free already.

A staff member on minimum wage for 30 mins (including NIC) would cost £6.17.
A piece of fruit and a half wholemeal bagel per child c.20p so for 20 children = £4.00.
Government will pay £12 for 20 children at a cost of 0.60 per child.
Do these figures sound reasonable - if not please could someone one cost out actuals?

This is a trial people seem to be forgetting and they may well realise they need to improve the funding.

@BurntBroccoli Government know very well that the funding isn’t enough. You are very naive to think otherwise

TA round here don't want to or need to get their own kids to school. Then there's is their kids are sick or they are sick and you can't make min numbers. Massive headache onto of trying to run a school with sats, ofsted etc

There are “on costs” for staffing. Pension contributions etc. so it isn’t just the minimum wage amount. Half an hour is the time the children are there but doesn’t allow for setting up or clearing up. You really need at least two staff on duty plus you need someone to let the children in (I don’t know any schools where the front door is directly into a space suitable for breakfast club). Then the parents dropping off expect a member of SLT or the office staff to be available to answer questions….. the cost implications all add up.

SLT don’t have set hours though? I know the headmaster at our local school is there daily from 8am until 5-5.30pm as are many of the teachers.
There should hardly be any clear up involved for fruit and a piece of toast/bagel? Years 5 and 6 could be used as responsible monitors.

As I mentioned, this is a trial
https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2025/04/free-breakfast-club-roll-out-everything-you-need-to-know/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR4A-ZIvCRnVN4YDRzK08NcqWOFAwsQ4EPAhAcSR-EkfVPFnMsT9Ohc6jcd-gaemTW2Z4kY-Xqr3wBrSTiaCA

I think it’s really unlikely you could run with no set up time/ clear up time or with one member of staff. I suspect more like 2 for 40-50 minutes.

I think it’s a tricky sell to staff who are working school hours to accommodate their own kids.

Interestingly at our primary school support staff aren’t allowed to bring their own kids into school for set up outside of school hours. The teachers kids are allowed. I don’t work in the school but a friend did.

@BurntBroccoli do you think SLT don't have other things to do, they don't come in early for shits and giggles. You would also need first aider/safeguarding lead available. Y5 and Y6 don't count as responsible people when looking at ratios

If you read up thread, I gave some explanations about headteacher health and wellbeing, in being the ‘second’ member of staff.

My governors stopped me from this as they have a duty of care towards my well-being.

Headteachers are also not on site every day, with meetings, training, child protection meetings etc all off site.

No but it will become that way for parents who claim universal credit.

Of course not, I said other teachers are usually on site as well as the Head.

This is a great example of a current school’s breakfast club set up:
https://www.carrmillprimary.co.uk/page/breakfast-bistro/120627

Evidence?

@BurntBroccoli and those staff will have things to do too

Sadly teachers and school staff are maxed out by doing extra things they should ‘just do’ so taking on extra tasks out of the goodness of their heart becomes less of an option. I already work 10 hours a day. Add in an extra half an hour or so and I can’t make it to watch my own child play a sport or don’t get to put my child to bed as I’m marking during that time instead.

No SLT don't have set hours but they have other things to do including CIN meetings, Trust meetings etc and ours tend to be held first thing so our head often isn’t in first thing. It would be very poor use of a head teacher on HT salary to be recording the children going into breakfast club (because a register has to be kept - a fire can break out before 9am just as easily as after 9am). Our teachers tend to arrive between 7:45 and 8:15 and get on with preparing for the day - they can’t do breakfast club as well. Because our Y5 & 6 can come to school on their own, very few of them come before usual school hours and cannot be responsible for other children.
You would be amazed at the amount of clear up there is to do after a bagel!

We have a breakfast club - have done for several years and there is a lot of clearing up! We offer a bagel on a serviette (serviette because no washing up). We stopped offering fruit because it created even more mess. Then there is the setting out and clearing away of activities - we don’t expect the children to sit quietly at a table for half an hour.

This recent scheme is only a trial but it is a badly thought out and implemented trial. It is not sufficiently funded and we are already operating at a loss because everything has increased except our income. We’ve laid off midday supervisors and cleaners, reduced support staff hours, trips now only happen if they can be done on foot or by bus, everything is cut to the bone.

But that is charged for and places have to be booked! Very different to a free provision which has to be available to all!

You need to learn to drive and send your child to a more suitable school. You have to meet education providers halfway - you can’t expect them to do all the heavy lifting.

Granted it is charged for - £2.00 for an hour (or £1.00 for 30 mins, 50p for a sibling) which isn’t that much more really.
It looks so well run and the children are genuinely pleased to be there.
Eventually it would save in staff cost time due to less admin (letters, calls, visits for persistent absenteeism). Thinking of the bigger picture.

Perhaps the new system will need to be booked, though still free to use. I can see that being beneficial.

I doubt parents who are unemployed will be getting up earlier just for toast. It’s more likely to be used by those working and already on the poverty line. Which is no bad thing.

Who needs to learn to drive?

I'm not surprised as it will need staffing. Your head teacher is probably thinking, I already host meetings at 8am to update and debrief staffing. The breakfast club is going to be another thing for her to juggle and staff.

This.

It isn't the school's fault.