Free breakfast club for all primary school kids

[ladykale]

So the Labour government is planning to offer free breakfast clubs for all children at all state schools regardless of area.

Given that these are often run independently from schools themselves, if you have a state school in very close proximity to a private school, should private school parents be allowed to use this service, and if not, why not?

It works no problem in most welsh schools. Not everyone would take up the offer so you wouldn’t need to worry about fitting the whole school in. If they did, well they all fit in in the usual school day so I’m sure could use a classroom or two if needed. It’s only free from 8.15 or 8.30 in wales depending on your school so it’s not a long time

I’m a TA and definitely don’t want to do breakfast club. I don’t think the other TAs at my school would either. It just won’t work with my family commitments (which were the reason most of us took the jobs in the first place), plus being a TA is REALLY demanding and I just couldn’t face a longer day.

I would think it would be an ideal job for the parents of the children at the school £125/ week ( assuming 2 hours at £12p/hr) for getting to school @ 7:15 and still have your afternoons free ? I bet loads would do it

Breakfast and after-school clubs have been a nightmare to recruit for in my recent experience, whether attached to TA hours or not. I teach in a mixed income area.

Because it's really for children and parents who need them.

If you can't afford 30p for a portion of cereal and some milk, best to give up the private school place. There are good reasons for not making them means tested (take up, changes in circumstances, parents too feckless to fill in the forms).

I must say I do find the private school parents on this forum to be a truly pathetic band of bleaters. I don't understand why you aren't ashamed.

So on this occasion the chips fall a teeny tiny bit badly for you. You want to try having no breakfast to give your child and see how unfair that feels.

Using classrooms as well as the school hall means MORE staff required.

As a school we don’t have enough money to pay our TAs to work for the full school day so we certainly don’t have the money to pay anyone for breakfast club.

Well hopefully the government has thought this through and there's money for staffing not just the food!

Re secondary school... DDs school offers free breakfast daily to everyone. Take up isn't massive. Big queues in the two mini markets though...

@PuttingDownRoots that sort of joined up thinking doesn’t always happen where school funding is concerned

I would imagine labour must have budgeted this as they’ll require more staff plus the extra budget for every pupil to have the breakfast. Equally unsure how they will get the staff though. Most TAs in my school have other children they drop in and out of schools so couldn’t cover. The teachers are prepping for lessons and quite rightly! Or are doing other morning clubs. So they’d have to employ like they do dinner ladies but not sure how many would jump at the chance

Like saying that all infants could have free hot meals but not all schools had kitchens?

Definitely not always thought through!

So they’d have to employ like they do dinner ladies but not sure how many would jump at the chance

I think staffing will definitely be an issue. Our TAs do dinner duty as well, but all have children themselves so wouldn't want to work early mornings (or after school) as that's when they are getting their own children ready.

And then only partly funding the meals! We get less per meal per child than we have to pay for the meal!

Presumably they could bring their children ?

Who wants to get up that early for an hours pay at minimum wage? Not very many people, I would think.
Discount anyone with younger kids or older kids needing dropping at secondary. Your hiring pool isn't large.
Plus, if all the staff are bringing their own kids, you end up needing more staff to meet the ratios.

Presumably they could bring their children ?

Their children may not go to the same school. None of our staff have children at our school. I doubt they'd be allowed to bring their own children in if the child wasn't a pupil there.

I can’t see that helping much. It makes an unnecessarily early start for the TA (getting both themselves and their kids ready) for a hour of a pitiful wage. Running breakfast club is not a popular job generally-it’s early, high ratios, too many things to do.

Why would it be run by the school? We had one run by the company that ran through after school club but not enough kids went to make it financially viable. Is the government going to pay enough for companies to want to do it???

Ours was run primarily by the adjoining youth club and staffed by youth club workers, TAs and teachers.
But staffing was voluntary and payment was effectively breakfast,

Private companies on or off school sites have a 1 to 8 ratio for children under age 8 and required an Ofsted childcare registration
Schools have no staffing ratios and do not require and Ofsted childcare registration

@Peoneve

Thank you - that explains it! So teachers currently get paid enough for the extra 1-2 hours first thing in the morning to make them want to do it in schools where it happens.

It explains why it didn't work here - the school has four teachers and at least 2 have kids at different schools so logistics would be a nightmare. Plus the school.has to agree to their premises being used (which doesn't happen for all wrap around - we appealed and changed school after moving into the area as the after school club building could take 35-40 kids, that school had 400 on role and the waiting list for a place was years...).

Thank you - that explains it! So teachers currently get paid enough for the extra 1-2 hours first thing in the morning to make them want to do it in schools where it happens

I’ve never known teachers to work in breakfast clubs.

It is highly unlikely that any teacher gets paid to work in a breakfast club
Teachers contracts say that you have to work as many hours as required for no extra money (but that contract wouldn't include breakfast club but would include directed time before school )

I can confirm many a parent has seen me (a teacher) working at a breakfast club or after-school club and no I'm not being paid any extra. In fact, I'm paying for my own children to be in childcare at the same time...

So if the teachers aren't paid why do they do it? And if people other than teachers do it, who employs them such that ratios aren't required...

@Fuckthecamelyourodeinon teachers do many things that are probably outside their remit