A quarter of teachers bring food into school to help hungry pupils

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Teachers are having to bring in food to give their pupils breakfast every day because they are too hungry and exhausted to learn as a result of increased poverty, according to a report out today.

A survey of 4,000 teachers concluded that the educational opportunities for thousands of children were being blighted by the impact of the Government's social and economic policies.

The survey, by the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, said 80 per cent of teachers observed pupils lacking in energy and concentration as a result of eating poorly.

Many were also unable to participate in activities like school trips because their parents could not afford to pay for them. In addition, 27 per cent said they brought in food for pupils themselves because they knew they were too hungry to learn, while 55 per cent said pupils were missing out on important education activities because they had no money to pay for them.

Geoff Branner, president of the union and a special needs teacher in Oxfordshire, said that his school, "fewer than 15 miles away from David Cameron's constituency", was having to provide free breakfasts "for a growing number of students who otherwise would not have anything to eat until lunchtime".

"Children are coming to school too tired to concentrate because they could not sleep as their bedroom is cold," he added. "As teachers we know that a hungry child cannot concentrate on his or her learning - the brain needs fuel to operate properly."

He added that the Government should do more to tackle "the rising numbers of children being plunged into poverty and deprivation, instead of giving priority to tax breaks for the immeasurably wealthy".

www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/a-quarter-of-teachers-bring-food-into-school-to-help-hungry-pupils-9270143.html

So sorry, falconi, completely misread that. Apologies

LaurieFairycake

Is rushing to get to work and having children at different schools the preserve of this in poverty? I don't think so.

I agree that it's not just down to money or being in poverty that matter. Some people have a chaotic lifestyle and don't give their children breakfast and they are certainly not in poverty. For some (not all) they can't be bothered. Also some children don't want to eat that early in the morning but fancy a bit of toast a bit later.

I personally I think the free school meals money for every child would have been better spent on (a) introducing free breakfast clubs at school and (b) widening the definition of those entitled to FSM. That would have served the government's appatent intentions better, but might not have won as many votes.....

I look at the number who have direct evidence that this has been going on continuously since at least the 1990s - so through the 'boom' years - and despair. For if we couldn't fix it when public sector spending seemed to be awash with cash, how on earth can it be tackled now?

We have children who turn up to school having had no breakfast. It isn't always poverty though. Often bad time management so always running too late. We always have spare fruit from the day before and give them that and offer them their milk at the start of the day.

So, Rose, your school doesn't have any children on FSM?!

My SIL, a primary school teacher in a less than affluent area, was worried about one 7yo that kept arriving late. Turned out his parents took no interest in the poor kid. Didn't get up with him in the morning, left him to dress himself, scrape something to eat and make his own way to school across several busy roads. Other families at the school were no better off but managed to put their kids first. I think it's offensive to cite poverty when the real problem is neglect.

I taught from 2003 until very recently. Our school cook always gave seconds of anything left over to those children who were so hungry they didn't care what they were eating, and who often went back for thirds/fourths. I have paid for morning toast for children who were honestly hungry, and where I knew breakfast would have been unlikely. On those school trips that started on a Monday morning so we couldn't get a packed FSM, I took extra sandwiches/cake/drinks etc, to give to the children who would have two packets of crisps in their lunch bag. I also had a reward system set up for years, which involved earning fun pencils/rubbers/rulers/pencil cases. Some children would never have anything special of their own, and if they didn't get a chance to earn it, would often start to take other people's things. They were ever so proud of their own pencil case when they got it, and took special care over the items they had worked hard for.

There were also exhausted children where Dad was a taxi driver, mum worked shifts, and there was no one to stay at home with the child at night. They'd end up going out in the taxi until 2/3am, every day, because that was the safest option. Often, the poorest families were those where both parents worked, but the jobs were poorly paid and (in our area) rents were high. One boy I will always remember, looked after his younger brother every day after school - scrounging for food from the neighbours if there wasn't any in the house, getting him fed, bathed, homework done and in bed (parents were out working nights). At the time, they were 9 and 7. That older boy ended up on drugs before he was 11. The younger one lost the plot when he went to secondary school, losing his dream of going to college. The parents worked all hours to try to keep a roof over their children's heads, and food on the table, but the only jobs they could get, meant that they never saw their children.

Mr Gove has no idea these children exist. He thinks everyone can make the same progress with 'more teaching'. Somewhere in that, there is a child, a real human with hopes and dreams, who needs to feel loved and cared for by their parents, who needs to feel safe, warm and fed.

The criteria for FSM is quite restrictive. Personally, it would help me and I work full time and only have the one DS yet as I have working tax credit I'm not eligible. I really feel for those on WTC who have several children and "slip through the net" for FSM as it all adds up. I don't understand people who say they can do packed lunches for 50p a day or whatever, I certainly couldn't

Yeah I teach primary and always have a box of breakfast biscuits for the kids if they're hungry.

We have a mix of very deprived families and some more 'middle class, better off' families.

Some of my Y5 kids offer up part of their lunches for their friends if they've come to school without breakfast. I always tell them no as we've got biscuits but it's lovely that they care about each other.

It's a problem. When I worked in a very rough school in North London about 8 years ago I had to get the bus with the kids as I had no car. It was normal to see kids eating whole packets of maryland cookies at the back of the bus. Clearly the parents gave them money and just got them to sort themselves out. Not a great breakfast. I think poverty does genuinely mean some kids go hungry but I also think some parents just hand out money for sugary junk too.

Mr Gove does know these children exist. He just doesn't give a shit.

Agree with others. I've provided breakfast and lunch countless times. Not always poverty; usually poor parenting.

Our head doesn't allow us to feed those who have missed put.
The SENCO defies him though, so those that are in need know where to go.

It isn't just poverty, some of the back stories are heartbreaking

Roseformeplease, I don't know how you can so confidently assert that this is not a widespread problem. It is. The point that I and several otherposters are making is that in many towns all over the country parents wouldn't necessarily be aware that schools & individual teachers are quietly getting on with feeding pupils who would otherwise go hungry. Sure, some of those will have feckless parents. But not all. The causes are complex. But at the end of the day, it's not the children's fault is it? It is a great scandal that this is happening in modern Britain and that so many families are relying on food banks.

I might be more inclined to believe that the main cause of so many hungry children wasn't poverty if the UK didn't simultaneously have a large and growing problem with hunger, as evidenced by the huge rise in foodbank use:

Hundreds diagnosed with malnutrition in Wales amid anger over dependence on foodbanks

www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/hundreds-diagnosed-malnutrition-wales-amid-7007470

I think what I actually said was it isn't happening everywhere (nor, incidentally, is the use of food banks - we don't have one for 100 miles). Yes, the causes are complex but I do feel a lot of it is to do with poor parenting (.and I speak as someone who spent my teens in poverty, watching my Mum smoke and drink away our food budget)

Very upsetting thread...
I do think that FSM should be made more available and to those who get working tax credits.
Its good that teacher/schools help out, not sure what the answer is.

Our school has breakfast club (50p a day), but those on FSM are free. We are also in a deprived area.

We also have teachers and family workers going out and fetching children in to school/breakfast club. They also help with reading/homework.

Not a teacher, but work with teenagers in deprived area of London. We have a Safeguarding budget and at least once a week I dip in to it to buy food for students.

There are all sorts of reasons they are hungry, yes, but in the vast majority of cases, there is some sort of link to deprivation - mum/dad havent got enough money left at the end of the week for food shopping/to give lunch money to their child is a common one. 'Parents just dont give a shit' is very, very rarely the reason a child comes in hungry. Bad money management is often a reason, yes, but many parents are really struggling to make the money coming in last out. Occasionally, it is also a red flag that there is a chaotic home situation - parents with substance or alcohol abuse issues etc.

But poverty is ABSOLUTELY a common denominator in every case I have come accross of a child coming in regularly hungry, and it is very common where I am.

Wanted to add, as someone above said , it IS much more complex than 'not having enough money'...but that doesnt mean it isnt linked massively to deprivation and poverty. We have many parents who are in awful financial situations, living off payday loans and in utter financial chaos.

There but for the grace of God go I, is my motto.

I remember studying this poem at school: web.cs.dal.ca/~johnston/poetry/timothy.html

Today's 'Timothy Winters' usually have cheap shoes that are too small, where the ends 'flap' due to the glue being insufficient to hold upper to sole any longer. Their shirts are not washed for a week at a time, as evidenced by the growing number of marks from lunch. They are likely to be a bit small too, and the school jumper was grown out of a year ago, so that it's impossible to even get it over their heads. They don't own a P.E. kit and keep saying they have 'forgotten' it. They cannot do their homework because there's not a pen/pencil in the house, and if you send one home with them it will become lost very quickly.

Breakfast is something other people have, and food is what you eat at school. The free KS1 fruit is devoured, then they wait, and at the point where there's seconds, they grab several pieces and scurry off to eat them, ravenously. Lunch is similar, and they'll either sneak out extra cake/biscuits, or be given them by the cooks. They are rake thin and always wearing a short-sleeved shirt, full of earnestness and helpfulness, but simply unable to concentrate long on schoolwork. There's too much else going on. It's probably not drink taking the money in their house, more likely to be drugs. Some of them have been taken into care then returned to their parent(s) many times, with horrendous emotional consequences.

Luckily, not too many families are like this, but it still happens. Some things never change unfortunately.