Free breakfasts make more sense

Labour led Southwark council is introducing universal Free School Meals to all junior and infant schools. No research to show such meals reduce obesity and increase attainment.

Some time ago I read an interesting article in The Observer “Good results and happier pupils for the cost of a bagel. But still breakfast clubs face axe”.£1/child/day to provide a free breakfast club. Known real evidence from peer reviewed research shows how critical breakfasts are to pupils attainment. In fact plenty of evidence from industry finding greater productivity and fewer industrial accidents with a proper breakfast for adults so no surprise breakfasts help children!

Suggests that it costs £1 per child per day. So based on research that free school breakfasts DO make a measurably positive impact on attendance, attainment and behaviour I think we should:

– end universal free school lunches saving £4.5M a year.

– pay capital costs of installing cashless school meal systems meaning kids on FSM’s aren’t known to others + parents can log on to see what their kids chose for lunch. £7,500 per school to install cashless system. Ensuring all primary school kids don’t need to carry cash for school meals should also reduce those that walk or cycle to school independently are less attractive targets for street robbery. Total around £0.5M capital costs.

– proactively ensure all people entitled to FSM’s get them by linking up with social security. I suspect many parents can’t read or write so stand little chance to complete FSM forms. Probably a permanent employee to make this happen costing around £40,000 pa revenue.

– provide free breakfast clubs for those entitled to FSM’s and to those on a higher family income. ( threshold to be agree). Cost £1/child/school day = £195/child/year. So how many children are entitled to FSM? And what threshold should we set for this? Worth asking school heads what would make the most difference to their schools.

Key benefits.

– more targeted help for those that need it.

– maximising people claiming FSM which then maximises Pupil Premium payments.

– breakfasts help get better results and discipline.

– saves lots of money.

Plenty of peer reviewed research shows this makes sense. In fact lots of evidence for the adult workforce that people having breakfasts have fewer and less severe accidents!

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