Primary School Dinners

[BensGrandad]

I have, for many years, always considered that school meals should be free to all children at primary school. At the moment it is available to under 7 year olds but I feel it should be extended to all children of primary school age. When they move up to secondary school they do not always want that type of food. Now the crunch. I think it should be paid for by withdrawing child allowance for children between the ages of 5 and 11. When I was that age my mum drew the money ona Tuesday and dad went to darts Tuesday evening and I am sure many follow suit even now. My wifes mum went to bingo with it. Ok they bought the children other things out of their wages but not directly out of child allowance.

 

[Steve.S]

Don't get your logic, give children free school meals oh no wait, make them pay for it out of child benefit. So where does the free bit come in.

 

[cardboard]

How would poorer parents pay for other bits like school uniform, evening food, stationary, day to day clothing etc if you took their CB away?

 

[dazzer6666]

At least 30 pages, most of them taking the piss...........

 

[lawros left foot]

As public schools are not obliged to provide free school meals, I imagine that the government will get rid of them as soon as possible

 

[BensGrandad]

Don't get your logic, give children free school meals oh no wait, make them pay for it out of child benefit. So where does the free bit come in.

It wouldnt pay for it only contribute some towards the costs

 

[BensGrandad]

How would poorer parents pay for other bits like school uniform, evening food, stationary, day to day clothing etc if you took their CB away?

Does the child benefit pay for all of that?

The simple answer is less sky, mobile phone etc and spend more on your children.

 

[El Sid]

£2.25 a day is a bargain for a hot meal at school.
Means they can get cold slops in the evening while we're all down at Gala drinking lager top.

 

[Perry's Tracksuit Bottoms]

We've stopped our six year old using her free school meals because she wasn't eating them properly (and certainly wasn't being made to eat the bits of it that are supposed to be good for you). Now she goes to school with a healthy packed lunch full of stuff she likes and a (usually) healthy hot dinner in the evening. It'd be much more sensible to scrap universal free meals and increase child benefit so more people could afford to buy decent food for their kids.

 

[Guinness Boy]

I have, for many years, always considered that school meals should be free to all children at primary school. At the moment it is available to under 7 year olds but I feel it should be extended to all children of primary school age. When they move up to secondary school they do not always want that type of food. Now the crunch. I think it should be paid for by withdrawing child allowance for children between the ages of 5 and 11. When I was that age my mum drew the money ona Tuesday and dad went to darts Tuesday evening and I am sure many follow suit even now. My wifes mum went to bingo with it. Ok they bought the children other things out of their wages but not directly out of child allowance.

CB has already been taken away if any parent earns more than 50k in any one year. The government is planning to get rid of free meals for all infants. (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/e...-under-osbornes-spending-review-10509664.html)

Keep up Granddad.

 

[Dr. Notthenineo'clocknews]

Although my son (6) is entitled to free school meals he doesn't have them, he didn't really want them so as we are in receipt of "child allowance" we didn't force his hand. we spend about £15 a week providing him with a nutritional and balanced packed lunch.

 

[BensGrandad]

CB has already been taken away if any parent earns more than 50k in any one year. The government is planning to get rid of free meals for all infants. (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/e...-under-osbornes-spending-review-10509664.html)

Keep up Granddad.

DC has emphatically denied they are considering scrapping it. People earning £50k a year shouldnt need help.

 

[Sheebo]

CB has already been taken away if any parent earns more than 50k in any one year. The government is planning to get rid of free meals for all infants. (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/e...-under-osbornes-spending-review-10509664.html)

Keep up Granddad.

I really hope this doesn't happen - will be very bad timing for me personally too

 

[Guinness Boy]

DC has emphatically denied they are considering scrapping it. People earning £50k a year shouldnt need help.

I quite agree. You didn't seem to though. You can't give out free meals for all Primary children by stopping Child Benefit because it's already been stopped for some. However, those people WOULD get free meals under your idea even though you've just said they don't need help. And let's not even start on couples who are both working where each parent earns, say 40k rather than one wage earner on 50k.

 

[Vegas Seagull]

We've stopped our six year old using her free school meals because she wasn't eating them properly (and certainly wasn't being made to eat the bits of it that are supposed to be good for you). Now she goes to school with a healthy packed lunch full of stuff she likes and a (usually) healthy hot dinner in the evening. It'd be much more sensible to scrap universal free meals and increase child benefit so more people could afford to buy decent food for their kids.

99% of packed lunches are proven to be less healthy than school dinners..

 

[Steve.S]

It wouldnt pay for it only contribute some towards the costs

You are still giving in one hand and taking away with the other. Here is your FREE school meal, oh by the way we have deducted some of the cost from your CB. Perhaps you would like to tell us how much it would cost to implement, surely you are not going to force all children to have free meals, therefore how are you going to adjust CB, more paperwork for opt in and out and more staff to administer CB, let's give parents their CB and let them decide how their children eat. I work in a school and only 30% of children take up the free meals, the rest would rather have a packed lunch, having seen what is on offer I don't blame them

 

[Gullflyinghigh]

Does the child benefit pay for all of that?

The simple answer is less sky, mobile phone etc and spend more on your children.

Do your plans include not making sweeping statements, or assumptions, about the parents of younger children (and the proportion of their income spent on them) based on a combination of your own experience and seemingly cynical outlook towards them?

I can't imagine that child benefit would pay for all those items but I suspect that for a parent struggling financially it's a welcome but of support.

 

[Bry Nylon]

We've stopped our six year old using her free school meals because she wasn't eating them properly (and certainly wasn't being made to eat the bits of it that are supposed to be good for you). Now she goes to school with a healthy packed lunch full of stuff she likes and a (usually) healthy hot dinner in the evening. It'd be much more sensible to scrap universal free meals and increase child benefit so more people could afford to buy decent food for their kids.

We did exactly the same for the same reasons.
Our primary school provides the opportunity for parents to go and have school lunch with their children from time to time if they wish. Mrs Nylon has been on several occasions and came home saying she felt guilty that we were making our children eat what was provided. The last occasion she went was "roast dinner" day. The broccoli was so over cooked it was yellow, the chicken was under-cooked and the gravy was stone cold. I love the idea of my children having a cooked meal in the middle of the day but what was being provided was really of a very poor quality. And as you say, there was minimal supervision and in many cases the children ate either nothing or very little.

So our children are back on packed lunches including fruit and wholemeal bread etc and at least it all gets eaten, then a decent cooked meal in the evening. I loved the idea of free school dinners for the under 7s but certainly in our experience the actual delivery of what was an excellent policy has been extremely disappointing.

 

[CorgiRegisteredFriend]

Butterscotch tart and custard please.

 

[The Birdman]

We've stopped our six year old using her free school meals because she wasn't eating them properly (and certainly wasn't being made to eat the bits of it that are supposed to be good for you). Now she goes to school with a healthy packed lunch full of stuff she likes and a (usually) healthy hot dinner in the evening. It'd be much more sensible to scrap universal free meals and increase child benefit so more people could afford to buy decent food for their kids.

unfortunately what BG is saying many will spend the money on beer and fags or drugs!