Headteacher's post slamming Tory pledge to cut free school lunches goes viral

Theresa May visits schoolchildren at Captain Shaw's Primary School
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Charlie Jones21 May 2017
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A London headteacher has slammed the Conservative manifesto pledge to replace free school lunches with free breakfasts for infants.

Jack Sloan, who describes himself as a headteacher “at a medium sized primary school in London”, uploaded a scathing post on Facebook which has been shared 24,000 thousand times and received more than 13,000 likes.

In the post he says “Tory manifesto says primary schools will provide free breakfasts for all. Does this mean they also pay the staff to serve them?” Mr Sloan implies that the real cost isn’t the actual food, but the support that is needed “I can afford some Rice Krispies, but enough adults to dish them out on an already reduced budget I can’t afford.”

He also lists various other school cuts he has to deal with, stating “Oh, and the £22k subsidy paid to keep our after-school provision open has just been cut to zero.

“And because of the changes to benefits entitlement, our Pupil Premium funding is dropping by thousands year on year.”

Mr Sloan also quotes the Conservative manifesto which promises to input an extra £4bn to schools by 2022 to ensure no school budgets are cut.

He added he does not think this figure takes into account the extra costs needed to staff the free breakfasts, or to balance out the cuts and increased costs in other areas.

The Conservative manifesto pledged last week to cut universal lunchtime meals for infants.

It promises instead to save £60m a year by offering a free breakfast to all children under the age of 11 claiming “there is good evidence to suggest that school breakfasts are at least as effective in helping children to make progress at school.”

Mr Sloan’s post came as the Education Policy Institute announced the plan would hit 900,000 children of struggling families, including 100,000 children who are in relative poverty and would no longer receive a free lunch.

Hundreds of people have commented on Mr Sloan’s post criticising the plan.

Kane Hedde wrote “in my experience (father of two) most kids don’t get to school until just before the bell rings, so what time will the breakfasts be served? This is a very bad idea as most kids will miss out, at least at lunchtime the kids are mostly at school and benefit from free dinners.”

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