School breakfast clubs

According to an article, which appeared in the British Journal of Psychiatry in 2014, the UK has the lowest rate of suicide in 10 to 14 year olds in Europe. Ireland's rate is three times higher for girls and six times higher for boys.

Suicide rates are a fairly blunt statistic and don't take into account other mental illnesses, but it does appear that the headlines might not be quite what they seem. UK teenage suicide rates have hardly changed in a decade.

bjp.rcpsych.org/content/205/4/283.figures-only

Annie - I wasn't offended but I did want to respond in defence of the many working mothers. Elothoethan puts it well, as ever.
It does concern me that in the UK we seem to have a greater tendency to use various substances than in other European countries. Binge drinking, parents turning up at school with a can of Special Brew in one hand and a spliff in the other. This happens much more in areas of high deprivation and unemployment than in more affluent areas. Eloethan's point about cuts to benefits, the closure this year of over 1000 Sure Start Centres does leave many children deprived of support that has been shown to help them.
Breakfast clubs are especially important in areas of high deprivation. I've mentioned previously one 6 year old arriving weeping, who told his teacher he'd missed breakfast club and hadn't had anything to eat since school dinner the previous day. This is an extreme but sadly, not that rare incident.

I feel sorry for children now, factory farmed in school buildings, sent there before their working day starts and left there long after it has ended. Holiday clubs in that same space with the same kids they are lodged with all year. The state is just taking over, holiday restriction when some parents can only have term time leave from their jobs........we allegedly prize family life and then do everything we can to avoid it.

No wonder our children are so miserable.

Good morning and a happy Easter to you all.
When I was working in an inner city infant school, we had a completely free breakfast club. It was funded by special funding from the city council because it was in a deprived area. Out of over 200 pupils including the nursery class, breakfast club was attended by about 20 to 30 children, many of which were the children of working parents (not well paid jobs I hasten to add) but we still had children who arrived having not eaten anything that morning. I used to give those children school milk/fruit as they often complained of being hungry. The breakfast club was run by TAs who were willing to work an extra hour. The food was cereal and toast, so nothing complicated, but far better than nothing.
We also ran an after school club, but it was funded by a small fee, no free funding at all, again TAs who wanted an extra hour or so of extra work ran the club. Sadly it had to close after a year or two as too many parents simply didn't pay and we couldn't keep topping it up from the school budget.
Just thought I'd throw my professional experiences into the debate.

daphne Given the high and increasing level of mental illness in young people, I find this surprising. There is concern that a significant number of suicides are not being reported as such but are reported as "accidental" or that it cannot be said definitively that the person intended to take his/her life. The Telegraph had a report on this in 2011:

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/8811351/Suicide-rate-masked-by-coroners-verdicts.html

Let's not judge the rise in children suffering with mental health illness by the number of suicides. Do we wait for a rise in suicide statistics before we listen to the teachers who are expressing their concerns for children suffering anxiety, panic attacks and depression,

Is it not possible many children are now obese because they comfort eat ?

Reaching for a bar of chocolate or packet of biscuits because of depression by children is no different to adults.

should a woman (or a man)devote years of their lives and all their waking hours to housework and looking after children? I don't think that is healthy for either them or the children.
Why should mothers (or fathers) towho are able to, not take a career break for just a few years whilst their children are tiny or to perhaps work part-time?

Women are other women's worst enemies I agree and think therefore that there is no reason to be derogatory about mothers who choose, if they are able, to stay at home for the few years when their child(ren) are small. Why should they spend all their hours doing housework? What is wrong with looking after children? It follows that the job of a nursery nurse is one to be scorned if it is that demeaning. Working mothers have to fit in the housework too.
I don't see why it is not healthy. Most of the young mothers in my group all those years ago were lucky enough to be able to stay at home for say 5-7 years and their children were able also to meet up with their friends, went to play groups at 3 which was for only about 2.5 hours of each day. They have all grown up into outgoing, confident adults, no less so than those who went to nurseries from babyhood.

And yes, I realise it is not possible for everyone but there is no reason to scorn SAHM.

Hear, hear, jalima. If a mother pays someone to look after her kids, that child-minder/nanny has a respectable job. If a mother chooses to that job herself, apparently she hasn't got a respectable job. Weird way of thinking.

Besides, it's not just about 'minding' the kids; it's about educating them as well. Some women want to have a strong influence on their kids' early education because it matters.

NB I said educating, not schooling. Those are no synonyms.

So women who work don't do housework it seems.

So why work to pay for child care and a cleaner

The families I know who put their babies in all day child care are career minded, mothers who work part time evenings in supermarkets and cleaning offices are stay at home mothers .

no not

Fuck housework! There are more important things in life, especially when you have young kids.

Actually, especially always.

SAHM-ing is not about housework.

Tanith
I would place my concerns on the health of those who 'scoff' for the sake of scoffing.
A piece of fruit when already having eaten breakfast then OK.
A 'danish? I don't think so.

maddyone I was moaning in the Squealing Children thread that my niece's inner city/deprived area school is now an academy and gets little support for its 'wealthy' sponsor.

Your post reminded me about their so-called breakfast club.

TWO PIECES OF WHITE BREAD no butter or jam or anything. Just bog-standard white bread (oh and water, and that's not a cliche about prison food).

One family's father, who is from N Africa give his three kids little pots of honey he makes up. He was willing to provide a catering quality toaster like you see at hotels, but they turned him down. Health and Safety crap... staff would have to get 'training' to use it.

DOH? Two pieces of bread with nothing on it?n Why can't they even get butter? They also get raw veggies (crudites) like carrots, but sometimes it's cauliflower or broccoli. Some kids make the rounds of classes looking to visit those kids don't want their veggies and they gladly take any offered.

A breakfast club was started at the school I worked at - it was a great success. Many of the children, on free school meals, had nothing before they left home. A bowl of cereal, toast, fruit and yogurt set them up for the morning. Prior to this I often saw one small boy with a huge greasy puff pastry sausage roll; this was his breakfast every day, and the pastry held a sliver of grey 'god knows what' as an excuse for a sausage. He was brightened up considerably by a breakfast with friends, and something decent and fresh to eat. There were a few mothers who sent the children although they didn't work, but that was their choice, and one mother actually managed to get half price breakfast club for three children although she didn't work, drove a large car, smoked and always looked very well dressed...however, these exceptions aside it was a great idea and was good for the children.

My granddaughter loves breakfast club.
I can remember just turning up at school really early and playing unsupervised in the playground as most of the other kids did.

My grandson is was very pleased when he was told that his new school has a breakfast club, especially so when he was told he would use a debit card to pay for what he wants, a bit miffed when told: no, you can't use it outside the school

sarahellenwhitney my Granddaughter is very much on the skinny side and below weight for her age. She is a child who doesn't do sweets, cakes, biscuits. Doesn't like chocolate and asks for salad all the time her favourite snack is sugar snap peas, nuts or sparkling water. So she is encouraged to 'scoff' a Danish pastry if she wants one. She had seen the doctor and Mum has been encourage to give her full fat milk/cheese as often as she will eat it. Food is often not on her agenda at all.

So please do not judge what you don't know.

Has anyone in fact "scorned" stay-at-home mums? Some working mums were responding, quite reasonably I thought, to the suggestion by someone that mums who work are wilfully greedy, selfish and neglectful.

I think that the hours both women and men work are far too long. It was thought that over time the hours that consituted full time working/full time pay would reduce - as happened in the past when the idea of two days off a week and holidays was originally a seemingly unrealistic dream. But what we have now is some people working far more hours for for the same or less pay than would previously have been received, and far too many people working fewer and often unpredictable hours with pay that cannot meet their expenses.

What I feel is that both men and women should be working far fewer hours without affecting their established income. Although I think women should also have the chance to work - and progress in their careers if they so wish - I agree that the whole process of normalising (and in some ways making it feel obligatory) that two parents should be working full time hours, whatever the age of their children, has been detrimental to families. I think it is particularly so when childcare is so expensive and, in many cases, is not very good.

It seems to me that, as more women joined the workforce, so prices increased to reflect greater spending capacity. That is why two people working today seem to be no more secure and comfortable than one person working years ago. I know people will say "yes, but people expect much more these days and spend much more". In my opinion, it has always been the case that each generations believes that the newer one has more grandiose expectations and is more extravagant.

In my view, the "more more more" way of life is being encouraged by both business and government. When businesses post their profits, there is usually consternation if they have only made the same profit as the year before, or - heaven forbid - a smaller profit. There must be a point at which profits cannot be increased any further without serious detriment to employees' pay and conditions, the environment or the quality of product/service being sold - or a combination of all three.

The breakfast club which I helped organise offered cereal, porridge, white or brown toast, butter, jam, cheese, scrambled egg, yoghurt, fresh fruit, milk, squash and water.

There was a quiet area, where children could read or do homework, another area, where children could chat or play games and an outside area, where they could run around.

There aren't many opportunities during the school day for children to socialise and this hour before school gave them time to be together, without constantly being assessed. Some children brought their problems into school and they had an opportunity to chat with an adult, who wasn't their parent. Teachers reported that children were more ready to learn when school started. There was nearly always a waiting list for places.

Not all the mothers worked. Some had a number of children and their children came to breakfast club, because they preferred being with their friends rather than sitting around waiting for younger siblings to be fed and dressed.

The club has now been running for 19 years and is still going strong and two of the original staff are still there. The building is used for breakfast club, an after school club, a pre-school group and a holiday club, which meant that staff could be employed almost full-time,if they wanted. They all had appropriate health and safety, child protection and first aid training.

daphnedill sounds like a perfect example of what a Breakfast Club should be. Something that is there every day for the children regardless of their circumstances.

We did our best tanith. Ofsted thought so too.

We were lucky, because we were in a small village and a small group of people worked tirelessly to get it started and to apply for the lottery funding for the building.

One of the people who is still there had started as an assistant in the pre-school, which at the time was in a decrepit church hall. Over the years she's had the opportunity to gain qualifications and she is an advisor for other start-up groups. I don't know how much she's paid now, but when I was there, we paid her well over usual childcare rates.

I became involved, because I was on maternity leave after my son was born. It was the first opportunity I'd had to become involved in the life of the village.

One thing's for sure and that is that breakfast clubs shouldn't be run on the cheap just to tick a box. It's not good enough to employ a couple of TAs for an hour before school and offer white toast and water.

Has anyone in fact "scorned" stay-at-home mums?
Yes
^ should a woman (or a man)devote years of their lives and all their waking hours to housework and looking after children? I don't think that is healthy for either them or the children.^
That is quite scornful saying that it is not healthy for a mother to be at home with her children.

Most people I know did manage a balance unless they were bringing up children on their own; worked, brought up a family until the children started at school then back to work either full or part-time.
However, I do know some women who, despite impressive qualifications, never did return to the workplace after having a family which would seem to be a waste of education and potential.

Fuck housework! There are more important things in life, especially when you have young kids

thatbags that's more or less what the lovely midwife said to be when DC2 arrived (well, without the fuck). She said do the washing, clean the toilet, make sure there's food then go out with the children. It was a lovely summer and we lived near the coast.
Not very healthy though, I should have gone back to work

mothers who work part time evenings in supermarkets
I did do that for a while because we needed the money.

'clean the toilet'? What? Just squirt some bleach around the bowl - sorted!