Will somebody give me a free child?

bridiej

I dont understand why in this day and age kids need school dinners.

We live in a much richer society than we did 30 or 40 years ago, surely it's up to the parent to provide their offspring with a hot nutritious meal, not the taxpayer?

IvanOpinion

1& 2 as per my earlier post - at my school they need funding to set this up they can't get it cos they don't have enough kids eligible for free school dinners. Why do you think the funding is set up this way Ivan - you don't think it's a way of getting the unemployed back to work do you

3 - The special schools in my town are under threat of closure. My dad works in one - not another cost-cutting exercise perhaps :-/
4 - If you get help toward this i think you might find the answer in answers 1 & 2
5 - Is paid at £100 a week. Would you take extra holiday if you knew it wasn't going to be paid at your full rate - but £100 a week instead

Of course the benefits that have been lost for example MIRAS affect people whether or not they have kids.

Funding is fine, but why does that funding not come from those that are using it .. the parents.  As per my previous post parents want the tax payer to foot the bill but they also want extra allowances because they have children - which effectively means it is single and childless couples that are bearing 100% of the additional cost. Many schools and bodies are facing a funding crisis yet PTAs and school fund raising are generally poorly supported ... many parents can't be bothered to give time to helping out at schools (plenty of time to go out and watch football and go down the pub but no time to give the school that is educating their children.

Boy would I love to spout on about the education system in this country but, as I have said in a previous post I am subject to a non-disclosure agreement and can't.  Try doing a bit of investigation into the government bodies associated with education each of which has to be financed .. before a single penny goes to the schools.

In answer to 5 it is approximately £100 per week more than I currently get if I take additional leave.

Ivan

tru

I don't understand that either. When you're on benefits you get enough money for food, so why are school dinners free? In school holidays when you have to feed the kids at home at lunchtime you don't get extra money for their lunch then. Doesn't make sense to me.

Spendless

Funding is fine, but why does that funding not come from those that are using it .. the parents.

That question was raised that we would pay for a breakfast/after school club. The heads reply was that she wasn't able to do it that way. She needs funding to set it up in the first place and that has to come thru a certain procedure.
Once one was up and running then i guess that the amount you pay per session keeps it going -perhaps someone whose kids school does have such a club could comment - i don't know as we haven't got one.

bridiej

It doesnt seem fair that we ALL have to pay for these before and after school clubs to be set up.

We all pay for education as it is, which is fair enough I suppose, but why should we have to pay for anything else?

It's as bad as this giving children fruit thing, fair enough they should eat more fruit but surely it's up to parents to ensure their kids are eating fruit and not cr*p all the time, why should I have to pay X amount so that the local kids get an apple a day?

I know it's not necessarily the parents fault, more like the government that's trying to create a nanny state...

16011996

That question was raised that we would pay for a breakfast/after school club. The heads reply was that she wasn't able to do it that way. She needs funding to set it up in the first place and that has to come thru a certain procedure.
Once one was up and running then i guess that the amount you pay per session keeps it going -perhaps someone whose kids school does have such a club could comment - i don't know as we haven't got one.

ours had to get funding first, and a right pain it was, took 6 months for it to come through. now the money made is put back in to keep it going.

jellyhead

i like the idea of transferring the tax allowance over from the non-working spouse though. Didn't a political party also suggest this?

yes, i like that idea too :-)

as for breakfast and after school clubs, they are already available privately in my town at £3 per hour for each child plus a pound for each meal required, a pound each way for walking to and from school. tax credits give most parents 70% of these childcare costs. school frequently asks parents about starting up these clubs and there's not enough interest, parents would be paying for each session of course. it's great for people like my sister who work part time, she uses childcare for 5 hours per week. but then you see other kids in there for 50 hours a week (including school, but full time daycare in holidays) and they're so miserable, you also have to wonder what being in daycare for more than 50 hours a week does for the mental health of these children. ask any teacher what she thinks of the kids who go to this facility and she'll tell you they'd be better off in foster care.

bridiej

I often wonder why people have kids if they work such long hours.

After all, you wouldnt have a dog if you were at work full time and not able to walk it twice a day, so why have a baby?

Spendless

Peoples circumstances can change though. A friend of mine has 2 kids and was a SAHM for 7 years.
As the youngest went to full-time school her marriage broke up - she found a job 2 days a week. After about a year she went into work one day to find the office cleared out . The owner was shutting the place, my friend got a few days notice.

She looked for another job quickly and was lucky, but the job was full-time.She did ask if this could be just 2 days in school holidays and they agreed but not all employers are as accomodating.

Now she has just asked her employer if she can work 4 days - 2 full ones - so the kids need to go to a child minder - her after school club has closed and 2 working school hours.

bridiej

Yes, I can understand people's circumstances change but I worked with a woman who had two kids and as soon as her maternity leave was up they were left with the child minder so she could carry on with her "career".

It just seems strange to me that people go to the bother of having them and then just farm them off to someone else....

Sorry, but I think it's selfish.