Does your kids school have a Costa Coffee Bar?

Mindless_Clone

dizziblonde wrote: »

My brother had a nice little earner going queuing in the scrum for the tuckshop and then flogging stuff on for 100% markup to the kids who couldn't be bothered to queue. Sadly for him, when he got busted by the teachers, his notebook where he'd kept detailed accounts of outgoings and profits (sad child my brother) was a nice spot of evidence against him.

I'd love a Costa bar... for the teachers - I ain't coherent till cup of coffee number 3 on a morning!

They punished him for being an enterprising businessman? :rotfl:

mrs_sparrow wrote: »

A bit of googling has found another couple of schools that have coffee stalls and bars and Costa does mention the opportunities of it on the Franchising section of the site but this particular school does not advertise the Coffee Bar being there on their website and so I was wondering if there was more schools that had one. It is new and opens in September, but still, I was a bit horrified to hear that a local school had a Costa Coffee - I thought it was a joke to start with but no, my friend told me that it is there as her daughter starts in September.

For some reason it makes me quite sad to think of children as young as 11 being initiated into the coffee house culture. Face it they are all overpriced. Unless there's a massive subsidy placed on the prices, how on earth are children going to afford it?

balletshoes

Flora0987 wrote: »

Coffee in a kids school that's madness! There is no way that should be allowed. Kids have enough caffeine in their diets as it is - and the DONT need any more.

coffee shouldn't be allowed? Or Costa Coffee? We had those machine drinks which were freely available to buy by pupils - don't they count?

eta - how many sub-6th formers would regularly drink Costa Coffee anyway? My DD's friends etc drink tea at breakfast, or hot chocolate, but none of them drink coffee.

Lokolo

mrs_sparrow wrote: »

I missed this - that was my question to my friend, who on earth is going to be giving their kids that much money to spend on coffee each day anyway!!

Having Googled it seems those stands in schools are selling at a reduced price to students as there is no VAT charged to the kids. I found this for Highams Park School - it says it's for 6th formers only here but the prices are much less: http://www.highamsparkschool.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=140&Itemid=464

It says:

The Costa Coffee bar is open for 6th form students and staff throughout the day. The student prices are shown below. Adults pay slightly more because of VAT rules.

Another question - at what age does a 6th former become an adult and so has to pay VAT on their coffee??

I suspect it's not age but that they are full time students. My university sandwich and coffee bar didn't charge VAT to students but did to everyone else.

Mindless_Clone

Lokolo wrote: »

I suspect it's not age but that they are full time students. My university sandwich and coffee bar didn't charge VAT to students but did to everyone else.

Surely that's just a big tax dodge? I mean how is anyone going to prove who you sold the coffee to? :huh:

dizziblonde

Mindless_Clone wrote: »

They punished him for being an enterprising businessman? :rotfl:

Nah they laughed at it, told him to stop doing it and stuck him into their gifted and talented enterprise programme!

Mindless_Clone

dizziblonde wrote: »

Nah they laughed at it, told him to stop doing it and stuck him into their gifted and talented enterprise programme!

Good to hear. Not many children would have the brains or balls to do something like that. I'm tempted to ask, did he go far?

delain

tea_lover wrote: »

Another one that's been reminded of the Klix machines here. I used to love the weird-tasting orange squash... until you got to the powder lumps at the bottom lol.

You can still get it in hospital vending machines!

tea_lover

delain wrote: »

You can still get it in hospital vending machines!

*heads off to nearest hospital...*

If the coffee's just available to sixth formers I think that's ok tbh. You'd get those sorts of facilities in an FE college and this is serving the same age range.

j.e.j.

Costa coffee at school? Wow! When I were a lass (:rotfl: ) all we had was a vending machine that spewed out the most revolting looking fluids, masquerading as coffee or hot chocolate. Oh and a machine for fizzy drinks. Surely a 'proper' costa coffee would be better? With regard to giving kids caffeine, it's quite possible an eleven year old child will have a cup of coffee with their parents at breakfast anyway?

I recall there being a reduced-price Costa at the FE college where I was, but that would have been for age 16+

PasturesNew

We had an outside water fountain.... that you hoped nobody's pee'd into last night, or spat in this morning.