Teachers say children regularly “too hungry to learn”

A survey of teachers in England has found 38 per cent of senior school leaders have been dipping into school budgets to feed children who don’t qualify for free school meals. The polling, conducted by School Food Matters and Teacher Tapp, also found 63 per cent of teachers in the most deprived areas said children were regularly “too hungry to learn”. Under the strict eligibility criteria – a child’s family must be on Universal Credit and have a total household income of under £7,400 – there are an estimated one million children from low-income backgrounds not eligible for free school meals. In order to help families struggling with food costs, a quarter of respondents said schools had to set up food banks or wrote off school meal debt. Stephanie Slater, Schools Food Matters founder and chief executive, is calling on the government to support families with universal school meals as “schools cannot continue to plug gaps in provision with these drastic measures”. Primary school children in London, and soon in Scotland and Wales, already have universal provision of meals.