Hungry school children 'are filling up on cheap junk food'

Kids are filling up on unhealthy foods, it has been warned
Rex

Children are going to school hungry and filling themselves up on cheap junk food because they do not qualify for free school meals, teachers said today.

Almost 40 per cent of school staff said they knew pupils who turn up to lessons hungry but do not receive government funding for food, according to a survey by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers union. Children whose parents earn less than £16,000 a year are eligible for free school meals, unless they get working tax credits, in which case they are excluded.

More than half of the 400 state school teachers surveyed by the union, which is holding a conference in Liverpool, said they knew children who do not receive free meals because their parents earn just above the threshold for eligibility.

The ATL believes the income threshold is too low and wants all pupils to get free school meals. The union argues this would remove the stigma of applying for the funding, which is another reason many children do not receive it. All pupils aged four to seven qualify for free school meals regardless of income following an initiative by former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg.

However, this changes when the children are aged eight or over and their parents get working tax credits.

One secondary school teacher said: “I have noticed that pupils get things that are cheap from the local shop, such as a large, sharing size packet of crisps which could be lunch for the day. There is enough there to fill them up but does not provide them with a balanced diet. I especially notice that pupils say they are hungry just before break time, usually meaning that they have not had breakfast that morning.”

Fifteen per cent of teachers who said they have hungry pupils admitted to bringing in food for them.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in