Well, that's her prerogative, I guess. She chose to go public, if the story wasn't in the news then none of us would be talking about it.

Definitely, there’s no issue from my end with people calling her a bad mother etc, I have an issue with a school that’s supposed to take care of the kids in their care refusing a meal on the basis of a disagreement with a parent

They did feed them. Even the mother says they did. If they had been refused anything to eat, then I'd be with you.

Schools are there for teaching kids, they're not a charity. How many times have you heard about teachers taking bread and stuff in because kids come in to school having had no breakfast? And none of us know the whole story, this woman may be a serial non-payer. What she did was sent her kids, knowing she owed the money, hoping for the school to provide stuff for free. Well, they did. Bread and butter.

Those days are long gone
there is a line
you can not cross it these days

:clap1:

Bread and butter is better than nothing, they didn't have to give them that but they did. If they kept giving free meals out everytime a parent doesn't pay then loads of people would be doing it:laugh: as you said they are not a charity.

Bread and butter isn’t enough to sustain a child through a 6 hour school day :joker: they were given a subpar ‘meal’ because there was an issue with their mother, yes it’s their job to teach kids, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be taking care of their students, a school allowing children to not have a proper meal through the school day, because of a small debt, is in my eyes barbaric and lacks any compassion that a school should show

...the school has 360 children on roll so a huge amount of schools meals to cook each day...(...which apparently they take pride in, their lovely schools meals with a 3 choice menu...)...there is no way on this earth that there would be no surplus with those numbers, absolutely no way at all...but rather than give the left over food to the children at no cost to anyone...they chose not to ...and most probably it went into the bins...to make a point with their ‘£10 rule’...and with no thought for those children having a meal to sustain them through their afternoon...even grated cheese and some salad with the bread and butter which is reasonable sustenance for a child to work on...but no, it’s a £10 rule’...and that’s more important than the children...

Oh please Liam... I do feel a bit sorry for the kids, but women like their mother rely on soft touches to get them through life, let them off a debt, provide stuff for free.... The one and only person responsible for those kids eating only bread and butter is their mother.

:thumbs::hug:

...they did actually Luke...have to give them something, there would have been very serious questions to answer had they given them nothing...they give them the minimum really...and would have thrown surplus food out because there is always an error margin...

Maybe just give everyone the option of paying? I mean, let those who always pay, pay.... and those who never do, well just give them stuff for free! Sounds fair.

We don't know that, Ammi.

You don't think the mother has any responsibility in this?

No-one is saying to let the woman off of her debt, but to take her debt out on her children was morally wrong imo, is £17 really worth allowing kids to go without a proper meal? This school clearly cares more about money than their students

...the people responsible for a child eating Livia is everyone, I’m sorry...and while those children were at school...?...the responsibility for them to have a healthy and adequate meal belonged with the school staff...

As a parent your first thought should be sorting it out with the school not sell it to the papers for a tenner to buy veggies and a scratch card

..but we do know that though because every single school day children make errors in what lunches they are having...packed or hot meal..?...so an allowance has to be made for that...

This Working Mother
can now correct her mess
and make sure her phone is working
at all times.....................................

If they didnt charge people they wouldnt afford ingredients and would have to make the dinner staff redundant not everything in life comes for free and everything had consequences

If they didnt charge people they wouldnt afford ingredients and would have to make the dinner staff redundant not everything in life comes for free and everything had consequences

You think that the parent should be able to take those kids to a restaurant and have them eat for free? No, neither should they expect to at school. We already provide free meals for eligible children, if these children were eligible then they would presumably be getting free meals.

You're quite wrong about everyone being responsible. If the mother can't take responsibility for feeding her own children, then maybe Social Services should be looking into it.

Rules on Funding
are now Normal
and YOU know that Madame Ammi.

...she lives with her partner btw according to the article...so I’m not sure why it would only be the mother who had a responsibility...

So what's the point of pursuing this woman? She's feckless and should expect the rest of the world to feed her kids. And if they don't she goes to the press whining...

:clap1:

Schools have to make a meal for every child enrolled, whether they’re going to eat it or not, there were very clearly leftovers they could have given them, it wouldn’t have cost them anything, but no, they chose to make an example of the innocent party to get a point across to their mother, to me, that’s reprehensible for a school to do

Maybe he isn't their father.