Derbyshire school says government funded breakfast club not viable at 60p per child - and is pulling out of the scheme

New Mills Primary School was one of three schools in the High Peak which had applied to join the new free breakfast scheme set up by the Department of Education.

However, after reading through the funding the school found out it would receive a mere 60p per child to run the free to parents breakfast club.

A school spokesperson said: “We currently run a breakfast club which doesn’t make any profit but we break even and cover our costs.

“That breakfast club costs £3.50 from 7.30am and £3 from 8am.

“There is no way we could make the new breakfast scheme work at 60p per child.

“We would need to buy a new fridge and freezer to cope with demand as well pay another staff member and we may get £1,000 start up fee but in the grand scheme of things that wouldn’t go very far so we decided it was in the best interest of the school to not be part of the programme.”

On the government’s website it states: “All primary aged children in early adopter schools will be able to access a free breakfast and at least 30 minutes of free childcare, every day, helping to support parents getting into work by dropping their children off half an hour earlier.”

The school, on Meadow Street, said that although the breakfast club would be free for children it would not be free for the school.

The spokesperson said: “We are a business at the end of the day, and a business which uses public money so we have to make sensible choices with our expenditure and this is not a good move for the school.

“We were told it would be fully funded but 60p per child is nowhere near that so we decided to step out.

“We have got parents asking us about this as we did apply but the truth is what was offered is not what is being delivered.”