tag:theconversation.com,2011:/nz/topics/free-school-meals-7235/articlesFree school meals – The Conversation2023-05-30T14:04:31Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2055352023-05-30T14:04:31Z2023-05-30T14:04:31ZPoorer pupils do worse at school – here’s how to reduce the attainment gap<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527990/original/file-20230524-24637-l4fgym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C222%2C5089%2C2835&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/group-school-children-sitting-together-drawing-1878869518">Juice Verve/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Children living in relative poverty in England have worse average educational outcomes, including lower grades in exams, than other pupils. This situation is often referred to as the poverty attainment gap. </p>
<p>Closing this gap, so that poorer students do as well at school as their peers, is a concern for countries around the world. The ways this can be done has been a <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781003287353/making-schools-better-disadvantaged-students-stephen-gorard-nadia-siddiqui-beng-huat-see">focus of my research</a>. </p>
<p>A key issue to address is the social divisions that mean that certain schools cater for richer or poorer pupils. Extra funding should also be focused on the children who need it most. </p>
<h2>Measuring the gap</h2>
<p>In official statistics, the attainment gap is measured as the difference between the attainment of the majority of pupils and those eligible for free school meals (<a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/measuring-disadvantaged-pupils-attainment-gaps-over-time">a measure of poverty</a>). This is problematic because the gap changes as the <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781003287353/making-schools-better-disadvantaged-students-stephen-gorard-nadia-siddiqui-beng-huat-see">proportion of pupils eligible</a> for free school meals changes over time. </p>
<p>Individual students’ circumstances might change as their family income changes. But, more importantly, different groups of students may have more or fewer pupils eligible for free school meals due to fluctuations in the economy or changes in government policy. This then affects the attainment gap, but is nothing to do with education or the work of schools. </p>
<p>A more robust measure is to measure the difference in attainment between pupils always eligible for free school meals for their entire school lives, and the rest. These two groups are stable over time and less affected by economic and legal changes. And the attainment gap between them had been reducing historically in England until 2014. </p>
<p>The gap increased in 2015 – perhaps due to changes to the curriculum – but since 2016 the gap has started decreasing again at key stage two (ages seven to 11). It is difficult to compare the attainment gap after 2019 with what came before, because of the exam disruption caused by COVID-19 lockdowns. </p>
<p><strong>The attainment gap at the end of year two over time</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Line graph" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526596/original/file-20230516-21547-bbff3j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526596/original/file-20230516-21547-bbff3j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=346&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526596/original/file-20230516-21547-bbff3j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=346&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526596/original/file-20230516-21547-bbff3j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=346&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526596/original/file-20230516-21547-bbff3j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526596/original/file-20230516-21547-bbff3j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526596/original/file-20230516-21547-bbff3j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Change in effect size for the gap between long-term disadvantaged pupils and the rest, KS1 points, 2006-2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Making Schools Better for Disadvantaged Students: The International Implications of Evidence on Effective School Funding, by Stephen Gorard, Beng Huat See and Nadia Siddiqui, Routledge.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite this progress, the gap between the permanently disadvantaged students and the rest is still substantial – note that the graph above does not start at zero. </p>
<p>Perhaps the main driver of the change has been a slow reduction in social segregation – the extent to which poorer children are <a href="https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/education-policy">clustered in schools</a> with others like them. </p>
<p><strong>Decline in social segregation of pupils in year one</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Line graph" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526599/original/file-20230516-37075-7170vy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526599/original/file-20230516-37075-7170vy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526599/original/file-20230516-37075-7170vy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526599/original/file-20230516-37075-7170vy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526599/original/file-20230516-37075-7170vy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526599/original/file-20230516-37075-7170vy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526599/original/file-20230516-37075-7170vy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Change in effect size for the gap between FSM-eligible pupils and the rest, FSM Segregation in Year 1, 2006-2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Making Schools Better for Disadvantaged Students: The International Implications of Evidence on Effective School Funding, by Stephen Gorard, Beng Huat See and Nadia Siddiqui, Routledge.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781003287353/making-schools-better-disadvantaged-students-stephen-gorard-nadia-siddiqui-beng-huat-see">my research</a>, I’ve compared the attainment gap with the level of poverty segregation in schools in areas across England. I’ve found that where segregation is lower, the attainment gap is too. </p>
<p>Reinforcing the ongoing reduction in segregation, and in the attainment gap in turn, should be an educational priority.</p>
<p><strong>Scatterplot showing the relationship between segregation (y axis) and attainment gap (x axis) at key stage two</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Scatterplot" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526597/original/file-20230516-17-p2hxsk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526597/original/file-20230516-17-p2hxsk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526597/original/file-20230516-17-p2hxsk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526597/original/file-20230516-17-p2hxsk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526597/original/file-20230516-17-p2hxsk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526597/original/file-20230516-17-p2hxsk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526597/original/file-20230516-17-p2hxsk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Scatterplot of segregation (y axis) by attainment gaps (x axis) for the Economic Areas of England.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Making Schools Better for Disadvantaged Students: The International Implications of Evidence on Effective School Funding, by Stephen Gorard, Beng Huat See and Nadia Siddiqui, Routledge.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Types of school</h2>
<p>One way to reduce this social segregation – and so reduce the attainment gap – is to reduce the <a href="https://dro.dur.ac.uk/38522/">variety of different types</a> of schools. </p>
<p>There is an unnecessarily wide variety of different types of school in England. Grammar schools select pupils by ability – which is linked to social background. Faith schools select by religion, which is linked to ethnicity. There are also special, free, foundation, specialist, and community schools, plus academies and university technical colleges. Each type can end up with somewhat different pupil intakes, so driving segregation.</p>
<p>All these schools could be gradually phased into a national system of similar all-ability local schools. Pupils would still be able to receive additional help or tailored interventions within such schools, but the social mix of the schools would better represent their region than at present.</p>
<p>School catchment areas are another factor increasing social segregation. Where schools are oversubscribed, contested places should not be allocated on the basis of travel or distance from home, or of feeder primary schools. These methods all duplicate and reinforce residential segregation by poverty. </p>
<p>Alternative measures could include banding by poverty, where each school might be required to give a certain number of places to pupils eligible for free school meals, or lotteries, where oversubscribed places are allocated randomly. Pupils could be given free transport to schools outside their immediate neighbourhood. </p>
<p>The idea would be to spread out the most disadvantaged students between schools, in order to make any issues with their attainment easier to address. </p>
<h2>Managing funding</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/berj.3775">biggest decline</a> in poverty segregation has <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781003287353/making-schools-better-disadvantaged-students-stephen-gorard-nadia-siddiqui-beng-huat-see">taken place since 2011</a>, when <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pupil-premium/pupil-premium">pupil premium funding</a> was introduced. Pupil premium allocates extra funding to schools in proportion to the number of disadvantaged pupils that they take. This reduces the disincentive for schools to take poorer children.</p>
<p>But the pupil group with the <a href="https://www.tes.com/magazine/analysis/general/i-helped-design-pupil-premium-funding-it-needs-urgent-update">lowest attainment</a> are those who have been eligible for free school meals for the longest. So it makes sense for pupil premium funding to be better calibrated in future. Proportionately more funding should follow the most disadvantaged pupils – those who are eligible for free school meals for all of their time at school.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205535/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Gorard does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Measures need to focus on reducing social segregation in schools.Stephen Gorard, Professor of Education and Public Policy, Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1981242023-04-04T11:03:37Z2023-04-04T11:03:37ZA brief history of school meals in the UK: from free milk to Jamie Oliver’s campaign against Turkey Twizzlers<p>Mashed potato, gravy, custard. When British people hear the words “school dinners”, it’s not always great memories that come to mind. </p>
<p>That’s not the case for everyone. Indeed France is known for its gourmet school lunches cooked by <a href="https://www.connexionfrance.com/article/People/Interviews/French-chef-serving-Michelin-quality-cuisine-to-school-pupils-Nicolas-Lamstaes-has-created-France-s-first-100-organic-canteen">onsite chefs</a> – bon appétit!</p>
<p>But in the UK people have been complaining about <a href="https://archive.org/details/poorcitizensstat0000vinc">school meals</a> for a long time.
Celebrity chef <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2005/mar/06/schoolmeals">Jamie Oliver</a> campaigned against cheap processed foods like “<a href="https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/food-and-drink/turkey-twizzlers-bernard-matthews-history-banned-schools-jamie-oliver-new-recipe-taste-test-581342">turkey twizzlers</a>” in the early 2000s. And Margaret Thatcher, the UK’s prime minister in the 1970s, was nicknamed the “<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/margaret-thatcher-regretted-snatching-milk-from-school-children-for-two-decades-a7500171.html">milk snatcher</a>” when she was education secretary because she stopped free milk for children in schools.</p>
<p>Since the COVID-19 pandemic, more children than ever before have become eligible for free school meals. In fact, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2022">1.9 million children</a> (22.5% of all school-age children in England) were eligible for free school lunches in 2022 – up from 17.3% in 2020. </p>
<p><a href="https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cdp-2020-0114/">Free school meals</a> have long been used as a measure of poverty. Children are eligible if they come from families with low incomes or who receive certain benefits. </p>
<p>The provision of <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/311/7008/818.1">free school meals</a> has become particularly significant as levels of child poverty in the UK have risen. And the pandemic highlighted the importance of ensuring that children from low-income families have access to nutritious meals. The government provided free meal vouchers to <a href="https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2020-10-21/debates/79C0CA8D-CADF-4562-9317-5A51810BB5DE/FreeSchoolMeals">eligible children</a> during school closures.</p>
<p>The issue of <a href="https://theconversation.com/free-school-meals-debate-shows-how-victorian-attitudes-about-undeserving-poor-persist-149130">free school meals</a> and school meals more broadly has also been the subject of controversy over recent years, with <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/kids-children-school-lunches-canteen-unhealthy-a9072816.html">concerns raised</a> about the adequacy of the meals provided and the nutritional quality of the food served. </p>
<h2>From rationing to revolution</h2>
<p>But problems with school meals <a href="https://openlibrary.org/books/OL6074399M/Social_history_of_the_school_meals_service.">goes back much further</a>. In fact they started when the government first began offering meals to schoolchildren <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1906/57/enacted">in 1906</a>. Back then, local education authorities decided whether or not to provide meals and they were only for children who showed evidence of actual malnutrition. </p>
<p>It wasn’t until the second world war that the number of pupils who got <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674026780">school meals</a> began to rise significantly. But even then, the meals weren’t great. Indeed, during this time, the government introduced rationing, which had a significant impact on school meals. As a result, meals were often limited to basic, low-cost ingredients such as vegetables, potatoes and bread.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pD9mk0Y_pyo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>In the post-war years, school meals underwent significant changes. The introduction of new technologies such as electric ovens and refrigerators meant that schools could provide more varied and nutritious meals and menus began to include meat, fish and desserts.</p>
<p>The 1970s saw a renewed focus on healthy eating and the introduction of official guidelines for school meals. These guidelines aimed to provide a balanced diet that included plenty of fruit, vegetables and whole grains.</p>
<p>But in <a href="http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/acts/1980-educationhttp://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/acts/1980-education-act.htmlact.html#06">the 1980s</a>, things went downhill. The Conservative government under Margaret Thatcher introduced a policy of privatisation, which led to many schools <a href="https://weownit.org.uk/blog/profit-should-have-no-place-school-meal-provision">outsourcing their catering services</a> to private companies. </p>
<p>This move was criticised by many who felt that these companies were more interested in making a profit than providing healthy and nutritious meals to children.</p>
<h2>Feeding the future</h2>
<p>Since thenm, there have been several initiatives (including Jamie Oliver’s) to improve the quality of school meals in the UK, including the introduction of strict nutritional standards and the promotion of locally sourced and sustainable ingredients. But concerns about the quality of some meals still remain. Indeed many children continue to bring <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/packed-lunches-worse-for-kids-than-school-dinners-11908182">packed lunches</a> to school instead.</p>
<p>This is why as part of our <a href="https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/education/research/school-meals-service-past-present-and-future">new research project</a> we want to understand the problems with the school meals service and find ways to make it better. We’ll be looking at the experience of school feeding across generations and working with schools in the UK to study school meals today. The goal is to create a better school meals service that can meet the needs of the 21st century.</p>
<p>Overall, improving school meals in the UK will require a multi-faceted approach that addresses funding, food quality and sustainability. Most importantly, we need politicians to take a long-term, historically-informed approach to policymaking, so that past mistakes can be learned from and this knowledge used to inform decisions about school meals going forward. It’s our hope that this research will go some way towards achieving better nutritional standards for future generations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198124/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gurpinder Singh Lalli has received funding from ESRC. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gary McCulloch receives funding from the ESRC and has received funding from the Leverhulme Trust and the Society for Educational Studies. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Heather Ellis receives funding from the ESRC and the AHRC and has received funding from the Society for Educational Studies.</span></em></p>From soup and semolina to Jamie’s school dinners: the changing face of school meals in the UK.Gurpinder Singh Lalli, Reader in Education for Social Justice and Inclusion, University of WolverhamptonGary McCulloch, Brian Simon Professor of History of Education, UCLHeather Ellis, Vice-Chancellor's Fellow, School of Education, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1947812022-11-28T14:59:15Z2022-11-28T14:59:15ZUniversal free school meals would make a huge difference to the cost-of-living crisis – here’s how<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496716/original/file-20221122-15-vr6rbq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C8%2C5734%2C3819&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/pleasant-woman-giving-lunch-school-girl-605927558">Africa Studio/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The UK government’s recent <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/autumn-statement-2022-documents">autumn statement</a> set out several measures to help people with rapidly rising prices. These including increased benefit payments and an extension to the energy price cap, although at a less generous rate than currently guaranteed.</p>
<p><a href="https://foodfoundation.org.uk/publication/superpowers-free-school-meals-evidence-pack">Campaigners</a> will have been disappointed, though, at the lack of any announcement on another measure that could help many people with the cost of living crisis: an extension of entitlement to free school meals in England. </p>
<p>All children in reception, year one and year two in state schools in England are currently entitled to a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-infant-free-school-meals-uifsm-2022-to-2023">free school meal</a> at lunchtime on weekdays in term time. For children in year three and above in England, only those whose <a href="https://www.gov.uk/apply-free-school-meals">parents receive benefit payments</a> are eligible. For those on universal credit, household earnings must be less than £7,400 per year. In the academic year 2021-22, <a href="https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics">23% of schoolchildren</a> at state schools were eligible for free school meals.</p>
<p>Extending free school meals to all primary and secondary school children with parents on universal credit would <a href="https://foodfoundation.org.uk/sites/default/files/2022-11/FSM%20Evidence%20Pack_0.pdf">cost around £477 million</a> a year. Providing them for all primary and secondary school children would require £1.8 billion a year. This is far less than the <a href="https://ifs.org.uk/articles/response-energy-price-guarantee">£100 billion estimated cost</a> for the first year of the energy price guarantee.</p>
<p>There is support for extending free school meals among government ministers. Levelling up secretary Michael Gove confirmed his support <a href="https://foodfoundation.org.uk/press-release/michael-gove-backs-extended-access-free-school-meals">for access to free school meals</a> to children of parents on universal credit, also saying that “in an ideal world” all children in primary school would have free school meals. The absence of this policy from the autumn statement was arguably a missed opportunity.</p>
<h2>Reaching families in need</h2>
<p>Extended means-tested or universal free school meals would put money back in the pockets of parents who are either currently purchasing school meals or preparing packed lunches. It would save households of two parents and two children <a href="https://doi.org/10.5526/misoc-2022-003">£37 per month on average</a>. </p>
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<img alt="Children in uniform eating lunch" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496723/original/file-20221122-26-gjet9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496723/original/file-20221122-26-gjet9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496723/original/file-20221122-26-gjet9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496723/original/file-20221122-26-gjet9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496723/original/file-20221122-26-gjet9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496723/original/file-20221122-26-gjet9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496723/original/file-20221122-26-gjet9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Free school meals save money for struggling families.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/schoolchildren-sitting-table-eating-cooked-lunch-284502557">Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Charity the Child Poverty Action Group has estimated that, under the current rules, <a href="https://cpag.org.uk/news-blogs/news-listings/800000-children-poverty-not-getting-free-school-meals">800,000 children</a> are living in poverty who are not eligible for free school meals. This figure is likely to rise, both because living costs continue to increase and because the earnings threshold for free school meals has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/nov/10/children-not-eligible-for-free-school-meals-going-hungry-say-teachers">not risen with inflation</a>. This means that working parents receiving pay rises may see their earnings increase above the threshold, even as the purchasing power of their salary decreases. </p>
<p>The threshold for free school meals means that a family with two children and earnings of £7,401 per year would not receive free school meals <a href="https://policyinpractice.co.uk/free-school-meals-should-be-extended-to-all-households-on-universal-credit/">worth £900 per year</a> – but they would if they earned a pound less. A “cliff edge” like this creates both hardship and a disincentive to increase household earnings. </p>
<p>Indeed this problem was part of why universal credit was created in the first place, as it is gradually reduced as earnings increase to avoid such a cliff edge. So the free school meals threshold undermines the effectiveness of universal credit.</p>
<h2>Helping the NHS</h2>
<p>What’s more, a major stated objective of the autumn statement was to “protect vital public services”. In practice this primarily meant increased spending on NHS care. However, extended means-tested or universal free school meals would also protect the NHS by helping to tackle tackling obesity. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubecp.2022.100016">My research</a> with colleagues at the University of Essex has shown that the national universal infant free school meal scheme increased the proportion of children deemed a “healthy weight” and reduced schoolchildren’s body mass index (BMI) throughout the reception year at school.</p>
<p>We have also found that when local authorities provide universal free school meals throughout primary school, both children in reception and year six have <a href="https://doi.org/10.5526/misoc-2022-003">reduced obesity</a>. The impacts are largest for children in year six who have received universal free school meals since they started primary school. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/restud/rdab028">Research in Sweden</a> has shown that children exposed to universal free school meals throughout primary school had higher educational attainment, better health, and earned 3% more over their lifetimes. </p>
<p>Obesity cost the NHS an estimated <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-matters-obesity-and-the-food-environment/health-matters-obesity-and-the-food-environment--2">£6 billion in 2014-15</a>. This is projected to rise to £9.7 billion by 2050. So tackling <a href="https://dera.ioe.ac.uk/34319/1/cmo-special-report-childhood-obesity-october-2019%20%28redacted%29.pdf">childhood obesity</a> is vital. </p>
<p>Jeremy Hunt’s autumn statement gave the intention to bring economic growth by “investing in the UK’s people”. Universal or even extended free school meals would have been just such an investment.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194781/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Angus Holford received funding for this work from the Nuffield Foundation (<a href="http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org">www.nuffieldfoundation.org</a>) and from MiSoC, the ESRC-funded Research Centre on Micro Social Change (ES/S012486/1). The views expressed are Angus Holford's and not those of the Nuffield Foundation or the Economic and Social Research Council. This work uses data from the National Child Measurement Programme, supplied by NHS Digital. The use of NHS Digital statistical data in this work does not imply the endorsement or quality assurance of NHS Digital in relation to the interpretation or analysis of the statistical data. Angus Holford is a member of the Labour Party but is writing in a personal capacity.</span></em></p>Widening access to free school meals would be an investment in England’s children.Angus Holford, Senior Research Fellow in the Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of EssexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1619572021-07-20T18:45:06Z2021-07-20T18:45:06ZFree school meals for all children can improve kids’ health<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411933/original/file-20210719-19-1pzcy0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5366%2C3572&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many children, especially from low-income communities or communities of color, eat up to half their daily calories in school. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/cafeteria-worker-serving-healthy-food-to-children-royalty-free-image/498579063?adppopup=true">SDI Productions/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Recognizing that millions of U.S. children are at <a href="https://theconversation.com/18-million-us-children-are-at-risk-of-hunger-how-is-the-problem-being-addressed-and-what-more-can-be-done-151821">risk of hunger</a>, <a href="https://www.foodservicedirector.com/operations/maine-california-embrace-universal-free-school-meals">Maine and California</a> have approved funding to offer free school meals to all students within their state. Meanwhile, a <a href="https://www.sanders.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/Universal-School-Meals-Program-Act-of-2021.pdf">bill proposed in Congress</a> aims to make free school meals a permanent fixture in all states.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.sanders.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/Universal-School-Meals-Act-Summary.4.28.21.pdf">Universal School Meals Program Act</a> would provide free healthy meals and snacks to all children in public and nonprofit private schools regardless of income. </p>
<p>Currently, the U.S. Department of Agriculture <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/cn/child-nutrition-response-84">has allowed</a> school districts to provide meals free of charge to families during the pandemic. Previously set to expire in September, the policy has been extended <a href="https://www.usda.gov/media/press-releases/2021/04/20/usda-issues-pandemic-flexibilities-schools-and-day-care-facilities">through the 2021-2022 school year</a>. This marks the first time in the <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/nslp/program-history">75-year history</a> of the National School Lunch Program that all U.S. public school children are getting equal access to school meals, with no questions asked.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.eatright.org/food/resources/learn-more-about-rdns/qualifications-of-a-registered-dietitian-nutritionist">registered dietitian nutritionist</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=2ujk8c8AAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">researcher</a> who specializes in child <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-food-insecurity-152746#:%7E:text=Food%20insecurity%20is%20fundamentally%20an,obstacles%20like%20poverty%20and%20discrimination.&text=Food%20insecurity%20can%20be%20exacerbated,of%20healthy%20and%20affordable%20food.">food insecurity</a>, I frequently see how <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11071574">access and availability</a> to nutritious foods can shape kids’ health. </p>
<p>When children return to schools in the fall, the ongoing policy waivers provide an opportunity to examine how <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2020.03.006">universal free school meals</a> impact nutrition in school meal programs and health inequities among children.</p>
<h2>Better health</h2>
<p>Good nutrition plays a crucial role in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.22175">strong academic outcomes</a>. School meals have been shown to reduce childhood <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2017/august/usda-s-national-school-lunch-program-reduces-food-insecurity">food insecurity</a> and childhood <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2014.2048">overweight and obesity</a> while improving <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2016.04.010">overall diet quality</a>. </p>
<p>School meals are often more nutritious than meals eaten <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.5262">elsewhere</a> or even <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S136898001900017X">home-packed lunches</a>. Studies have shown that access to school meals can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/jn/nxy267">improve attendance</a>, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/health_and_academics/pdf/factsheetDietaryBehaviors.pdf">academic performance</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.3386/w24986">behavior</a>.</p>
<h2>Less stigma</h2>
<p>Many children, especially those from low-income and minority families, eat up to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2016.11.016">half their daily calories</a> at school. For these families, the cost of school meals, usually between <a href="https://schoolnutrition.org/aboutschoolmeals/schoolmealtrendsstats/">US$2.48 and $2.74</a> depending on grade level, can add up quickly over a week, month or school year.</p>
<p>Children with <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/cn/unpaid-meal-charges">outstanding meal debts</a> could be <a href="https://www.eater.com/2019/5/22/18634237/lunch-shaming-students-meal-debt-american-schools">shamed</a>, refused a meal or provided a lower-cost alternative meal – such as a cheese sandwich, fruit and milk rather than the standard meal served to other students. </p>
<h2>Needed relief</h2>
<p>School meal programs are run like a business and depend heavily on federal <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/cn/rates-reimbursement">reimbursements</a> from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. When families can’t or don’t pay for meals served, schools may need to use their own funds to cover the losses. The Department of Agriculture <a href="https://frac.org/wp-content/uploads/frac-unpaid-meal-fees-policy-guide.pdf">prohibits using federal funds</a> to pay off unpaid meal debt. The Universal School Meals Program Act would <a href="https://www.sanders.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/Universal-School-Meals-Act-Summary.4.28.21.pdf">eliminate around $10.9 million of existing</a> unpaid school meal debt reported by <a href="https://schoolnutrition.org/uploadedFiles/6_News_Publications_and_Research/8_SNA_Research/2019-school-nutrition-trends-summary.pdf">75% of U.S. school districts</a>. </p>
<p>In addition to school meal debt, during the first full year of the pandemic, schools served <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/data/february-2021-keydata-report">fewer meals</a>, resulting in further losses in revenue. The meals served <a href="https://schoolnutrition.org/uploadedFiles/6_News_Publications_and_Research/8_SNA_Research/Impact-of-Covid-19-on-School-Nutrition-Programs-Back-to-School-2020.pdf">were more costly</a> due to packaging and personal protective equipment for staff. As a result, more than <a href="https://schoolnutrition.org/aboutschoolmeals/schoolmealtrendsstats/">50% of school meal programs</a> reported a financial loss in 2019-2020. An even greater number of programs report expecting a loss for the <a href="https://schoolnutrition.org/aboutschoolmeals/schoolmealtrendsstats/">2020-2021 school year</a>. </p>
<h2>Return on investment</h2>
<p>A <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13020670">national study</a> found that schools participating in universal free meal programs reduced their per-meal costs while maintaining nutritional quality of meals served. School meals can <a href="https://agriculture.vermont.gov/sites/agriculture/files/documents/Farm_to_School_Institution/Economic%20Contribution%20of%20Farm%20to%20School%20in%20Vermont%20.pdf">stimulate local economies</a> because they can <a href="http://www.farmtoschool.org/Resources/EconomicImpactReport.pdf">drive purchases from local farmers</a> and ranchers and <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520300033/the-labor-of-lunch">create jobs</a> in school nutrition, food production, sales and distribution. </p>
<p>[<em>Over 100,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>For school districts, switching to a universal model of meals for all children – regardless of income – is likely to reduce <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/child-nutrition-reporting-burden-analysis-study">administrative burdens</a>. Schools would no longer have to waste time on applications and meeting reporting requirements like they have to do under the current reimbursement model. They could focus on healthy meals and nutrition education instead. </p>
<p>I believe the return on investment from universal school lunches would benefit our country’s economic recovery from the pandemic as well as the health and well-being of our country’s children.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161957/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew J. Landry receives funding support from the National Institutes of Health. He is affiliated with the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics where he serves as a volunteer member of the Legislative and Public Policy Committee. He is also a member of the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior where he serves as an appointed member of the Advisory Committee on Public Policy. These organizations had no role in this article and the views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author.</span></em></p>Expanding free lunch programs could also reduce stigma for students, lower administrative burdens for schools and create jobs for communities.Matthew J. Landry, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Stanford UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1606742021-05-25T18:00:43Z2021-05-25T18:00:43ZWhy more public libraries are doubling as food distribution hubs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401974/original/file-20210520-17-dx88b3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=134%2C172%2C4857%2C2829&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Los Angeles Regional Food Bank held a distribution event at the LA county library's headquarters on Jan. 22, 2021.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/thousands-of-cars-lined-up-for-food-distribution-at-the-la-news-photo/1297847887">Brittany Murray/MediaNews Group via Long Beach Press-Telegram via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the summer of 2021, public libraries everywhere, from <a href="https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/local/boise-schools-to-offer-free-summer-meals-program/277-d57c581e-b580-436c-b4ef-a4e6bed7946b">Idaho</a> and <a href="https://www.chickashanews.com/community/chickasha-public-library-to-host-summer-food-program-june-1/article_bf0719c4-b734-11eb-b601-af350355bccd.html">Oklahoma</a> to <a href="https://www.themountainpress.com/news/community/summer-meals-feed-good-nutrition-to-kids-for-free/article_580163dc-122b-5b16-9feb-0d4a187b4892.html">Tennessee</a> and <a href="https://www.signalsaz.com/articles/prescott-valley-public-library-receives-over-50000-in-grants/">Arizona</a>, will <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/30/well/family/free-lunch-at-the-library.html">offer free meals</a> to families with children in their local communities. </p>
<p>What might look like a new role for libraries <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ131372">builds on their long tradition</a> of serving as <a href="https://theconversation.com/who-says-libraries-are-dying-they-are-evolving-into-spaces-for-innovation-44820">innovation spaces</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/state-library-victoria-proves-libraries-arent-just-about-books-theyre-about-community-128116">community centers</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/libraries-on-the-front-lines-of-the-homelessness-crisis-in-the-united-states-44453">sanctuaries for people who are homeless or mentally ill</a>.</p>
<p>I’ve been <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=7y5Jl3kAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">researching how public libraries</a> address <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-food-insecurity-152746">food insecurity</a> – what happens when households can’t acquire adequate food because they can’t afford it or can’t access it for other reasons. Across the board, these efforts emerge from community partnerships with organizations that include school districts and food banks.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0h6O-Mq8_g&feature=youtu.be">Kristin Warzocha</a>, president of the Greater Cleveland Food Bank, explained in 2016, “We have the food, and they have the patrons who need it.” </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/K0h6O-Mq8_g?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Libraries have been fighting food insecurity for years.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Lunch at the library</h2>
<p>The earliest example of this kind I’ve found dates back 35 years. In 1986, the Nelsonville branch of the Athens County Public Library in southeastern Ohio began <a href="https://woub.org/2014/07/21/community-group-teams-give-kids-free-summer-lunches/">serving federally funded lunches in the summertime</a> to children to ensure that they don’t go hungry.</p>
<p>That county has one of Ohio’s <a href="https://www.athensnews.com/news/local/athens-county-leads-the-state-in-food-insecurity/article_4b7f1d92-74e4-11e9-9f39-ab9fe1fcbcea.html">highest food-insecurity rates</a>, which helps explain why librarians there sought to provide <a href="https://calchallenge.org/early-learning-and-nutrition/">food access in tandem with summer learning activities</a>.</p>
<p>By 2019, <a href="https://data2017-10-10t174925817z-cacfp-sfsp.opendata.arcgis.com/search?owner=ChrisM%40cacfp_sfsp">over 2,000 U.S. public libraries</a> – about <a href="https://www.imls.gov/research-evaluation/data-collection/public-libraries-survey">1 in 10</a> – served summer meals. </p>
<p>This practice has largely remained below the radar. The official magazine of the <a href="https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/youth-matters-1/">American Library Association</a> didn’t mention this trend until 2008. Since then, though, growing <a href="https://lunchatthelibrary.org/">state</a> and <a href="https://www.imls.gov/blog/2014/04/libraries-and-museums-can-help-feed-children-summer">national</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/30/well/family/free-lunch-at-the-library.html">recognition and support</a> has begun to emerge.</p>
<h2>The COVID-19 pandemic</h2>
<p>When the coronavirus pandemic got underway, public libraries and their staff continued to fight <a href="https://doi.org/10.33137/ijidi.v3i4.33010">food insecurity</a>, even when their doors were closed.</p>
<p>Some library workers were <a href="https://www.sfexaminer.com/news-columnists/hundreds-of-sf-city-workers-take-on-emergency-roles/">reassigned to food banks</a> to help process and distribute donations. Others worked with food banks to hand out <a href="https://www.hcpl.net/blog/2020/07/food-bank-and-harris-county-public-libraries">grab-and-go meals</a> in library parking lots.</p>
<p>Still others established <a href="https://torontopubliclibrary.typepad.com/news_releases/2020/04/toronto-public-library-works-with-toronto-food-banks-to-extend-access-during-covid-19.html">emergency food pantries</a> at libraries.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1318688519469092865"}"></div></p>
<p>In St. Louis, the county public library system took part in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s <a href="https://callnewspapers.com/st-louis-county-library-named-a-top-innovator-among-urban-libraries-for-2020-response-to-pandemic/">Farmers to Families program</a>. Libraries everywhere, from <a href="https://twitter.com/JimSNews/status/1364958752408039430">Kentucky</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/311646715600866/posts/farmers-to-families-food-boxes-will-have-a-food-distribution-on-wednesday-23-dec/3578293138936191/">Vermont</a> to <a href="https://www.shareable.net/public-libraries-are-giving-away-an-insane-amount-of-free-food/">California</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/gwinnettlibrary/status/1318688519469092865">Georgia</a>, participated in the emergency national food distribution program too.</p>
<p>Many libraries have started to host small <a href="https://letsmovelibraries.org/library-pantries-feed-communities/">food pantries located outdoors, in little boxes with doors</a>. These sharing boxes are modeled on the “<a href="https://littlefreelibrary.org/">little free library</a>” movement. These <a href="https://medium.com/thoughtmatter/the-magic-of-libraries-9dbae7c4932e">micro-libraries</a> are usually simple cabinets fastened to posts and stocked with books anyone passing by can take for free. The <a href="https://www.littlefreepantry.org/">little free pantry</a> movement, which began in 2016 and seems to have <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/little-libraries-become-food-pantries-during-covid-19">expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic</a>, instead seeks to dispatch food to those in need.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1240091973907816449"}"></div></p>
<p>In 2021, by the middle of May, at least <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/meals4kids">491 libraries in 28 states had made plans to serve meals</a> to schoolchildren during their summer vacations. This number is only preliminary and will rise once more states report their data to the USDA.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 100,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160674/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Noah Lenstra does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>These efforts are growing due to the coronavirus pandemic. They involve partnerships with school districts, food banks and other institutions.Noah Lenstra, Assistant Professor of Library and Information Science, University of North Carolina – GreensboroLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1501152021-01-21T17:06:27Z2021-01-21T17:06:27ZGrowing up in lockdown: young people give their perspectives<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380063/original/file-20210121-23-1ex9t9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/girl-protective-mask-standing-behind-window-1843322770">Shutterstock/Fotyma</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Throughout the pandemic, decisions made by adults have had a significant impact on all aspects of young people’s lives, yet some teenagers feel their voice and experiences during the pandemic have not been heard. The political has become personal for many, leading some young people to become increasingly engaged with politics and involved in community action.</p>
<p>Research undertaken by my colleagues and I at the University of Huddersfield and consultancy <a href="https://www.ecorys.com/united-kingdom">Ecorys</a>, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, has been exploring young people’s experiences during lockdown, including their engagement and involvement with politics. The research project, <a href="https://www.guc19.com/">Growing up under COVID</a>, involves 70 young people aged 14-18 in the UK, Italy, Lebanon and Singapore.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.guc19.com/pdf/resource-bank/to-lockdown-and-back-research-report.pdf">study findings</a> provide a compelling critique of political decisions affecting young people while reinforcing the idea that young people need to be more centrally involved in decision making, especially during a crisis.</p>
<h2>A chance to connect</h2>
<p>Our research highlights that some young people feel their voices and concerns have not been acknowledged, that they have been prevented from speaking out and asking questions as a result of <a href="https://www.itv.com/news/2020-05-16/what-young-people-want-to-ask-the-government-about-its-coronavirus-strategy">their age</a>. Even when young people have taken the initiative to organise campaigns to write letters to leaders, they receive little response.</p>
<p>Where young people have experienced meaningful audiences with politicians – such as a Q&A session with Nicola Sturgeon, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TjJ71hfrX4">Scotland’s first minister</a> – these have been experienced positively. A 14-year-old girl in England told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Youth Parliament Devon had the chance to speak to the Children’s Commissioner for England, which was an amazing experience. She was doing a bit of almost an interview with us and … we had the opportunity to share our views and concerns and worries over the pandemic and what we thought wasn’t being done for young people … just even talking to her felt like we were making a difference.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Politicians taking the opportunity to connect with young people – beyond the imperative of informing decision-making – sends a positive message to young people that they are valued as citizens. And young people want more of it.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Young people with protest signs, some wearing masks" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/379533/original/file-20210119-15-1yyyjxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5184%2C3445&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/379533/original/file-20210119-15-1yyyjxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379533/original/file-20210119-15-1yyyjxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379533/original/file-20210119-15-1yyyjxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379533/original/file-20210119-15-1yyyjxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379533/original/file-20210119-15-1yyyjxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379533/original/file-20210119-15-1yyyjxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some young people have been politicised by the pandemic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-united-kingdom-august-16-2020-1796745988">Ilyas Tayfun Salci/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In response to perceived shortfalls and lack of accountability in political leadership during the pandemic, many of the young people we spoke to have developed increased levels of interest in politics and their own democratic roles. This has been enabled by social media and fuelled by a growing awareness of real life events unfolding around them.</p>
<p>The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and, in the UK, the increasing hardship experienced by many families and the campaign for free school meals were particular touchstones. Aisha, aged 17, commented that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I was disgusted to find out that MPs rejected Marcus Rashford’s campaign to extend free school meals over the summer … You’d think that with all the families currently struggling financially … the government would be more willing to help out.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Far from assumptions that they are too young to understand or contribute to political decision making, young people can be acutely aware of what is happening, are concerned about the injustices that are increasingly evident and want their right to contribute as citizens in democratic processes <a href="https://www.ukyouth.org/2020/04/30/covid-19-and-the-need-for-youth-voices/">to be recognised</a>. </p>
<p>Amelia, aged 17, said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>All we want is to be heard, not ignored and have decisions made for us by people that probably are no more qualified than us. Politics seems a lot like a hit and run these days - they don’t listen, then screw something up and … instead of addressing it they run off.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Instead, young people are seeing new spaces to exercise their voice and political agency. James, aged 15, said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>During this global pandemic I think young people have shown despite adversity, we can stand together for a common cause and for what is right… examples being BLM -… and the protests [over] GCSE and A Levels [results].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>One of the most inspiring findings from the project has been how young people have engaged directly in community initiatives. One young person reflected:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[I] wanted to get involved in more things and feel I’m helping in some way. I didn’t want to just be sitting around when I know that there are some things I can do. I was volunteering in the village, calling up elderly people whose families are quite far away to check in on them weekly, and just got involved in lots of other projects.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The value of young people’s contribution to society is clear. As Amelia states:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I want decision makers to know they have the power to listen to us and together we can make great change, … our voices do not need to be louder; they are loud enough to those that choose to listen. Even the quietest ones.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is the time for us to start taking young people seriously, listen to what they are telling us and support their involvement as a force for change. There are no alternatives for building sustainable, inclusive and democratic futures.</p>
<p><em>Names have been changed</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150115/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Barry Percy-Smith receives funding from the Nuffield Foundation for this project. University of Huddersfield are working in partnership with the consultancy Ecorys and funded by the Nuffield Foundation. </span></em></p>Some young people feel their voices and experiences during the pandemic have not been heard.Barry Percy-Smith, Professor of Childhood Youth and Participatory Practice, University of HuddersfieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1531602021-01-14T13:07:45Z2021-01-14T13:07:45ZFree school meal food parcels: these are the nutrients children should be getting<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378640/original/file-20210113-13-qzmwya.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C0%2C5137%2C3432&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/two-young-school-kids-eating-their-1177724500">Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Debate over the provision of free school meals in England – which has erupted at several points during the past year – resurfaced once again this week. Parents reported that £30 vouchers, intended for the purchase of school lunches for two weeks, had been replaced with food boxes which appeared to contain far less than £30 worth of food. </p>
<p>Images circulating on social media <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/marcus-rashford-condemns-unacceptable-free-school-meal-packages-v6vtxh2fq">prompted outcry</a> and a commitment from the government to return to the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/jan/13/fresh-u-turn-over-free-school-meals-as-labour-criticises-guidance-on-parcels">voucher system</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1348646428084760576"}"></div></p>
<p>Although the parcel pictured in the tweet above has some appropriate foods in it, there is a clear <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/the-eatwell-guide/">lack of variety</a>. The parcel certainly contains nowhere near the dietary recommendations for a child. There is a high proportion of complex carbohydrates, but a real lack of key essential nutrients: protein, fat, vitamins and minerals. </p>
<p>The importance of diet to childrens’ development cannot be overstated. They need optimal nutrition to meet the appropriate weight and growth for their age, the normal development of internal organs and the maturation of the digestive system. A healthy diet is required to maintain their immune system, and for neurological, cognitive and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK148967/">physical development</a>.</p>
<p>Furthermore, a bad diet in childhood can have significant repercussions. Research has shown a link between diets high in saturated fat, processed foods and refined carbohydrates and poor mental health in both <a href="https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/a-to-z/d/diet-and-mental-health">children and adolescents</a>. </p>
<p>Another study has identified a link between <a href="https://www.sleepreviewmag.com/sleep-disorders/insomnia/nutrition-impact-sleep-disorders/">nutrient deficiency and poor sleep</a>. Adequate sleep is vital in childhood: it affects mental and physical health, which in turn will have an impact on learning, memory, <a href="https://www.sleepfoundation.org/children-and-sleep">mood and happiness</a>. </p>
<p>Children continue to grow until their late teens, and so have a higher energy and nutrient requirement for their body size in relation to adults. Nutrient requirements change throughout childhood, but children have an increased requirement for <a href="https://www.healthknowledge.org.uk/public-health-textbook/disease-causation-diagnostic/2e-health-social-behaviour/drvs">protein, vitamins and minerals</a>. </p>
<p>Adolescence is a time of <a href="https://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/teen/nutrition/Pages/A-Teenagers-Nutritional-Needs.aspx">rapid growth and development</a>, and so the demand for most nutrients is high. There is little difference in the nutrient requirements between girls and boys, though calorie – energy – intake requirements are <a href="https://www.supersavvyme.co.uk/health/healthy-eating/nutrition-for-boys-over-10-and-teenagers">higher for boys</a>.</p>
<h2>The right foods</h2>
<p>Children and teenagers need to be provided with foods and drinks that can provide adequate energy and nutrients for their increased <a href="https://www.stanfordchildrens.org/en/topic/default?id=kids-need-their-nutrients--1-19820">physical, emotional and cognitive needs</a>. Complex carbohydrates <a href="https://theconversation.com/potatoes-are-out-of-favour-but-they-have-strong-roots-in-a-healthy-lifestyle-101911">such as potatoes</a>, bread, rice and pasta are a good source of energy. They contain fibre and essential vitamins and minerals required for <a href="https://www.rchsd.org/health-articles/carbohydrates-sugar-and-your-child/">growth and development</a>. </p>
<p>Children should be encouraged to eat at least <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/change4life/food-facts/five-a-day">five portions</a> of fruit and vegetables a day, with the main focus on vegetables. Fruit and vegetables are a good source of vitamins and minerals, including folate, <a href="https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Folate-HealthProfessional/">a B vitamin</a> which is needed to make red and white blood cells in the bone marrow, convert carbohydrates into energy and produce DNA and RNA for growth and development. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1348736192729251854"}"></div></p>
<p>Fruit and vegetables also provide <a href="https://health.clevelandclinic.org/the-benefits-of-vitamin-c-why-your-child-needs-it/">vitamin C</a>, which aids in the development of healthy bones and teeth and supports the body’s immune system, and potassium, which is necessary for the normal functioning of all cells. They also help to <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/healthy-eating-for-kids-what-counts-as-five-a-day_uk_5866a118e4b0f24da6e9028d">maintain a healthy gut</a>.</p>
<p>Meat, beans, pulses, fish and eggs are rich sources of protein, vitamins and minerals. It is recommended that children eat two portions of fish a week, one at least being oily fish. Eggs are an excellent <a href="https://theconversation.com/eight-cracking-facts-about-eggs-150797">source of nutrients</a> and can be incorporated into various meals at any time of the day. Although children often love foods such as sausages, bacon and reformed meat products, these should be limited as they are high in fat and salt. </p>
<p>Milk and dairy foods are a good source of calcium, vitamins A and D, protein and fat, and as such are an important element of a child’s diet. Calcium in particular is needed to help the development of strong bones and for nerve and muscle function, while Vitamin D is required to help absorb calcium, and this should be taken in supplement form throughout <a href="https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/vitamin-d-deficiency-in-children/">the winter months</a>. </p>
<p>Snacks and drinks are also important to consider, and parents should think carefully about what their child is <a href="https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/healthy-eating-children">snacking on</a>. Unhealthy snacks include crisps, sweets, french fries and sugary drinks. Examples of <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/change4life/food-facts/healthier-snacks-for-kids">healthy snacks</a> are cut up fruit and vegetables, nuts, plain popcorn, yoghurt and cheese. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1332202648905392128"}"></div></p>
<p>Changing the food boxes back to vouchers gives parents the ability to choose food for their children. However, easily accessible ready meals and takeaways have meant that many people, throughout society, lack the ability to cook healthy and nutritious meals or know how to use leftovers to <a href="https://www.goodfood.com.au/good-health/kitchen-confidence--how-we-lost-our-food-skills-and-how-to-get-them-back-20180621-h11o2r">produce a meal</a>. </p>
<p>Recipe cards or links to how to cook knowledgeably would be a good addition to the provision of food vouchers, along with information on which foodstuffs should be kept as basics in order to <a href="https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/heart-matters-magazine/nutrition/cooking-skills/store-cupboard-meals/sixteen-store-cupboard-staples">cook meals from scratch</a>. </p>
<p>It is imperative that more is done to help people know how and what to cook. Developing healthy eating habits and an interest in food from an early age can help promote a lifelong enjoyment of healthy and nutritious food.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153160/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hazel Flight does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The importance of diet to a child’s development cannot be overstated.Hazel Flight, Programme Lead Nutrition and Health, Edge Hill UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1491302020-11-06T16:05:40Z2020-11-06T16:05:40ZFree school meals debate shows how Victorian attitudes about undeserving poor persist<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367791/original/file-20201105-15-1oiie95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5751%2C3828&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/girl-holding-tray-delicious-food-school-687083455">Africa Studio/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The campaign led by footballer Marcus Rashford to provide lunches for children over a school holiday period in England has brought discussions over poverty and state help into the spotlight. </p>
<p>Central to this debate is an ideological position on how people view poverty: whether it is seen to be the fault of individuals and the choices they have made, or the result of policy failings. </p>
<p>The concept of the deserving or undeserving poor stretches back to the Victorian age. However, <a href="https://research.bangor.ac.uk/portal/files/22198649/2018_Beck_D_PhD.pdf">my research</a> on food poverty shows that these attitudes are still alive today, and very much a part of how those in receipt of social security are viewed.</p>
<h2>Who to help</h2>
<p>The difference between the deserving and undeserving poor was established in the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/bjsw/article/46/1/1/2495107">Poor Law of 1834</a>. The deserving poor were those understood to be hard working people, who through no fault of their own found themselves in hardship. The key word here is that they were hardworking, and so deserved state help. </p>
<p>The undeserving poor, on the other hand, were given this label due to an assessment of their perceived indolence. They were not trying hard enough to relieve their own hardship, which made them less deserving of help.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="Black and white photo of man in suit and tie" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367780/original/file-20201105-17-1319br2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367780/original/file-20201105-17-1319br2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367780/original/file-20201105-17-1319br2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367780/original/file-20201105-17-1319br2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367780/original/file-20201105-17-1319br2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=698&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367780/original/file-20201105-17-1319br2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=698&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367780/original/file-20201105-17-1319br2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=698&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">William Beveridge.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Beveridge_D_17134.jpg">British Government/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The introduction of the <a href="https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/cabinetpapers/alevelstudies/welfare-state.htm#:%7E:text=After%20the%20Second%20World%20War,sources%20across%20this%20time%20period.">welfare state</a> after the second world war should have put an end to this division. Following the proposals of economist Sir William Beveridge, welfare was introduced as a right: all workers would contribute and all in need would benefit. However, previous attitudes to poverty persist. </p>
<p>The idea of the deserving and undeserving poor is linked to our understanding of the causes of poverty: whether it is the result of “agency” or “structure”. Agency refers to an individual’s actions, while structure is the forces in society which may have led to an individual’s poverty. </p>
<p>If your poverty is due to no fault of your own – structure – then you are often seen as deserving of help. However, if your poverty is perceived to be of your own making – agency – then many people see this as being less deserving of help.</p>
<h2>A fine line</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/tpp/jpsj/2020/00000028/00000003/art00005">My research</a> on the rise of food banks uncovered an unattractive side to the system of support which surrounds the good work they do. This was linked to the idea of the deserving and the undeserving poor. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Hands putting food items into cardboard boxes" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367777/original/file-20201105-15-1tg584.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C1%2C998%2C664&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367777/original/file-20201105-15-1tg584.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367777/original/file-20201105-15-1tg584.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367777/original/file-20201105-15-1tg584.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367777/original/file-20201105-15-1tg584.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367777/original/file-20201105-15-1tg584.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367777/original/file-20201105-15-1tg584.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Food bank donations largely come from the public.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cardboard-boxes-being-filled-food-donations-1714396189">Dragana Gordic/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Food bank food is generally donated by the public. There was a fear expressed by the participants in my study – both food bank staff and referring agents – that if food banks were seen to be helping too many of the undeserving poor, public donations of food might reduce. As one referral agent commented, “People would say, well, that’s not who I want my food to go to.”</p>
<p>However, the volunteers I spoke with were steadfast in their position that, if someone needed help, they were willing and able to provide it. </p>
<p>The recent parliamentary vote on free school meals over the half term led to comments from both <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/oct/24/ben-bradley-under-pressure-to-apologise-over-free-school-meals-tweets?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other">politicians</a> and the general public about the agency of poverty and the deserving nature of the food poor. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1321830658986168326"}"></div></p>
<p>One since-deleted Tweet advised that poor people could simply survive by buying a £2 <a href="https://www.indy100.com/article/free-school-meals-tories-aldi-supermarket-marcus-rashford-boris-johnson-9723537">chicken from Aldi</a> and making it last several days. The implication was a failure of agency – that those in poverty do not help themselves. </p>
<p>Others suggested that if people spent money on amenities like Sky TV or a manicure, they did not deserve help to feed their children: essentially, they were the undeserving poor, whose choices had resulted in food poverty. These are some of the comments I regularly encounter when I discuss my research on food poverty with members of the general public.</p>
<p>What is important to reflect upon here, however, is that the reason for choosing a big television to watch Sky on may be because a person’s income is not high enough to take a nice holiday break in the sun. Their respite from the structural drudgery of low income is to relax at night watching Sky TV. </p>
<p>Attitudes like this demonstrate how low-income communities suffer at the hands of those who “punch down”, dispensing judgement or instructing them how to live without having direct experience of poverty. As my research on the food insecure shows, sometimes the public view of agency-driven poverty masks very real structural causes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149130/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dave Beck does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Your view depends on whether you see poverty as the result of individual or policy failings.Dave Beck, Lecturer of Social Policy, University of SalfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1486602020-10-23T15:44:31Z2020-10-23T15:44:31ZFree school meals: the lifelong impact of childhood food poverty<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365233/original/file-20201023-20-1v5tp8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=40%2C0%2C4500%2C2991&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Marcus Rashford. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://webgate.epa.eu/?20370008538715063107&SCOPE=QUEUE&EVENT=DISPLAY&LIGHTBOX=13289">EPA-EFE/Mike Hewitt/NMC/Pool</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The coronavirus pandemic has had a devastating impact on household food security in the UK. Five million families have encountered food insecurity, and 200,000 children are <a href="https://www.sustainweb.org/news/may20_children_skip_meals_in_covid19_lockdown/">missing meals every day</a>. </p>
<p>Despite a campaign led by Manchester United and England footballer Marcus Rashford, the UK government has voted against extending free school meals to children during the autumn half-term holiday and future holidays until Easter 2021. Rashford is now leading a concerted effort from councils, charities and businesses to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/oct/23/marcus-rashford-public-campaign-end-child-food-poverty-covid-food-donations-mp-reject-free-school-meals">provide free meals</a> over the school holiday.</p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03004279.2019.1602155?src=recsys&journalCode=rett20">Holiday hunger</a>” – when children go without the food normally provided to families during school term time – is an increasingly recognised issue. If children are not given the nutrition they need, there are long-term effects on their health.</p>
<h2>Mind and body</h2>
<p>In the short term, children who are living in food-insecure families are more likely to suffer from <a href="https://foodfoundation.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Childrens-Future-Food-Inquiry-report.pdf">education losses</a>. <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/summer-learning-loss-what-is-it-and-what-can-we-do-about-it/">Research from the US</a> showed that after the summer holidays, children had lost an average of one month’s worth of skills learned at school, and that poorer children may fare worst.</p>
<p>When children do not have enough to eat, they are less likely to achieve their developmental goals on time, or to achieve their <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4373582/">potential at school</a>.</p>
<p>Children experiencing food insecurity are more likely to suffer from <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30475559/">anxiety and stress</a>, and hunger in childhood has been linked to depression and suicidal episodes in <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4373582/">teenagers</a>. Hunger is also linked to increased levels of <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4373582/">chronic illnesses</a> such as asthma. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Children talking and eating packed lunches at a table" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365234/original/file-20201023-13-193qr6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365234/original/file-20201023-13-193qr6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365234/original/file-20201023-13-193qr6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365234/original/file-20201023-13-193qr6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365234/original/file-20201023-13-193qr6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365234/original/file-20201023-13-193qr6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365234/original/file-20201023-13-193qr6a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Free school meals are a vital resource for many families.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-school-kids-eating-lunch-talking-1177724494">Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>Children require essential nutrients from food, such as zinc, iron, selenium, protein and iodine, to support their brain growth. The supply of these nutrients affects the functioning adult the <a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/brain-food-children-nutrition-2018012313168">child will become</a>.</p>
<p>Another vital nutrient is vitamin D, found in foods such as oily fish, red meat and egg yolks. Vitamin D is essential for bone growth in children, and it is linked to enhanced protection against illnesses by reducing inflammation and <a href="https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminD-HealthProfessional/">promoting immune function</a>. Research has also shown that vitamin D may protect against <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/356/bmj.i6583">respiratory illnesses</a>. In the UK, it has been estimated that 16% of children do not have enough <a href="https://www.nuh.nhs.uk/vitamin-d-deficiency-in-children/#:%7E:text=It%20is%20estimated%20that%2016,to%20myriad%20signs%20and%20symptoms">vitamin D</a>.</p>
<p>Poor nutrition has an impact <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0033350611003660?casa_token=9agn3VI91A0AAAAA:lkJ6bBMuSrCnCqeTkdJYOnI5KcPcgc9NwkC1XtpAQrvgnCOz6bMB9e_cyJILqlmD8qNPvw">across generations</a>. Mothers who are lacking in iron are more likely to have children who do not grow well during pregnancy and are born with <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4375689/">low birth weight</a>. These infants often have <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4375689/">developmental problems</a> and are more likely to suffer from infectious diseases and death in childhood.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/child-malnutrition-lessons-from-the-victorian-age-142093">Child malnutrition: lessons from the Victorian age</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Mothers who were undernourished as children are also more likely to have <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0140-6736%2807%2961692-4">underweight babies</a>. The long-term impacts of low birth weight are stark, and include <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4608552/">increased rates</a> of high blood pressure, diabetes, coronary artery disease and obesity. Research has also found a link between low birth weight and <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/307/6918/1519">heart disease in adults</a>.</p>
<h2>Five a day</h2>
<p>The government advises that children need to eat a balanced diet. This is set out in the <a href="https://campaignresources.phe.gov.uk/schools/resources/eatwell-guide">Eatwell guidelines</a> developed by Public Health England. The guidelines suggest eating at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day. Fruit and veg contain essential nutrients such as zinc and iron, which help the body grow and <a href="https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/healthy-eating-children">fight diseases</a>. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CSOtIfh82Ns?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Eatwell guidelines.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For many families, though, meeting this target is not easy. In fact, a quarter of secondary school children in the UK eat less than <a href="https://foodfoundation.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/FF-Veg-Doc-V5.pdf">one portion of fruit or vegetables a day</a>. </p>
<p>In 2018, the <a href="https://foodfoundation.org.uk/">Food Foundation</a> charity published a report showing that following the Eatwell guide was likely to be unaffordable for families living on a low income. The report calculated that families earning less than £15,860 would need to spend 42% of their income (after housing) on food to meet the <a href="https://foodfoundation.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Affordability-of-the-Eatwell-Guide_Final_EMBARGOED-Version.pdf">Eatwell guidelines</a>. </p>
<p>The evidence is clear: children not eating a healthy diet will not perform as well at school as those who are well nourished. They are more likely to suffer from mental health problems such as stress, and as they age they will be more likely to suffer from diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease and obesity. </p>
<p>The coronavirus pandemic has left many parents struggling to feed their children. The UK is faced with the challenge of how to protect its most vulnerable population.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148660/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Regina Keith is affiliated with World Public Health Nutrition Association on their executive committee which supports the right to food through strengthening the capacity of Public Health Nutritionists. </span></em></p>If children are not given the nutrition they need, there are long-term effects on their health.Regina Keith, Senior Lecturer in Food, Nutrition and Public Health, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1476982020-10-15T06:26:59Z2020-10-15T06:26:59ZSouth Africa’s COVID-19 hunger relief efforts are working: why they must continue<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362384/original/file-20201008-20-10era4z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A women receives bread at the 'Hunger Has No Religion' feeding scheme run by Muslims in Johannesburg, South Africa.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since the year 2000, South Africa has made big strides in lowering levels of both child and adult hunger, as well as improving food security for many poor families. Research has shown that these improvements were <a href="https://www.uj.ac.za/faculties/humanities/csda/Documents/PSPPD%20Family%20contexts%20full%20report_Patel_single%20web%20pages.pdf">largely driven</a> by the expansion of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africa-does-child-support-grants-well-but-not-other-welfare-services-64696">child support grant</a>. </p>
<p>Around <a href="https://www.sassa.gov.za/annual%20reports/Documents/SASSA%20Annual%20Report%202018-2019.pdf">12.5 million</a> of these grants are paid each month and their many positive effects – including the role they play in tackling household hunger – have been <a href="https://www.unicef.org/evaldatabase/files/The_South_African_Child_Support_Grant_Impact_Assessment.pdf">well-documented</a> by researchers.</p>
<p>But many of the improvements related to hunger and food security recorded between 2000 and 2018 were almost entirely reversed by South Africa’s <a href="https://www.gov.za/speeches/president-cyril-ramaphosa-extension-coronavirus-covid-19-lockdown-end-april-9-apr-2020-0000">hard lockdown</a> and the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>
<p>This was one of the most worrying findings from <a href="https://cramsurvey.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Wills-household-resource-flows-and-food-poverty-during-South-Africa%E2%80%99s-lockdown-2.pdf">research</a> I conducted with my colleagues Professor Servaas van der Berg, Dr Gabrielle Wills and Bokang Mpeta, all of Stellenbosch University, as part of the first wave of the National Income Dynamics Study-Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (<a href="https://cramsurvey.org/">NIDS-CRAM</a>). This research was based on data collected between May 7th and June 27th 2020.</p>
<p>Professor van der Berg, Stellenbosch University and researcher Grace Bridgman and I recently completed a <a href="https://cramsurvey.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/3.-Bridgman-G.-Van-der-Berg-S.-_-Patel-L.-2020-Hunger-in-South-Africa-during-2020-Results-from-Wave-2-of-NIDS-CRAM.pdf">policy report</a> based on the second wave of NIDS-CRAM data. This was collected between July 13th and August 3rd and by then, the hard lockdown had been <a href="https://www.gov.za/speeches/president-cyril-ramaphosa-developments-south-africa%E2%80%99s-risk-adjusted-strategy-manage-spread">relaxed somewhat</a>. </p>
<h2>Some improvements</h2>
<p>The more recent data showed some improvements in adult and child hunger, as well as food security. In Wave 1, 22% of respondents reported that someone in their household had gone hungry in May and June; by Wave 2, this figure had dropped to 16%. Child hunger dropped from 15% in wave 1 to 11% in wave 2. The number of households that ran out of money for food also fell: from 47% in April to 37% in June.</p>
<p>Despite these improvements, though, it’s clear that hunger and food insecurity remain at disturbingly high levels in South African households. This is due to the slow recovery of the economy and that the jobs lost in Wave 1 have not returned in Wave 2. Although most groups experienced some “bounce-back” between April and June, employment levels remain <a href="https://cramsurvey.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/1.-Spaull-et-al.-NIDS-CRAM-Wave-2-Synthesis-Findings..pdf">well below February levels</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-human-rights-should-guide-responses-to-the-global-pandemic-147225">Why human rights should guide responses to the global pandemic</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In view of the dismal employment scenario, the government should continue some of the support it introduced at the start of lockdown, in March. While long-term policy interventions are being considered by government, greater efforts should also be made that bring together the state, civil society, the private sector, philanthropic organisations, community and faith-based groups to ensure that social relief efforts continue to be provided. </p>
<h2>Consequences of hunger</h2>
<p>Hunger hurts more than just individuals and families that struggle to buy food: its effects ripple broadly into society, with long-term consequences.</p>
<p>Child stunting, whether through malnutrition or under-nutrition, can <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Leila_Patel/publication/323280353_Family_Contexts_Child_Support_Grants_and_Child_Well-being_in_South_Africa/links/5a8c12980f7e9b1a955676aa/Family-Contexts-Child-Support-Grants-and-Child-Well-being-in-South-Africa.pdf">alter a person’s entire life</a>. Mental health challenges, as well as poor school attendance and performance, have been <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Leila_Patel/publication/323280353_Family_Contexts_Child_Support_Grants_and_Child_Well-being_in_South_Africa/links/5a8c12980f7e9b1a955676aa/Family-Contexts-Child-Support-Grants-and-Child-Well-being-in-South-Africa.pdf">linked</a> to childhood hunger. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749379719300364">link</a> between food insecurity and intimate partner violence has also been documented by researchers. Hunger makes it difficult for people to participate meaningfully in the economy and society.</p>
<p>The government knows this, and it knew that the lockdown and the pandemic would hit households’ ability to survive. So, it introduced several temporary emergency social support measures when the lockdown and associated “state of disaster” began <a href="https://www.gov.za/speeches/president-cyril-ramaphosa-extension-coronavirus-covid-19-lockdown-end-april-9-apr-2020-0000">on March 27th</a>.</p>
<p>Three of these have been central to relief efforts: first, the provision of a temporary supplementary social assistance benefit, a <a href="https://cramsurvey.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/3.-Bridgman-G.-Van-der-Berg-S.-_-Patel-L.-2020-Hunger-in-South-Africa-during-2020-Results-from-Wave-2-of-NIDS-CRAM.pdf">“top-up” policy</a> to existing social grants for different beneficiary categories; second, the creation of a <a href="https://www.gov.za/services/social-benefits/social-relief-distress">COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress</a> grant; and, finally, the <a href="https://www.gov.za/documents/disaster-management-act-directive-coronavirus-covid19-temporary-employee-employer-relief">Temporary Employee/Employer Relief Scheme</a>.</p>
<p>At the same time, localised social relief efforts were set up in the form of <a href="https://cramsurvey.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Wills-household-resource-flows-and-food-poverty-during-South-Africa%E2%80%99s-lockdown-2.pdf">emergency food assistance</a>. This was delivered by the government, NGOs, faith-based organisations, the private sector and philanthropic initiatives.</p>
<p>How have these responses helped?</p>
<h2>Assessing responses</h2>
<p>Our findings suggest that the Temporary Employee/Employer Relief Scheme was particularly vital to lifting many households out of food insecurity between July and August. This is echoed in <a href="http://www.dpru.uct.ac.za/sites/default/files/image_tool/images/36/Publications/Working_Papers/DPRU%20WP202006.pdf">research</a> by the University of Cape Town’s Development Policy Research Unit.</p>
<p>It posited that the reduction in hunger between the two waves of NIDS-CRAM may have been because of someone getting or returning to a job, or due to the expansion of social protection through the two new grants (Temporary Employee/Employer Relief Scheme and the COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress).</p>
<p>Another important step towards tackling hunger was the reintroduction of the National Schools Nutrition Programme <a href="http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZAGPPHC/2020/306.pdf">in July</a>. This provides meals to more than <a href="https://foodsecurity.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/CoE-FS-WP4-School-Feeding-in-South-Africa-11-jun-18.pdf">9 million pupils</a>. It was closed, as were schools, during the hard lockdown. The programme’s return may have played a role in reducing child hunger. Public and private food assistance likely helped, too.</p>
<p>The government had planned to end the grant top-ups and the COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress at the end of October. This would have been a disaster, especially given the <a href="https://www.moneyweb.co.za/news/economy/sa-shed-2-2-million-jobs-in-the-second-quarter/">high number of jobs lost</a> due to the COVID-19 crisis. The grant has been extended <a href="https://www.news24.com/fin24/economy/live-ramaphosa-presents-economic-rescue-plan-to-parliament-20201015">by three months</a>. </p>
<p>These interventions must continue alongside existing social insurance, like the Unemployment Insurance Fund, the Temporary Employee/Employer Relief Scheme as well as social relief efforts like the distribution of food parcels. Such efforts must continue until there is consistent evidence of economic recovery and stabilisation in households.</p>
<h2>Going forward</h2>
<p>The COVID-19 pandemic isn’t even nearly over. Some countries and regions are instituting <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54383548">new lockdowns</a> and reporting or bracing for <a href="https://www.india.com/news/world/second-wave-of-virus-as-covid-threatens-to-plague-world-again-many-countries-go-back-to-imposing-lockdown-check-here-4165492/">new waves</a> of the virus. </p>
<p>South Africans continue to be infected and affected by the virus and its effects.</p>
<p>While the government is facing a tough budget situation, the country faces a serious hunger crisis. South Africa simply cannot let up on the provision of the additional social grants and emergency relief. </p>
<p><em>The article was updated to include the announcement of the <a href="https://www.news24.com/fin24/economy/live-ramaphosa-presents-economic-rescue-plan-to-parliament-20201015">extension</a> of the special covid-19 relief grant by President Cyril Ramaphosa</em>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147698/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leila Patel receives funding from the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the National Research Foundation (NRF) for the South African Research Chair in Welfare and Social Development and from the University of Johannesburg. </span></em></p>Despite the success of relief efforts by the government and civil society, it’s clear that hunger and food insecurity remain at disturbingly high levels in households.Leila Patel, Professor of Social Development Studies, University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1408962020-06-17T10:36:13Z2020-06-17T10:36:13ZMarcus Rashford: a brief history of free school meals in the UK<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342402/original/file-20200617-94040-1soovy3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C17%2C3783%2C2503&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Marcus Rashford.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/marcus-rashford-manchester-united-during-match-1256741866">Jose Breton- Pics Action/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Following a campaign led by the England and Manchester United footballer <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53065806">Marcus Rashford</a>, the UK government has committed to providing free school meals to children in England during the 2020 summer holidays. </p>
<p>The coronavirus pandemic has had a devastating impact on household food security. A poll by the charity the Food Foundation has found that 200,000 children are now <a href="https://foodfoundation.org.uk/vulnerable_groups/new-poll-data-more-than-five-million-people-in-households-with-children-have-experienced-food-insecurity-since-lockdown-began/">missing meals</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1272302819819823105"}"></div></p>
<p>This situation had been likely to worsen during the school holidays. Holiday hunger – when children lack adequate nutrition without the free meals provided at school – is a pressing issue. </p>
<p>The decision by the government to continue to provide free school meals over the summer holidays is extremely welcome. However, the U-turn on the issue reflects the convoluted history of the provision of free meals for children in the UK. </p>
<h2>A long history</h2>
<p>School meals have a long history in the UK. When compulsory education was introduced in the 1870s, thousands of poor children went to school hungry. The <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1365-277X.2008.00941">city of Manchester</a> started giving some children meals in 1879 and the <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1906/57/enacted">1906 Education Act</a> allowed authorities to provide meals, but very few did. </p>
<p>In 1921, criteria were set regarding which children were able to have school meals. Again, though, the act was not implemented by local authorities. A survey carried out in 1936 found that in 26 Local Education Authorities where unemployment was above 25%, <a href="http://www.educationengland.org.uk/articles/22food.html">less than 15,000 children</a> – out of a school-age population of half a million – were receiving free meals at school.</p>
<p>It was not until 1944 that laws were passed which required all local authorities to provide <a href="http://www.foodactive.org.uk/infant-school-meals-a-brief-history-and-why-we-need-to-save-them/">free nutritious meals</a> for school children. In 1946, free milk for all children was introduced. These provisions ensured essential nutrition for thousands of children. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342397/original/file-20200617-94086-rm7tl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342397/original/file-20200617-94086-rm7tl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342397/original/file-20200617-94086-rm7tl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342397/original/file-20200617-94086-rm7tl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342397/original/file-20200617-94086-rm7tl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=738&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342397/original/file-20200617-94086-rm7tl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=738&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342397/original/file-20200617-94086-rm7tl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=738&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A UK Ministry of Information image of school children drinking milk, 1944.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Girls_at_Baldock_County_Council_School_in_Hertfordshire_enjoy_a_drink_of_milk_during_a_break_in_the_school_day_in_1944._D20552.jpg">Ministry of Information Photo Division Photographer / Public domain</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 1980, Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/386237.stm">ended the provision of universal free milk</a> (as education secretary, Thatcher had stopped free milk for the over sevens in 1971). A new Education Act was introduced which halted the minimum nutrition requirement for school meals. Local education authorities only had to ensure the provision of food for children of families receiving supplementary benefits and family income support. </p>
<h2>Changing food habits</h2>
<p>Thatcher encouraged the privatisation of the school meals services. The <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1365-277X.2008.00941.x">Competitive Tendering Act</a> allowed private companies to bid to provide school meals. These changes, without adequate measures to ensure minimum standards of nutrition, resulted in meals that were cheap rather than nutritious. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/effects-1986-social-security-act-family-incomes#:%7E:text=The%201986%20Act%20altered%20means,reprioritising%20different%20types%20of%20families.&text=A%20team%20at%20the%20London,%2F88%20and%201990%2F91.">1986 Social Security Act</a> cut the numbers of children who were eligible for free school meals at a time when unemployment and inflation were rising. Aggressive advertising of unhealthy foods by celebrities encouraged children to eat increasingly unhealthy processed foods. This food was sold cheaply by supermarkets, making it harder for parents to budget for more expensive fruit and vegetables for their families. </p>
<p>This changing food pattern – towards fatty, sugary, and highly processed foods – has become known as the “<a href="https://www.foodsource.org.uk/building-blocks/what-nutrition-transition">nutrition transition</a>”. The growing trend towards unhealthy food, including in schools, resulted in the children of the 1990s being assessed as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2000/may/23/schools.johncrace">poorly nourished</a> when compared to the children of the 1950s. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342401/original/file-20200617-94070-l94grd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342401/original/file-20200617-94070-l94grd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342401/original/file-20200617-94070-l94grd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342401/original/file-20200617-94070-l94grd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342401/original/file-20200617-94070-l94grd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342401/original/file-20200617-94070-l94grd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342401/original/file-20200617-94070-l94grd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The shift towards processed foods is known as the ‘nutrition transition’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/reading-uk-january-14-2020-crisps-1615263604">Matthew Ashmore/Shutterstock</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Inadequate investment in the health and nutrition of children continues to have negative impacts on health and achievement at school, especially for children from low-income families. </p>
<p>It was not until April 2001 that school meals were again called to adhere to nutritional standards. But aggressive marketing of unhealthy low-cost food has also resulted in increasing childhood obesity levels, despite <a href="http://www.educationengland.org.uk/articles/22food.html">rising levels of hunger</a> in the poorest families.</p>
<h2>Food insecurity</h2>
<p>The UK established the Food Standards Agency in 2000 to promote healthy eating practices, with many local governments developing healthy eating policies. This was bolstered by new regulations on healthy food in schools, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-30644523">in part as a response</a> to a campaign by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver. </p>
<p>But fewer children were entitled to free school meals, while unhealthy food had become cheaper and more easily available. Ten years of austerity and cuts to local government budgets have resulted in increased levels of inequality and growing childhood poverty. The coronavirus pandemic will only deepen these challenges. </p>
<p>There is evidence that children who are living in food-insecure families are more likely to suffer from <a href="https://foodfoundation.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Childrens-Future-Food-Inquiry-report.pdf">education losses</a>. <a href="https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/177778/eating-more-fruits-vegetables-prevent-millions/">Although research has shown</a> the importance of eating between five and ten portions of fruit and vegetables each day, more than a quarter of UK children eat less than <a href="https://foodfoundation.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/FF-Veg-Doc-V5.pdf">one portion a day</a>. </p>
<p>Some researchers believe that we should invest in “<a href="http://www.historyandpolicy.org/policy-papers/papers/the-provision-of-school-meals-since-1906-progress-or-a-recipe-for-disaster">gold standards</a>” for nutritious school meals. <a href="https://www.sustainweb.org/childrensfoodcampaign/free_school_meals/">Other campaigns suggest</a> that all primary school children should have free school meals. </p>
<p>Rashford’s campaign has ensured that many children will not go hungry this summer. It has also highlighted the long history – and ongoing problem – of food poverty in the UK.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140896/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Regina Keith is affiliated with WPHNA. I am part of the executive committee of the World Public Health Nutrition Association. </span></em></p>Free school meals have been an issue since 1906.Regina Keith, Senior Lecturer in Food, Nutrition and Public Health, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1333412020-03-13T12:05:04Z2020-03-13T12:05:04ZAmerica’s poorest children won’t get nutritious meals with school cafeterias closed due to the coronavirus<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/320221/original/file-20200312-111227-gask9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An East Brainerd Elementary School lunch, Chattanooga, Tennessee</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/lunch-options-available-to-students-at-the-east-brainerd-news-photo/1178703124">The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Schools aren’t only places where kids learn. They are also places where kids eat. </p>
<p>Thanks to the <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/nslp">National School Lunch Program</a>, 30 million U.S. children – some 60% of all school-aged kids – regularly eat some combination of breakfast, lunch and afternoon snacks at school. Federal subsidies ensure that school meals are affordable for all children to <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/applied-and-social-sciences-magazines/statement-president-upon-signing-national-school-lunch-act">stave off hunger and malnutrition</a>. </p>
<p>But what is happening to meals provided by the nation’s largest child nutrition program as public schools shut their doors to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic? </p>
<p>Based on <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=LULSgaYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">my research</a> on how <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102%2F0013189X18797609">schools provide meals for poor children</a>, I worry that these closures might leave some of the nation’s poorest children without access to nutritious meals.</p>
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<h2>School meals address hunger</h2>
<p>Despite persistent concerns about the <a href="https://ssrn.com/abstract=1593844">nutritional quality of school lunches</a> and wasted cafeteria food, serving school meals clearly improves students’ consumption of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jada.2008.11.005">calcium, meat and vegetables</a> and a wide array of essential vitamins and minerals.</p>
<p>This nutritional boost is particularly vital for the 18% of U.S. kids whose parents sometimes or frequently <a href="https://www.childtrends.org/indicators/food-insecurity">can’t afford enough nutritious food</a> for the whole family. These children <a href="http://handle.nal.usda.gov/10113/42320">get approximately a quarter of the calories they consume</a> from school meals.</p>
<p>Empty cupboards and missed meals substantially <a href="https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2015.0645">threaten children’s healthy development</a>. Research <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.20506">tracking the long-term effects of 1960s-era policy efforts that expanded</a> the National School Lunch Program indicates that when kids regularly eat lunch, they’re more likely to finish high school and perhaps go on to college.</p>
<p>Further, over the last few years <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/school-meals/community-eligibility-provision">a new federal program</a> designed to provide free lunches to all students in schools that enroll large proportions of low-income children appears to be working. <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3333530">Test scores</a> are rising and <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w24986">student behavior</a> is improving at the schools taking part in it. </p>
<p>Under federal law, no student pays more than US$2.90 for their lunch. But about <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d18/tables/dt18_204.10.asp?current=yes">half of public school students pay far less</a>. Families whose household income is less than 185% of the poverty line, currently about $48,000 per year for a family of four, pay up to 40 cents for each meal. Students whose families of the same size get by on less than 130% of that same mark, or below $34,000, pay nothing at all. </p>
<p>More than two-thirds of the <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/pd/child-nutrition-tables">children who eat school meals</a> get them for free or at a steep discount.</p>
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<h2>How to feed kids when schools close</h2>
<p>Many low-income families of course can get some additional help through other kinds of federal aid.</p>
<p>That includes the <a href="https://theconversation.com/scaling-back-snap-for-self-reliance-clashes-with-the-original-goals-of-food-stamps-128839">Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program</a>. But SNAP’s <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/recipient/eligibility">complex eligibility requirements</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2019.305365">exclude many Americans</a> who are are having trouble getting food on their tables.</p>
<p>What’s more, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102%2F0002831218761337">SNAP benefits are limited</a>. For example, a family of four can get no more than $646 in this aid per month, typically falling short of covering the full cost of all nutritional needs.</p>
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<p>Absent fundamental changes to the nation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/safety-net-2185">safety net</a>, I believe school leaders should make sure that schools keep playing an important role in student nutrition – even when schools are closed to protect public health.</p>
<p>And <a href="https://civileats.com/2020/03/06/coronavirus-is-closing-schools-heres-what-it-means-for-millions-of-kids-who-rely-on-school-meals/">schools are indeed looking for ways to provide meals</a> to students whose schools are closed due to the pandemic. The USDA has identified one path. It is letting schools that participate in <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/sfsp/summer-food-service-program">a summer meals program for kids from low-income areas</a> to <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/cn/child-nutrition-program-waiver-request-guidance-and-protocol-revised">serve meals even if they close due to this pandemic</a>.</p>
<p>While this strikes me as a helpful step, I don’t think that it will be enough.</p>
<p>That’s because the schools eligible to take part in the summertime program serve <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/child-nutrition-programs/summer-food-service-program.aspx">just a tenth of the children who participate in the school lunch program</a>. Unless Congress acts to provide emergency funds to cover the cost of feeding students whose schools have closed – and fast – it will be up to local communities and their food banks to fill the nutritional gap.</p>
<p>[<em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/133341/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thurston "Thad" Domina receives funding from the National Institute of Child Health and Development.</span></em></p>The millions of US children whose parents can’t always afford enough nutritious food for their families get about a quarter of their calories from what they eat at school.Thurston Domina, Professor, Educational Policy and Organizational Leadership, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1004742018-09-06T11:54:14Z2018-09-06T11:54:14ZFree school meal funds help pay for school trips too – but self-imposed stigma stops parents claiming<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235193/original/file-20180906-190650-57bwv1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Welsh funds for school meals are being used to expand pupils' education.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/teacher-kids-school-learning-ecology-gardening-634300196?src=RMu8cKR4gWZtIZ1pWbjRVg-1-8">Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Each and every one of us define success in our own way. But in schools, it is mostly limited to a grading system, with pupils who achieve better marks considered to be more of a “success”. The barriers to this success are not just natural intelligence, or lack of hard work, however, they come from a variety of different places.</p>
<p>For <a href="https://research.bangor.ac.uk/portal/files/21807216/ap_Gruffudd_G.S._et_al._2017_REAP_Rethinking_Educational_Attainment_and_Poverty_in_Rural_Wales_Final_Report.pdf">our recently published study</a>, we looked at how poverty and educational attainment are linked in rural Wales. We spoke to children, teachers and other key stakeholders to explore the problems that they experience and perceive. We also looked at national, regional and local plans and policies for combating poverty and increasing educational attainment in pupils. </p>
<p>Wales has the worst child poverty in the UK. One in three children aged up to 16 (of which there are approximately 200,000) are living in poverty. An estimated 90,000 of these live <a href="http://www.poverty.ac.uk/report-wales-child-poverty/wales-has-worst-child-poverty-uk">in severe poverty</a>, and forecasts show that this is <a href="https://seneddresearch.blog/2018/03/16/poverty-in-wales-are-we-getting-the-full-picture/">not set to improve</a>. </p>
<p>Much evidence has been presented as to why pupils in Wales slip behind the academic success of those in other countries. Correlations are often drawn between poverty and education, and the need to reduce the gap between the aloof affluent, the authentically austere and the adversely poor. But for our study, we wanted to analyse things from a different angle, from the perceived, actual and expressed needs of pupils and teachers, as they applied policies that were designed to help schools overcome the barriers of poverty.</p>
<p>We turned our attention to free school meal funding. Welsh government money is given to schools to provide all qualifying children and/or young people between the ages of four and 18 with free school meals. In rural primary and secondary schools, rather than solely providing food, the funding is used by schools in diverse and sensitive ways to help pupils engage in essential curricular and extra-curricular activities that would otherwise be beyond their immediate needs. This means that all rural pupils in the schools can, for example, go to science and discovery centres on trips, without the immediate worry of affordability. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235198/original/file-20180906-190656-1rrta86.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235198/original/file-20180906-190656-1rrta86.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235198/original/file-20180906-190656-1rrta86.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235198/original/file-20180906-190656-1rrta86.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235198/original/file-20180906-190656-1rrta86.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235198/original/file-20180906-190656-1rrta86.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235198/original/file-20180906-190656-1rrta86.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Some families are going out of their way to avoid claiming free school meals.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/girl-holding-tray-delicious-food-school-686186722?src=WTxy6EqCWiLaZN-rAKNPaw-1-5">Africa Studio/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>However, another finding of our research was that parents were neither rightfully nor proudly claiming free school meals for their children. And there appears to be greater prevalence of this phenomena in rural (as opposed to urban) schools across Wales. </p>
<p>Many families in rural Wales are identified as JAM (“just about managing”), with two parents working full-time and long hours in low paying jobs. They understandably find it difficult to spend time with their children and give them beneficial educational experiences. But they are also less likely to claim free school meals, despite being eligible.</p>
<h2>Stigma</h2>
<p>The problem, we found, is that there is a stigma attached to free school meals that causes parents to abstain from claiming them. Rural pride – coupled with beliefs and fears that children in receipt of free school meals are obvious to other pupils, teachers, or that schools can influence the eligibility criteria – is limiting claims of the additional resources and support available. </p>
<p>Some even prefer to go far out of their way to source sustenance from food banks not located in their area of residence instead of claiming. This indicates that parents may experience limiting systemic psychological barriers, or have deeply ingrained beliefs associated with their ability, worth and values that perhaps were neither real nor accurate but more of a self-imposed socio-scholastic barrier for their children. </p>
<p>Since we published our research, the Welsh government has announced a further £90m for the Pupil Development Grant – the fund for school meals – which goes to all schools in Wales. Though welcome, there are evidently still issues that need to be addressed to ensure poverty holds back no child in Wales from achieving their best while in education. </p>
<p>Schools are acutely aware of, and addressing, the barriers, for example by creating online payment systems for all parents, which has the added benefit of removing the physical stigma that comes with issuing tickets for meals. </p>
<p>Removing the stigma altogether cannot be done by changing processes or politics alone, however. We as a society need to change how we see free school meal funding. A significant number of school age children in general experience socio-economic disadvantage <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00071005.2017.1330464">of one form or another</a>. Funds like the one in Wales are not an indicator of poverty, but rather, often a vital resource for ensuring that each and every child has access to the same educational experiences.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100474/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This research was commissioned by GwE and ERW School Improvement Consortia.</span></em></p>There is a stigma attached to free school meals that causes parents to abstain from claiming themGwilym Siôn ap Gruffudd, Lecturer/ Researcher in Education, School of Education and Human Development, Bangor UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/779902017-05-25T13:51:36Z2017-05-25T13:51:36ZThe health cost of cutting free school lunches will be far greater than the price of them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170978/original/file-20170525-23251-1w0e5sb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Food for thought.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/group-pupils-sitting-table-school-cafeteria-268226171?src=IzjzKr3Lw5Hl-8FsniGC9Q-5-34">SpeedKingz/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.conservatives.com/manifesto">Conservative Party’s manifesto</a> pledge to replace free school lunches – for children in the first three years of primary school in England – with free breakfasts is curious to say the least.</p>
<p>Since it was announced, researchers have found that the cost of the project is hugely undervalued. In an <a href="http://schoolsweek.co.uk/conservatives-back-track-on-60m-for-primary-school-breakfasts/">official statement</a> launched before the manifesto, the party said that breakfast clubs “will cost £60m a year”. It has since been found that this would be the equivalent of <a href="http://schoolsweek.co.uk/conservatives-free-breakfast-pledge-costed-at-just-7p-per-meal/">less than 7p per pupil</a>.</p>
<p>Further analysis by think tank Education Datalab has found that if only half of pupils take up the free breakfast at a more realistic cost of 25p – though even this would <a href="http://schoolsweek.co.uk/conservatives-free-breakfast-pledge-costed-at-just-7p-per-meal/">only amount to porridge with milk</a> – it could cost <a href="https://educationdatalab.org.uk/2017/05/can-free-breakfasts-for-all-primary-pupils-really-be-delivered-for-60m/">more than £400m</a> when extra staffing costs are added in. </p>
<p>Before the financial disparity was highlighted, questions quickly arose over whether a free school breakfast for all children could be better than a free school lunch for some.</p>
<p>Reports warned that almost a million children from poor backgrounds could lose out under the new policy. And it could potentially cost families <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/theresa-may-conservatives-free-school-lunches-cuts-poverty-a7747066.html">£440 for each child affected</a> every year.</p>
<p>Not all children can, or want to, attend the breakfast clubs, however. Former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, who was a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/free-school-lunch-for-every-child-in-infant-school">champion of the policy</a> when it was rolled out in 2014, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/theresa-may-conservatives-free-school-lunches-cuts-poverty-a7747066.html">has warned that</a> “the offer of free breakfasts won’t reach the children who don’t come to breakfast clubs”.</p>
<h2>Questionable research</h2>
<p>Though the Conservatives have issued statements saying that breakfasts are “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv8sQplhvX0">at least as effective as lunch</a>”, the data that they are relying on is simply not enough.</p>
<p>The manifesto pledge is backed by the findings of a pilot study: the <a href="https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/our-work/projects/magic-breakfast">Magic Breakfast Project</a>. Year two and year six students in 106 English schools were allocated to receive free breakfast every day during the 2014-2015 academic year in the context of a breakfast club. There was also a control group, for whom breakfast was not provided. </p>
<p>The childrens’ academic achievement was measured by assessing Key Stages one and two assessments in maths and English, along with teachers’ feedback on class behaviour and concentration. The breakfasts were found to be successful in increasing the academic achievement of year two students and helping them to get two months ahead of their peers. Teachers also reported improved behaviour and concentration. </p>
<p>But there are a few problems here. While the Key Stage assessments might provide some unbiased information, behaviour and concentration was only assessed by teachers, who were likely to know whether the student attended the breakfast club. With most other literature reporting the positive effects of breakfast on students, this observation could well have been biased.</p>
<h2>Educational benefit</h2>
<p>In a very recent review of the academic research on the impact of <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jhn.12407/full">dietary intake on school performance</a>, it was found that most studies have looked at the effects of breakfast consumption on academic performance. </p>
<p>That doesn’t mean that breakfast aids academic achievement in school-aged children better than lunch. It means that there is more evidence from (mainly cross-sectional) breakfast studies.</p>
<p>Ideally, to compare the two, there would need to be randomised control trials with direct comparisons between different types of meal and educational outcomes – at present there are none. </p>
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<p>Academic achievement is an important criterion, but it shouldn’t be the only one on which we measure the success of a school provision. For many children, their free school lunch may be the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/apr/24/school-holidays-leave-3-million-children-at-risk-of-hunger-report-says">only hot meal they have in a day</a>. It may also be the only opportunity they have to eat a nutritious meal, including vegetables to support the development of healthy eating habits, and protein to support physical development. </p>
<p>In short, lunchtime is one more lesson on healthy eating and on what a healthy meal should look like. </p>
<p>Although Theresa May pledged to keep free school lunches for the poorer students, the criteria that will be set are unclear and, considering a lot of poor students were <a href="https://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/sites/default/files/tcs/fair_and_square_policy_report_final.pdf">left out before the provision</a>, this is concerning. </p>
<p>But regardless of financial background, healthy eating is something every student should learn. This is about educating children to hopefully make healthier choices throughout their lives.</p>
<h2>Social skills</h2>
<p>The Magic Breakfast Project makes another very important point that was overlooked in the manifesto: it is not just eating breakfast that delivers improvements, but attending a breakfast club. </p>
<p>It might be the experience of communal eating itself, a time spent with their peers interacting in a non-academic environment, that explains the findings. Considering the Conservative Party is quoting <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/may/24/theresa-may-free-school-breakfasts-undercosted-tory-manifesto">only 25% of children attend</a> breakfast clubs at present, a large proportion of students might miss the opportunity of the free meal and this experience of communal eating. On the contrary, school lunches are attended by all students, providing an equal opportunity to all.</p>
<p>There is not, at present, enough convincing evidence to switch from free school lunches for some children to free breakfasts for all. The financial costs alone are a cause for concern, but the ramifications it could have on teaching children to lead healthy lives are too great to ignore.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77990/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sophia Komninou does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Lunchtime is one more lesson on what a healthy meal should look like.Sophia Komninou, Lecturer in Infant and Child Public Health, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/742742017-03-21T14:44:24Z2017-03-21T14:44:24ZGrammar schools debate: four key questions answered<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161651/original/image-20170320-9147-nk50uh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lifting the lid on grammar schools.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Few subjects generate as much controversy in England as grammar schools do. Advocates uphold them as “a driver of social mobility” with the belief they can provide a ladder of opportunity for poor but able children. </p>
<p>Critics on the other hand, see them as socially divisive; the remnants of an outdated system that disproportionately benefits middle class children, while labelling others as “failures” early in their educational careers.</p>
<p>But while people hold strong opinions on the benefits (or otherwise) of grammar schools, these opinions are often not actually underpinned by a robust evidence base – research showing a clear answer either way doesn’t actually exist. </p>
<p>And because there is (and always has been) such a mixture of school types in England, it is impossible to get a clear picture of the system-wide benefits and drawbacks of selective education.</p>
<p>So with this in mind, I have answered some of the key questions surrounding the grammar school debate using evidence both for and against selective schooling.</p>
<h2>1. Do grammars provide better opportunities for bright but poor students?</h2>
<p>It is clear that grammar schools get better results in examinations than schools that do not select according to academic ability. But then it would be extremely surprising if they did not. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3443191?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">Early studies</a> suggest that boys from working class backgrounds did less well at grammar school than their middle class peers. But <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-social-policy/article/div-classtitlehalseya-h-heatha-f-and-ridgej-m-origins-and-destinations-family-class-and-education-in-modern-britain-oxford-university-press-clarendon-oxford-1980-240-pp-1100-paper-495div/33B1C18D6E1757C4B9692AD0B22F76B2">long-term research</a> indicates that working class children still derived significant career gains from going to grammar school. </p>
<p>The problem though with arguments about the “ladder of opportunity” that grammar schools are alleged to provide, is that relatively few poor students – academically able or otherwise – are actually in grammar schools. Certainly those few state-maintained grammar schools that remain in England have very low numbers of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/oct/15/very-small-percentage-of-grammar-school-pupils-from-poorer-families-new-statistics-show">children eligible for free school meals</a>. </p>
<h2><strong>2. Do grammar schools disproportionately benefit middle class children?</strong></h2>
<p>“Yes” – and “no”. Middle class children are disproportionately <a href="http://www.ifs.org.uk/docs/Grammar_Schools2013.pdf#page=25">represented in grammar schools</a>, but a place in a grammar school <a href="https://theconversation.com/grammar-schools-why-academic-selection-only-benefits-the-very-affluent-74189">is by no means guaranteed</a> even for those with “professional” parents.</p>
<p>Between 1945 and the 1970s – at the height of the “tripartite system” – children were allocated to three types of school: grammar, technical and secondary modern. And under this system, over half of those from the groups known as “social classes I and II” <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=YSJEBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA170&lpg=PA170&dq=Swift,+D.+(1965)+%E2%80%98Meritocratic+and+social+class+selection+at+age+11%E2%80%99,+Educational+Research,+8&source=bl&ots=PJLGiT_087&sig=MQF1rNDkl3M-cVPtMPf1r77f5Y0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj7lrutyufSAhXKKMAKHUOaCVgQ6AEIIDAB#v=onepage&q=Swift%2C%20D.%20(1965)%20%E2%80%98Meritocratic%20and%20social%20class%20selection%20at%20age%2011%E2%80%99%2C%20Educational%20Research%2C%208&f=false">failed the 11+</a> – the exam children need to pass to attend grammar schools. </p>
<p>These groups of parents, with managerial and professional occupations, found that children they had that were consigned to secondary modern schools faced very limited opportunities for getting good qualifications and entry to university. </p>
<p>It has also <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=6biEAgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Ford,+J.+(1969).+Social+class+and+the+comprehensive+school.+London:+Routledge+and+Kegan+Paul.&ots=6mNgo_hhtP&sig=UypPzNPM8dVwAqG6-hiV5KWxa6s#v=onepage&q&f=false">previously been argued</a> that disappointed middle class parents were one of the driving forces behind “comprehensivation”. This involved getting rid of the 11+ examination which sorted children into different schools and instead encouraged all children to go to their nearest secondary school – irrespective of their academic ability.</p>
<p>And in a similar vein, a recent <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/news/2016/08/15/two-thirds-people-would-send-their-child-grammar-s/">opinion poll</a> showed that parents are only likely to support grammars if their child gets a place. </p>
<h2>3. What happens to those who fail to get into grammar schools?</h2>
<p>Secondary schools in the vicinity of a grammar schools will inevitably lose some of the most academically able children in the neighbourhood. But of course, the general weakening of school catchment areas – with the existence of private schools in England – means that there is already a significant amount of “socially-based” sorting of pupils and schools with or without grammar schools. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.civitas.org.uk/content/files/theselectiondebate.pdf">The most reliable evidence</a> also suggests that less academically able children do slightly better in schools with a more comprehensive intake than in the former secondary moderns. These modern comprehensives are schools that tend to have a mix of academic achievement and aptitude among pupils, compared with the previous secondary moderns – which was mainly where pupils who had failed the 11+ attended. </p>
<h2>4. What are the system-wide effects of a (partially) selective system?</h2>
<p><a href="https://orca.cf.ac.uk/73718/2/Sally%20Power%20and%20Geoff%20Whitty%20Final.pdf">The best available evidence</a> suggests that at a system level, the differences between a selective and a comprehensive school are small. And the average output – or “system productivity” – is much the same. In general, <a href="https://orca.cf.ac.uk/73718/2/Sally%20Power%20and%20Geoff%20Whitty%20Final.pdf">academically able children do better at grammar schools</a> and less able children do better in comprehensive schools – but these differences are really very small. </p>
<p>There are much larger differences between individual schools of the same type – even between different grammar schools – than between the average results of the different kinds of school. And it is also possible that some of these differences can be explained by the more favourable resourcing and teaching workforce associated with grammar schools.</p>
<p>So although for individual children the consequences of academic selection can be huge – in terms of the educational pathways that are open to them – overall there may actually be very little to choose between comprehensive or selective systems in terms of examination results.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74274/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sally Power receives funding from HEFCW (Higher Education Funding Council Wales) and the Economic and Social Research Council. </span></em></p>Busting the myths on grammar schools.Sally Power, Director of Education, Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research Data and Method, Cardiff UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/741892017-03-08T10:28:32Z2017-03-08T10:28:32ZGrammar schools: why academic selection only benefits the very affluent<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159947/original/image-20170308-24187-dsouv9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>With the recent news that more than <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-39183815">£500m has been set aside</a> by the UK government for new free schools – many of which could well become grammar schools – the selective schooling debate is firmly back on the table.</p>
<p>This £500m includes a one-off payment of £320m which will be allocated to help set up 140 new free schools. This comes on top of the already promised £216m which will help to rebuild and refurbish existing schools. The 140 new schools are in addition to the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-31791485">500 already pledged to be created by 2020</a>, and will pave the way for a new generation of grammar schools.</p>
<p>The cash boost comes as a <a href="http://news.sky.com/story/budget-2017-cash-boost-to-pave-way-for-new-grammar-schools-10793204">schools white paper</a> will be published over the next few weeks. It will include plans to reverse the ban on new grammars. The ban has been in place for nearly 20 years, but the UK prime minister Theresa May has said it is her “personal mission” to <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/07/theresa-may-unveils-plans-new-generation-grammar-schools/">overturn the ban and create a grammar schools</a> revolution.</p>
<p>And yet despite May’s championing of grammars, a lot of <a href="http://epi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Grammar-schools-and-social-mobility_.pdf">recent</a> <a href="http://www.suttontrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/poorgrammarreport-2.pdf">research</a> has demonstrated strong inequalities in access to selective schools.</p>
<h2>Highly skewed</h2>
<p>For the first time – through our new research – we can show the differences in the likelihood of attending a grammar school depending on your <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-985X.2012.01043.x/full">socioeconomic status</a> (SES). This is the most detailed measure of family circumstances available to date in administrative data. </p>
<p>Our analysis confirms that access to grammar schools is highly skewed by a child’s socioeconomic status – with the most deprived families living in grammar school areas standing only a 6% chance of attending a selective school.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159948/original/image-20170308-24226-9sc28d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159948/original/image-20170308-24226-9sc28d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159948/original/image-20170308-24226-9sc28d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159948/original/image-20170308-24226-9sc28d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159948/original/image-20170308-24226-9sc28d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159948/original/image-20170308-24226-9sc28d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159948/original/image-20170308-24226-9sc28d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Grammar schools: just for the wealthy?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For our analysis, we adopted this <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-985X.2012.01043.x/full">SES index</a> which uses individual free school meal eligibility, and enriches it with very local neighbourhood measures based on the pupil’s postcode. </p>
<p>The measures include the type of neighbourhood, levels of deprivation, and the occupational structure, along with levels of education and home ownership figures. All this information is then combined to produce an index of socioeconomic status for each pupil in our data.</p>
<p>This allows for a considerably broader measure than simply using eligibility for free school meals, which most <a href="http://www.suttontrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/GRAMMAR-SCHOOLS-FACT-SHEET-AUGUST-2016.pdf">other analyses</a> have used. </p>
<h2>Just for the wealthy</h2>
<p>In our analysis, we compared how pupils from different social backgrounds fare when it comes to grammar selection. This includes the “just about managing”, as well as the middle classes, and the most affluent. </p>
<p>Our analysis shows clearly that it is mostly the very affluent that make it into grammar schools – and that there is a dramatic difference in access to selective schools depending on the pupil’s background. </p>
<p>The average chance of getting in in selective areas is below 50% for almost all families. But when you break this figure down and analyse it based on the pupil’s SES – or their background – the data reveals a more complex story.</p>
<p>We show that only the most affluent families – the top 10% by SES – have a 50% or better chance of attending a grammar. While those pupils at the very top – the 1% most affluent – have an 80% chance of attending a grammar. </p>
<iframe id="datawrapper-chart-cBw1g" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/cBw1g/1/" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" oallowfullscreen="oallowfullscreen" msallowfullscreen="msallowfullscreen" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Looking at the graph, if we approximate the “just about managing” families – <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38049245">otherwise known as the Jams</a> – as those in the range from the 20th to the 40th percentile of SES, they have only a 12% chance of attending a grammar school. These families have <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/britain-the-great-meritocracy-prime-ministers-speech">featured prominently in Theresa May’s rhetoric</a> since she became prime minister, and yet so few make it into grammar schools. </p>
<p>As the graph shows, families in the middle of the SES distribution also generally do not get into grammars. Of typical families, in the middle of the SES distribution, our analysis shows that only 23% attend a selective school. </p>
<h2>Differences in access</h2>
<p>Given the strong link between SES and achievement – even at age 11 – it may be the case that these SES gradients are simply reflecting higher achievement among pupils from more affluent families. </p>
<p>But our analysis also shows that the chances of accessing a grammar school vary hugely by family background, even when we compare children who have the same attainment at age 11. </p>
<p>Let’s look at two children – one from the poorest SES quintile and one from the least deprived SES quintile – both performing at the 80th percentile of the Key Stage 2 distribution. Despite the same level of academic attainment, our analysis shows that the most deprived pupil has only a 25% chance of attending a grammar compared to a 70% chance for the least deprived pupil. </p>
<p>This a 45 percentage point gap for children with the same achievement at age 11 – which clearly can be seen in the graph below.</p>
<iframe id="datawrapper-chart-BnnO8" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/BnnO8/1/" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" oallowfullscreen="oallowfullscreen" msallowfullscreen="msallowfullscreen" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>What this means in real terms is that children from the most affluent families performing in as low as the 35th percentile of the Key Stage 2 distribution have a positive chance of accessing a grammar school in selective areas. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, those children from the most deprived families need to be achieving in at least the 50th percentile before there is any chance of them attending a grammar school. </p>
<p>This shows how grammars remain the preserve of the affluent. Because even children from disadvantaged backgrounds who perform very well at primary school have less chance of getting into these schools than affluent children who perform moderately well. </p>
<p>Of course, the argument will be that the “new grammars” will be different and (somehow) give greater access to children from more deprived backgrounds. </p>
<p>Yet there are no details of the mechanisms that could be put in place to prevent them having the same access issues as the existing schools. And as the evidence here suggests, affluent parents seem to be very good at getting their kids in to grammars, irrespective of their primary school performance. </p>
<p><em>This analysis will be published as a new working paper “Assessing the role of grammar schools in promoting social mobility” in the Department of Social Science working paper series at <a href="http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe">UCL Institute of Education</a> in the coming weeks.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/74189/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Burgess receives funding from ESRC and DfE. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Claire Crawford and Lindsey Macmillan do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New analysis shows access to grammar schools is highly skewed by a child’s socioeconomic status.Simon Burgess, Professor of Economics, University of BristolClaire Crawford, Assistant Professor, Economics Department, University of WarwickLindsey Macmillan, Senior Lecturer in Economics, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/716532017-01-30T11:28:16Z2017-01-30T11:28:16ZLatest school league tables show where you live affects your child’s education<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154295/original/image-20170125-23878-6j9pja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Better levels of education and higher exam results found in the South of the country.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The results are in, and the so-called north-south divide continues to separate children’s educational outcomes by geography – as the <a href="https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/">recently published</a> secondary schools’ performance data from the Department for Education shows.</p>
<p>While there are of course variations within each region, the data – which covers over 4,000 English secondary schools – shows that parents are much more likely to find schools with high level academic performance in the south of the country, <a href="https://theconversation.com/hard-evidence-why-do-students-in-london-do-better-at-school-34090">specifically in London</a>. </p>
<p>On average schools in London outperform those in the north of the country by almost five percentage points.</p>
<h2>Crunching the numbers</h2>
<p>The 2016 data will bear much more detailed scrutiny than previous years, primarily because it contains new measures of student outcomes. So as well as GCSE results, under the new measure, comparisons between pupils’ results at the end of primary school are also now taken into consideration. This is known as pupils’ “starting points”, and means that <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-new-school-performance-tables-tell-us-very-little-about-school-performance-71235">school performance</a> is no longer based solely on final GCSE grades. </p>
<p>In light of these new measures, I’ve analysed the most recent data for secondary schools. To do this, I grouped the data into local authority regions to show how schools in a local area perform. Though this is not to suggest that the local authorities themselves have a significant impact on student outcomes. In each local authority, most – if not all – secondary schools have become academies, over which local authorities have little influence. </p>
<p>To allow for children’s “starting points” as they join secondary school, I included the average key stage two “point score” for a cohort joining secondary school. I then compared this against the percentage of that cohort that achieve five A to C grades including English and maths when they leave school at the age of 16, as can be seen in the graph below. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154715/original/image-20170130-7663-1j9j932.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154715/original/image-20170130-7663-1j9j932.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154715/original/image-20170130-7663-1j9j932.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154715/original/image-20170130-7663-1j9j932.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154715/original/image-20170130-7663-1j9j932.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154715/original/image-20170130-7663-1j9j932.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154715/original/image-20170130-7663-1j9j932.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This graph shows the trend lines for local authorities in London and those in the north.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These results show that London schools are consistently able to achieve five percentage points more on the A to C measure than northern schools, whatever the children’s starting points. This differs from 2015, when the gap narrowed for higher ability cohorts. </p>
<p>My analysis, however, does show that some of the northern local authorities with weak cohorts have made small gains, but at the same time London areas with higher ability children have still accelerated their progress. </p>
<h2>London first</h2>
<p>I <a href="https://www.bera.ac.uk/blog/whats-the-difference">demonstrated elsewhere</a> that while location plays the largest part in accounting for differences between school performance, by far the most important factor is the level of deprivation. This can be measured by families who have been eligible for free school meals at any time over the last six years – known as the “pupil premium”.</p>
<p>Pupil premium funding started in 2010, and has injected huge amounts of money into schools. It has been specifically targeted at those individuals who history shows they are least likely to succeed in school. But questions have rightly been asked about how much difference this has actually made to outcomes. </p>
<p>My analysis shows that the general trend across local authorities tends to be that the higher the proportion of disadvantaged children there are at a school, the lower the percentage achieving five A to C grades – including English and maths. </p>
<p>While this may be no surprise, the data for London authorities shows a marked difference – not just from those in the north but from all other regions. This seems to suggest that it is possible to achieve high outcomes irrespective of the number of disadvantaged children in the cohort. </p>
<p>The graph below shows that in London’s five most deprived authorities, children perform at least as well as they would in many of the most affluent areas of the north.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154716/original/image-20170130-7693-676br7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154716/original/image-20170130-7693-676br7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154716/original/image-20170130-7693-676br7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154716/original/image-20170130-7693-676br7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154716/original/image-20170130-7693-676br7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154716/original/image-20170130-7693-676br7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/154716/original/image-20170130-7693-676br7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The proportion of disadvantaged children compared with GCSE grades.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Postcode lottery</h2>
<p>What all this analysis shows is that there is clearly work to be done, not just in establishing the reasons for these regional differences, but also to understand better the nature of the measures of performance and disadvantage. </p>
<p>For a number of years educators have pointed to the “<a href="https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/Implementing%20the%20London%20Challenge%20-%20final_0.pdf">London challenge</a>” as an example of sustainable, meaningful school improvement, but to date few areas outside of the capital have been able to match its success. </p>
<p>The reasons for this success will of course be many and varied, and will undoubtedly be influenced by the enhanced levels of funding that London schools receive. This has been estimated to be as much as <a href="http://tonystephens.org.uk/download/xxxx/leadership_and_management/How%20and%20why%20london%20schools%20have%20improved.pdf">£1,000 per pupil</a> – almost double that of other areas. </p>
<p>But not all of London’s success can be attributed to finances alone, because schools here have worked together, to come up with “bespoke solutions” to address the wide range of problems faced by schools in the area. </p>
<p>What all this suggests is that <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-close-the-north-south-divide-between-secondary-schools-51607">closing the north-south divide between secondary schools</a> will be difficult, if not impossible in the days of competing multi-academy trusts. And with the loss of geographical coherence, as local authorities wane in influence, it is hard to see a clear way forward. </p>
<p>But given that A-level and university applications suffer from a similar <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-north-south-divide-in-a-levels-explained-64317">regional bias</a>, what is clear is that we need to support and develop the areas outside of London if we want education to stop becoming something of a postcode lottery.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71653/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Rolph does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Crunching the numbers on the latest school performance data.Chris Rolph, Principal Lecturer in Education, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/653782016-09-21T11:39:51Z2016-09-21T11:39:51ZGrammar Schools: how they’ll make education policy even more complicated<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138309/original/image-20160919-11090-169h8of.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Primary school children work on problem solving.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">legenda/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Theresa May’s plans to bring back grammar schools has provoked a <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-8527.2009.00435.x">storm of controversy</a> – with the <a href="https://theconversation.com/dear-theresa-may-this-is-what-you-need-to-know-about-grammar-schools-65360">downside of grammars</a> now well documented. But on top of these well known negatives, there are other significant grammar school effects that have been relatively overlooked.</p>
<p>One is the impact on previous education policy – and the push for academies. Since 2010, a radical programme to curb the power of local authorities and ensure the system is led by schools has been implemented. This is known as a “school-led-system”, and it aims to spread the practices of outstandingly successful practitioners to less successful schools. It has been vigorously re-endorsed in a recent <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/508550/Educational_excellence_everywhere__print_ready_.pdf">white paper</a>.</p>
<p>There are two main ways this will be achieved. The first is for all schools to become academies, releasing them from local authority control. These schools will then work in groups of 15 to 30 schools, constituted as “<a href="https://theconversation.com/forcing-all-schools-to-turn-into-academies-is-not-educations-biggest-problem-58462">multi-academy trusts</a>”. Multi-academy trusts have a single governing body and are run by a headteacher with an outstanding track record.</p>
<p>The second is to increase the number of Teaching Schools. These are schools with an outstanding Ofsted grade which are tasked with delivering high quality professional development in an area. They invite schools to join their Teaching School Alliance to benefit from their school improvement activities.</p>
<h2>Local relations</h2>
<p>But this is no easy task, in part because local school <a href="http://ema.sagepub.com/content/42/3/321.short">relations have always been complex</a> – with a level of latent distrust that makes them difficult to navigate for everyone, especially headteachers. Plus, schools have to compete against each other to attract easier to educate pupils and to recruit the best staff. </p>
<p>On a lot of these issues, the local authority used to act as referee. But the marginalisation of the Local Authority has removed the old way of managing schooling in a local area. And strategic decision making in a school led system now requires substantial collaboration between schools. </p>
<p>There are now several multi-academy trusts and teaching schools in each area – and the trusts are competing for pupils and staff, while teaching schools are competing for schools to join their alliance. This means that they are required to be both competitors and collaborators at the same time.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138600/original/image-20160921-21715-1vfa91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138600/original/image-20160921-21715-1vfa91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138600/original/image-20160921-21715-1vfa91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138600/original/image-20160921-21715-1vfa91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138600/original/image-20160921-21715-1vfa91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138600/original/image-20160921-21715-1vfa91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138600/original/image-20160921-21715-1vfa91.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Schools have to compete against each other to attract the best students.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite these difficulties – often as a result of brokering by the weakened Local Authorities – schools have over the last few years fostered enough mutual trust to build new and fragile <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/325816/DFE-RR359.pdf">collaborative structures</a> and relationships. These promise to make strategic decision making possible and provide effective peer to peer school improvement procedures.</p>
<p>But, if implemented, the new selective policy will intensify levels of distrust. Secondary schools will watch each other to see who might break first and the emerging local settlements designed for the good of all children and necessary for the achievement of a “school led system” are likely to be seriously disrupted.</p>
<h2>Primary impact</h2>
<p>Another major effect of the reintroduction of selection would be the impact on primary schools. When the selective test at 11 was first introduced, the actual <a href="http://shura.shu.ac.uk/8785/">age of selection</a> was effectively pushed to a younger age – as children thought capable of passing were separated into a grammar stream and intensively coached. </p>
<p>This inhibited progressive developments in primary education inspired by educational thinkers and practitioners who emphasised the importance and distinctness of education in the early years. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138601/original/image-20160921-21707-cd03wl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138601/original/image-20160921-21707-cd03wl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138601/original/image-20160921-21707-cd03wl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138601/original/image-20160921-21707-cd03wl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138601/original/image-20160921-21707-cd03wl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138601/original/image-20160921-21707-cd03wl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138601/original/image-20160921-21707-cd03wl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=564&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tested to destruction?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ermolaev Alexander/Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These days, testing is again a big part of primary schooling, with critics pointing out how high stakes testing (SATs) and accompanying league tables have caused primary schools to narrow the curriculum, to stream and <a href="http://cprtrust.org.uk/">teach to the test</a>. And the introduction of selection at 11 will do nothing to reduce this effect. If anything, it is more likely to strengthen it.</p>
<h2>Contradictory policies</h2>
<p>The recent <a href="https://consult.education.gov.uk/school-frameworks/schools-that-work-for-everyone/supporting_documents/SCHOOLS%20THAT%20WORK%20FOR%20EVERYONE%20%20FINAL.pdf">green paper</a> suggests that the proposed selection system is compatible with the present policies for a school led system, but the latter requires a level of mutual trust that the former is likely to undermine. </p>
<p>The implementation of a selective system means that once again those on the ground in local areas will have to make sense of contradictory national policies emerging from what is beginning to look like a permanent revolution in education.</p>
<p>There will be heroic examples where this is made to work and they will be rightly celebrated. But for the majority, while they have been working hard to make things work in the interests of all the children in their area, this policy – if implemented – will make that task much more difficult.</p>
<p>And while the prime minister and her education secretary do not deny the evidence of these and other negative effects of grammar schools, they also assert that they can be avoided – quite how, though, remains yet to be seen.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65378/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Coldron does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The reintroduction of grammar schools means that once again schools and headteachers will be required to make sense of contradictory national policies.John Coldron, Professor of Education, Sheffield Institute of Education, Sheffield Hallam UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/583002016-05-11T11:34:14Z2016-05-11T11:34:14ZShould the state provide free meals to children in the school holidays?<p>It is well known that poverty blights childhood. It leaves children feeling neglected, hungry and excluded from social and educational activities which are enjoyed by other children. But it goes further than the school yard: <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/oct/24/ministers-holiday-hunger-schoolchildren-poor-health">anecdotal evidence from teachers</a> and teaching unions, shows that poor children who return to school after the holidays lag behind others in their class work. It <a href="http://www.povertyproofing.co.uk/sites/default/files/Isolation%20and%20Hunger%20-%20the%20reality%20of%20the%20school%20holidays%20for%20struggling%20families.pdf">may take months</a> to return to where they were before the holidays started. </p>
<p>While the holiday hunger in particular is well researched there is an urgent need for more study on its effects on children’s performance once they return to school.</p>
<p>The government estimates that <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-33266799">2.3m children across the country</a> are living in poverty, while charity research figures show that one in three children in Wales alone live in <a href="http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/where-we-work/united-kingdom/wales">poor conditions</a>. Furthermore, estimates in 2013 revealed that child poverty costs society as a whole <a href="http://bit.ly/1SYe8WX">at least £29 billion</a> each year – a figure which is projected to increase to £35 billion by 2020. </p>
<p>However, these are not children of parents or guardians that are out of work: at least six in ten of the children living in poverty are part of families where at least <a href="http://www.cpag.org.uk/child-poverty-facts-and-figures">one adult is employed</a>. But just one week out of school, away from free meals, is enough to push some families into food poverty. </p>
<p>In the summer of 2014, the largest provider of food banks in Britain, the Trussell Trust, reported a 38% <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/missing-out-on-free-school-meals-for-just-one-week-at-half-term-is-enough-to-tip-some-families-into-10096119.html">increase in referrals during school holidays</a> and nearly a third of those referred were children.</p>
<p>But what more can we do to help children outside of school terms? A new debate about whether the state should provide <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/give-children-free-meals-during-school-holidays-to-stop-them-starving-teachers-urge-a6969581.html">free school meals during holidays</a> has sparked great interest. Is this a logical extension to the current role of the state? And what advantages could it have to the educational achievement of children living in poverty? </p>
<p>Free school meals during term-time have been part of the anti-poverty landscape since the 1900s. <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-2-30-enough-to-cover-the-cost-of-a-free-school-meal-24092">In England</a> and Scotland, all school children between five and seven receive free school meals, regardless of their ability to pay. In Wales, all primary school children are entitled to receive a free breakfast at the start of each school day. Other countries, such as <a href="http://www.parliament.scot/S2_MembersBills/Draft%20proposals/schoolMeals-consult.pdf">Sweden, Finland</a> and the Czech Republic, make free school meals universally available to children of all ages.</p>
<p>While providing food for youngsters whose parents or guardians would otherwise not be able to afford them, free school meals are not without their <a href="https://theconversation.com/if-school-meals-are-free-how-do-we-know-who-needs-help-24376">problems</a>, including low uptake from the stigma surrounding the issue. </p>
<p>The qualifying criteria has also been <a href="https://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/sites/default/files/tcs/fair_and_square_policy_report_final.pdf">criticised as being too tight</a>: to be <a href="https://www.gov.uk/apply-free-school-meals">eligible for free school meals</a>, a family must have an annual income under £16,190 a year. This excludes some children who might be living in households below the <a href="http://www.poverty.ac.uk/definitions-poverty/income-threshold-approach">60% median income poverty line</a>. According to the Office for National Statistics, 19.3 million people in total had a disposable income below the national median at some point between 2010 and 2013 – not all of whom would have fallen under the qualifying meals criteria.</p>
<h2>Making a meal of it</h2>
<p>There are some voluntary organisations providing free meals for children who would otherwise go without a cooked dinner – working through the <a href="http://www.makelunch.org.uk/">Make Lunch Network</a>. </p>
<p>Likewise, over the Easter holidays, the Anglican Church in Wales church provided free lunches for children from poor Welsh families. The Scottish authority of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-33593816">North Ayrshire</a> also voluntarily provided free school meals during holiday times for poor children with a small charge for other children. </p>
<p>Although the gap in meal provision during holidays is seemingly being filled by voluntary organisations, the church in Wales has warned that coverage is <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-35992116">at best patchy</a> and mostly non-existent.</p>
<p>The potential involvement of the state is not a new concept but one that could not have come at a better time. There is now an urgent need for further government action to address the worsening position of child poverty in the UK. The Blair government’s target of eradicating child poverty by 2020 will be hopelessly missed, and the country is now <a href="http://www.oecd.org/social/income-distribution-database.htm">the most unequal society</a> in the EU, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. </p>
<p>One way of tackling this inequality is to reduce the gap in academic attainment between rich and poor pupils. The provision of free meals during holidays would help towards this goal since poor children would achieve more in schools after the end of holidays had they been eating well during that time. Better academic attainment will mean better life chances and consequently an opportunity to escape poverty – which will also mean less costs to the state in social security benefits. In addition, there is the further moral argument that it is unacceptable that up to a third of our children are not fed properly during the school holidays. </p>
<p>There are many effective things that could be used to make a difference to children’s lives, their sense of achievement and value in society. Free meals is just one of these. </p>
<p>Free meals could also be provided in holiday clubs, which could have a fun and learning dimension. Indeed, Frank Field MP has argued that four pence per litre of the proposed <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/doctors-urge-20p-tax-on-sugary-drinks-to-fund-low-price-fruit-and-vegetables-10384038.html">20p fizzy drinks tax</a> should be used for a national programme of <a href="http://www.frankfield.co.uk/latest-news/press-releases/news.aspx?p=1021138">school holiday food and fun provision</a>. </p>
<p>Evidently, the state could make a substantial difference to the educational attainment of poor children by simply providing free meals during holidays, and create a fairer society in the process. Children are our greatest resource for the future and it’s important that they have equal access to educational achievement.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58300/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hefin Gwilym does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Families are falling deeper into poverty when school holidays come, just to feed their children.Hefin Gwilym, Lecturer in Social Policy, Bangor UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/574682016-04-22T10:02:50Z2016-04-22T10:02:50ZShould schools provide free breakfast in classrooms?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119685/original/image-20160421-26981-so806o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Does the place of breakfast matter?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/amslerpix/15322558323/in/photolist-pm17L4-3nbnzX-ne3TVH-qFh5fN-8EVRmL-8hrBxV-9chSab-7BgZnK-oPWdc3-quB5ar-hXVQoz-okGd94-8NCq6h-vuJAjL-nLhJED-oZ8whY-7svoZ9-2dMfsj-oeMiRv-DtNfZ-8i87Mk-6pCvB7-9A355D-nHiBfF-2dMfsw-piE7UU-5FEXCQ-9Dk2s8-5vDSaf-6pCyky-9zj6we-9A36EX-fQt3UX-2dMfsW-ayDKwP-5Erubi-pYci4m-9DjPj8-BH9Gt-hLTdig-axUdAF-fck434-X23rc-domBh-65WYSJ-4ujvN6-q2FNPU-PnUrA-e4WWTJ-CPYv3">David Amsler</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Child hunger is a serious problem: <a href="http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/food-security-in-the-us/key-statistics-graphics.aspx#children">48 million Americans</a>, including more than <a href="https://www.nokidhungry.org/problem/hunger-facts">15 million children</a>, live in households that lack the means to get enough nutritious food on a regular basis. In large cities, about 25 percent of households with children do not have sufficient food.</p>
<p>The federally funded <a href="http://www.fns.usda.gov/sbp/school-breakfast-program-sbp">National School Breakfast Program</a> has long sought to improve these numbers, by providing a free or low-cost breakfast for students in participating schools. In addition to reducing food insecurity, the program has been found to improve students’ <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/40057265?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">health and nutritional intake</a> as well as their <a href="http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2014.12.003">academic achievement</a>.</p>
<p>Even though school breakfast is affordable (or free), meets federal nutrition guidelines and has the potential to benefit children in multiple ways, participation in the School Breakfast Program is surprisingly low. Nationally, only <a href="http://frac.org/pdf/School_Breakfast_Scorecard_SY_2014_2015.pdf">about half of eligible students</a> participating in the School Lunch Program take breakfast.</p>
<p>In fact, in New York City, <a href="http://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2013.06.007">less than a third</a> of all students take a breakfast each day. This is particularly surprising because breakfast <a href="http://www.schoolfoodnyc.org/OurPrograms/breakfast.htm">has been offered free</a> to all students since September 2003. </p>
<p>So why are the numbers taking advantage of free breakfast so low? What difference might it make if they were higher? </p>
<h2>Why don’t kids eat free breakfast?</h2>
<p>There are <a href="http://www.janetpoppendieck.com/free_for_all.html">several reasons</a> that participation in the School Breakfast Program is low.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119539/original/image-20160420-25634-1cosjgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119539/original/image-20160420-25634-1cosjgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119539/original/image-20160420-25634-1cosjgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119539/original/image-20160420-25634-1cosjgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119539/original/image-20160420-25634-1cosjgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119539/original/image-20160420-25634-1cosjgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119539/original/image-20160420-25634-1cosjgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Why don’t children eat breakfast?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sherimiya/16265224638/in/photolist-qMiwBy-8EVRmL-9chSab-dgDFNC-dZwYet-pPUKJM-dZx97M-6CNzQM-euSRkZ-6pypTD-dZwMYF-dZx7JH-9xUZYr-6pyiwZ-5X4oH5-dZx4c2-o4ee2d-dZwU2B-QWcc-dd6k7a-5LztEk-okGd94-dZCEXy-6ka5iR-7UKYRf-intT5U-dCoWKQ-dZwYUB-dZx51g-dZCPuQ-jUSMBZ-quB5ar-dZwQbX-dZx5Yg-dZx1cT-dZwZUK-dZCPc5-dZwXXr-dZCBad-9Mooba-nHUr6x-dZCKFh-dZCGrN-dZwPBT-bEF6pD-qLFVbR-dZx2yn-dZxbRt-4z9Q9d-dZCGJy">sheri chen</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>First, breakfast is offered in the cafeteria before school hours, and many students are unable to arrive to school early, because of transportation or family commitments. Second, children may not be aware that breakfast is served in the cafeteria before school. Finally, children are often unwilling because of the stigma associated with a trip to the cafeteria for a free breakfast.</p>
<p>Introduced more than a decade ago, Breakfast in the Classroom (BIC) has been adopted in many school districts as part of the school day. Breakfast is offered free to all students in their classroom at the start of the day, rather than providing it in the cafeteria before the bell. Cities such as Los Angeles, Dallas, Detroit, Cincinnati and Newark show <a href="http://frac.org/pdf/School_Breakfast_Large_School_Districts_SY2013_2014.pdf">high rates of participation</a>.</p>
<h2>Here is how it works</h2>
<p>Breakfast in the Classroom is given during the first 10-20 minutes of the school day. It typically includes cold, packaged items (such as cereal, bagels, yogurt and fresh fruit). In some schools, breakfast is offered on mobile carts as students walk in the door (“Grab-n-Go”), or as a “Second Chance” breakfast, between the first and second periods of middle or high school.</p>
<p>New York City began rolling out Breakfast in the Classroom in 2007. According to the <a href="http://www.schoolfoodnyc.org/OurPrograms/bic.htm">Department of Education</a>, the program is now offered in nearly 500 of the city’s 1,700 schools. The city serves over 30,000 classroom breakfasts each day. Beginning this year, it is expanding the program to all elementary schools. And there are plans to extend the program to all schools in the district. </p>
<p>Advocates for the program argue that in addition to reducing hunger and food insecurity, moving breakfast from the cafeteria into the classroom will, in turn, improve school attendance and academic performance. Some also argue it will improve student engagement by building a sense of community around eating breakfast together, and provide an opportunity to integrate nutrition and healthy eating habits into the curriculum. </p>
<p>However, critics have raised concerns that Breakfast in the Classroom could contribute to weight gain, as some children consume more calories by eating two breakfasts – one at home and one at school. Or that the program could take away from instructional time at the start of the school day. </p>
<h2>What does evidence show?</h2>
<p>Our <a href="http://doi.org/10.1002/pam.21909">research looked at the early effects of New York City’s Breakfast in the Classroom program</a>. We examined the program’s effects on school breakfast participation, student weight outcomes including body mass index (BMI) and obesity, as well as academic outcomes. We tracked data on student weight and academic achievement at different points of time, to compare students in schools that did and did not adopt the program.</p>
<p>Our sample included students in over 1,100 NYC public elementary and middle schools between the 2006-07 and 2011-12 school years (of which about 300 offered Breakfast in the Classroom at the time of our study). </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119538/original/image-20160420-25641-pmv9tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119538/original/image-20160420-25641-pmv9tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119538/original/image-20160420-25641-pmv9tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119538/original/image-20160420-25641-pmv9tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119538/original/image-20160420-25641-pmv9tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119538/original/image-20160420-25641-pmv9tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/119538/original/image-20160420-25641-pmv9tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Does breakfast in classroom lead to obesity?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/usdagov/16076267243/in/photolist-quB5ar-dZwQbX-dZx5Yg-dd6k7a-6ka5iR-dCoWKQ-dZx1cT-dZwZUK-dZCPc5-qLFVbR-4z9Q9d-dZCuYN-dZCHLJ-dgDA3Y-6pCvB7-dgDyVV-dgDG4m-dgDwqx-dZx3Mn-d7y3r5-gVUZP1-4z5B84-4YDEcH-ayDKwP-owWQhG-puw6AV-9mEz7N-fVpwA-dgDxLK-4z5uFp-7UL9Pf-aaBWHB-c3rpeQ-is5cKu-czgUnf-4DiFVY-dS5sep-o4YtVJ-nuQ1L7-mNk86d-719kfJ-7uVZnM-ejzKtG-oSpHap-ffGooM-4z5BRP-6pCyky-4z5ymX-fwydYF-opGAGQ">U.S. Department of Agriculture</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To begin with, we found that serving breakfast in classroom substantially increased school breakfast participation. For example, in schools offering breakfast in classroom in 25 percent or more of classrooms but not schoolwide, the participation rate nearly doubled. The increase was even higher – about two-and-a-half times – for schools offering the program schoolwide. </p>
<p>Importantly, we found no evidence that Breakfast in the Classroom led to student weight gain. We found no impact on BMI or the incidence of obesity. We also found no evidence that breakfast in the classroom reduced academic performance, as measured by achievement on reading and math standardized tests for students in grades three through eight. </p>
<h2>Serve breakfast in classrooms</h2>
<p>Our study suggests that the program certainly did no harm by taking away from instructional time or increasing student weight. </p>
<p>Other rigorous research on Breakfast in the Classroom has found the program can <a href="http://www.appam.org/assets/1/7/Breakfast_at_the_Desk_The_Impact_of_Universal_Breakfast_Programs_on_Academic_Performance.pdf">improve school attendance</a> and <a href="http://doi.org/10.1002/pam.21759">increase academic achievement</a>. </p>
<p>Taken together, our results show serving breakfast in the classroom increased participation in school breakfast even when free breakfast was being served in the school cafeteria.</p>
<p>Our work also shows critics’ fears that the Breakfast in the Classroom program will cause weight gain and reduce academic performance due to a loss of instructional time are largely unwarranted. There is no reason, therefore, not to expand Breakfast in the Classroom.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57468/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The research described here was supported by Award Number 1R01HD070739 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development or the National Institutes of Health.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>The research described here was supported by Award Number 1R01HD070739 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>The research described here was supported by Award Number 1R01HD070739 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors.</span></em></p>More than 15 million children live in homes that do not have enough food. However, the number of children taking advantage of free breakfast in schools is low. What can schools do?Sean Corcoran, Associate Professor of Educational Economics, New York UniversityAmy Ellen Schwartz, Professor of Public Policy, Education, and Economics and Director of the NYU Institute for Education and Social Policy, New York UniversityMichele Leardo, Assistant Director of Education and Social Policy, New York UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/406212015-05-12T09:58:07Z2015-05-12T09:58:07ZHow smart is it to allow students to use mobile phones at school?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79139/original/image-20150423-25549-10jyiq3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What should be school policy when it comes to mobile phones?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&searchterm=cellphone%20schools&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=206007979">Girl image via www.shutterstock.com </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>How does the presence of mobile phones in schools impact student achievement? </p>
<p>This is an ongoing debate in many countries today. Some advocate for a complete ban, while others promote the use of mobile phones as a teaching tool in classrooms. </p>
<p>So, the question is: Should schools allow the use of mobile phones?</p>
<p>While views remain divided, some schools are starting to allow a restricted use of mobile phones. Most recently, New York Mayor de Blasio <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/dept-education-ends-cell-phone-ban-nyc-schools-article-1.2134970">lifted</a> a ten-year-ban on phones on school premises, with the chancellor of schools stating that it would reduce inequality. </p>
<p>As researchers studying the economics of education, we conducted a <a href="http://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/dp1350.pdf">study</a> to find out what impact banning mobile phones has had on student test scores in subsequent years. </p>
<p>We found that not only did student achievement improve, but also that low-achieving and at-risk students gained the most. We found the impact of banning phones for these students equivalent to an <a href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w16227.pdf">additional hour a week </a> in school, or to <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2269846">increasing the school year by five days</a>.</p>
<h2>Increased student performance</h2>
<p>We studied mobile phone bans in England, as mobile phones are very popular there amongst teenagers. The research involved surveying schools in four cities in England (Birmingham, London, Leicester and Manchester) about their mobile phone policies since 2001 and combining it with student achievement data from externally marked national exams. </p>
<p>After schools banned mobile phones, test scores of students aged 16 increased by 6.4% of a standard deviation, which means that it added the equivalent of five days to the school year. </p>
<p>While our study was based in the UK, where, by 2012, <a href="http://www.emarketer.com/Article/UK-Teens-Far-Outshine-US-Counterparts-Smartphone-Usage/1009837">90.3%</a> of teenagers owned a mobile phone, these results are likely to be significant even here in the US, where <a href="http://www.weebly.com/uploads/7/8/7/5/7875420/emarketer_us.gif">73%</a> of teenagers own a mobile phone.</p>
<p>It is important to note that these gains are prominent amongst the lowest achievers, and changing policy to allow phones in schools has the potential to exacerbate learning inequalities. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79142/original/image-20150423-25549-gx8nzf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79142/original/image-20150423-25549-gx8nzf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79142/original/image-20150423-25549-gx8nzf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79142/original/image-20150423-25549-gx8nzf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79142/original/image-20150423-25549-gx8nzf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79142/original/image-20150423-25549-gx8nzf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79142/original/image-20150423-25549-gx8nzf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lowest achieving kids gained the most from mobile phone bans.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&search_tracking_id=x0b2drFOiBPdRn1wgkH0_w&searchterm=cellphones%20kids%20school&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=17537989">Children image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The gains observed amongst students with lowest achievement when phones were banned were double those recorded among average students. Our results also indicate the ban having a greater impact on special education needs students and those eligible for free school meals. </p>
<p>However, banning mobile phones had no discernible effect on high achievers. Also, interestingly, 14-year-olds were not significantly affected in either direction. This could be due to low phone use amongst this age group. </p>
<h2>Impact on student performance</h2>
<p>Schools in England have complete autonomy regarding their mobile phone policy. This has resulted in large differences in the timing of the introduction of mobile phone bans. This variation facilitated our study.</p>
<p>Our research used the differences in implementation dates across schools and noted subsequent changes in student test scores. </p>
<p>In 2001, none of the surveyed schools had a ban in place; by 2007 this had increased to 50%; and by 2012, 98% of schools did not allow phones on school premises (or required them to be handed in at the beginning of the day). </p>
<p>We compared the gains in student test scores within and across schools before and after a ban.</p>
<p>In addition, the administrative data gave us information on student characteristics such as gender, eligibility for free school meals, special education needs status and prior educational attainment. This allowed us to calculate the impact on students from each of these groups. </p>
<h2>School policy on phones</h2>
<p>Technological advancements are commonly viewed as increasing productivity. Modern technology is used in the classroom to engage students and improve performance. There are, however, potential drawbacks as well, as they could lead to distractions.</p>
<p>Mobile phones are a prime example of this, as they provide students with access to texting, games, social media and the internet. A review of literature in our study suggests ambiguous impact of use of technology in the classroom on student achievement. </p>
<p>We add to this by demonstrating that mobile phones could have a negative impact on students’ learning outcomes. The financial resources that schools would require for a similar gain in instruction time (the equivalent of restricting mobile phone use) would be quite substantial.</p>
<p>These findings do not discount the possibility that mobile phones and other forms of technology could be useful in schools if their use is properly structured. </p>
<p>However, our findings do suggest that the presence of mobile phones in schools should not be ignored. </p>
<p>The mayor of New York got rid of the ban on mobile phones with an argument that this would reduce inequalities. However, as our research shows, the exact opposite result is likely. Worse, allowing phones into schools would harm the lowest achieving and low income students the most.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40621/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Researchers have found that allowing use of mobile phones in schools harms low-achieving and low-income students the most.Richard Murphy, Assistant Professor of Economics, The University of Texas at AustinLouis-Philippe Beland, Assistant Professor of Economics, Louisiana State University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/406592015-04-28T11:25:15Z2015-04-28T11:25:15ZFact Check: are disadvantaged young people 12 times less likely to go to university?<blockquote>
<p>What I know is that there are about 12 times more people from advantaged, privileged backgrounds going to university than disadvantaged backgrounds and that isn’t good enough for me. </p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>Ed Miliband, Labour party leader, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b05rhjjv/the-leader-interviews-ed-miliband">in an interview</a> with Evan Davis on the BBC.</strong></p>
<p>We are fortunate in England to have access to <a href="https://www.hesa.ac.uk/hesa-latest-news/313-statistics/statistics-content/2832-npd-ilr-hesa">administrative data</a> which links the children in our school system with the students in our university system. This enables us to examine how much more likely those from advantaged backgrounds are to go to university than those from less advantaged backgrounds, and hence to check whether Ed Miliband’s statement holds in England. (It is not clear whether his figures refer to England or the UK; requests for further information have not yet been answered by the Labour Party.) </p>
<p>The data for pupils in England include very rich information on attainment at different points in the education system. But they are less good in terms of information on socio-economic background. We can see whether pupils who attended state-funded schools are eligible for free school meals; but this only allows us to differentiate those from relatively poor backgrounds from other pupils. </p>
<p>To identify those from the most advantaged families, we rely instead on information about the local neighbourhoods in which pupils live, including the proportion of residents with the highest educational qualifications, from the highest social classes, and who are most likely to own their own homes. Again, we can only observe this information for students from state-funded schools. Our analysis combines this geographic information with free school meal eligibility at age 16 to <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-985X.2012.01043.x/full">create an index</a> of socio-economic background among state school students.</p>
<p>Using data on all state school pupils in England who took their GCSEs in 2008, we can see how many went to university at age 18 or 19 in 2010-11 or 2011-12. Comparisons between the most and least advantaged in this field often focus on the top 20% versus the bottom 20%. Following this lead, we compared the percentage of state school students in the top 20% of our index of socio-economic status who went to university with the percentage of those from the bottom 20% of our index who went to university. This should give an indication of how much more likely state school students from the most advantaged backgrounds in England are to go to university than state school students from the least advantaged backgrounds. </p>
<p>The figures in this piece are similar to those estimated in previously published work by myself and colleagues which used a wider range of cohorts. Our research has looked at the socio-economic differences in <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-985X.2012.01043.x/full">higher education participation</a> overall and at elite universities, and at socio-economic differences in <a href="http://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/7420">dropout, degree completion and degree class</a>. </p>
<h2>Three times more likely</h2>
<p>Our analysis showed that around 56% of state school students in England from the top 20% of our index went to university at age 18 or 19, compared to about 19% of those from the bottom 20% of our index. This is a substantial difference; but it suggests that state school students from the most advantaged backgrounds are around three times more likely to go to university than those from the least advantaged backgrounds. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79075/original/image-20150423-25581-1c14fe8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79075/original/image-20150423-25581-1c14fe8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/79075/original/image-20150423-25581-1c14fe8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=166&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79075/original/image-20150423-25581-1c14fe8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=166&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79075/original/image-20150423-25581-1c14fe8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=166&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79075/original/image-20150423-25581-1c14fe8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=209&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79075/original/image-20150423-25581-1c14fe8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=209&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/79075/original/image-20150423-25581-1c14fe8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=209&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>Even if we were to compare the 1% most and least advantaged state school students – or the 1% most deprived state school students with private school students – we find that those from the richest backgrounds would be around six times more likely to go to university than those from the poorest backgrounds. </p>
<p>These figures come from before the most recent changes to higher education fees were introduced in 2012. But <a href="https://www.ucas.com/sites/default/files/2014-end-of-cycle-report-dec-14.pdf">the evidence to date</a> suggests that, if anything, the gap in higher education participation between those from the richest and poorest backgrounds may have narrowed somewhat since then. </p>
<p>There are two important points to note. First, the benefits of going to university generally accrue only to those who complete their qualifications. They also <a href="http://www.iza.org/en/webcontent/publications/papers/viewAbstract?dp_id=8363">tend to vary</a> according to where you go to university and <a href="http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/51562/">what degree class</a> you receive – a third or a first, for example.</p>
<p>Our analysis suggests that there are substantial socio-economic differences in these outcomes as well. For example, state school students from the most well-off 20% of our index of socio-economic background are around nine times more likely to go to a Russell Group institution than those from the least well-off 20% of our index – 14% versus 1.6%. </p>
<p>Even among the relatively selected group who go to university, those from lower socio-economic backgrounds seem to do less well, on average, than those from higher socio-economic backgrounds. For example, using the same administrative data described above, but for slightly earlier cohorts, our analysis suggests that the 20% least well-off students are almost twice as likely to drop-out within two years (19% versus 10%) as the 20% most well-off students. Among those who complete their degrees, those from a lower socio-economic background <a href="http://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/7420">are around a third less likely</a> to graduate with a first or 2:1 (43% vs. 67%).</p>
<p>Second, a key driver of the socio-economic differences in university participation – and the differences in degree outcomes – is how well students do earlier on in the school system. We <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-985X.2012.01043.x/full">know that</a> how well young people do in their GCSEs and A-levels is strongly predictive of whether or not they will go to university. Our analysis suggests the fact that young people from the most and least deprived backgrounds have very different GCSE results can explain almost all of the reason why they have very different university participation rates.</p>
<p>This highlights that substantially reducing or eliminating the socio-economic gap in university participation is likely to require interventions that address the very large differences that exist in attainment earlier in the school system. </p>
<h2>Verdict</h2>
<p>Our analysis suggests that, among state school students in England, those from the 20% most advantaged backgrounds are around three times more likely to go to university than state school students from the 20% least advantaged backgrounds – a lot less than the 12 times that Ed Miliband suggested. But they are also around nine times more likely to go to a Russell Group institution and around 50% more likely to receive a first or 2:1.</p>
<p>Thus, while the socio-economic gap in university participation is not as large as Ed Miliband suggested – and has narrowed somewhat in recent years – there is still much work to do to level the playing field completely between those from different socio-economic backgrounds.</p>
<h2>Review</h2>
<p>This analysis shows the very stark difference in the probability of going to university between young people from the most and least advantaged backgrounds. Depending on how one defines “advantaged”, the least privileged are between three and six times less likely to go to university than the most privileged. And the gap is much larger if one only considers elite universities. </p>
<p>One important point is that the gap is mostly explained by results at GCSE. So if we want the gap to be removed, more attention needs to be given to what impedes children from disadvantaged backgrounds from progressing up to age 16 – it is not mainly a question of improving access for 18 or 19-year-olds. This fact check supports the spirit of Ed Miliband’s remarks, but not his actual numbers. It is a great illustration of the use to which the excellent English administrative data can be put by researchers. <strong>– Sandra McNally</strong></p>
<div class="callout">The Conversation is fact checking political statements in the lead-up to the May UK general election. Statements are checked by an academic with expertise in the area. A second academic expert reviews an anonymous copy of the article.<br><br><a href="https://theconversation.com/factchecks/new">Click here to request a check</a>. Please include the statement you would like us to check, the date it was made, and a link if possible. You can also email factcheck@theconversation.com </div><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40659/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Claire Crawford receives funding for her research from a range of government departments, research councils, charitable trusts and other organisations, including the Economic and Social Research Council, the Nuffield Foundation, the Department for Education, Universities UK, the Education Endowment Foundation and the Sutton Trust. All of her research is independent and the views expressed in this article are entirely her own.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sandra McNally has received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council and the government to do independent research, but the views in this article are her own. </span></em></p>Labour’s Ed Miliband says that advantaged pupils are much more likely to go to university. Is he right?Claire Crawford, Assistant Professor, Economics Department, University of WarwickSandra McNally, Professor in the School of Economics, University of SurreyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/403322015-04-16T10:27:06Z2015-04-16T10:27:06ZManifesto Check: Lib Dems put education first as they seek to end schools cuts<p>The Lib Dems are giving a <a href="https://theconversation.com/focusing-on-education-is-a-dangerous-strategy-for-the-liberal-democrats-40252">higher priority to education</a> than the other parties. “Opportunity for every child” is the very first pledge on the cover page of the <a href="https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/libdems/pages/8907/attachments/original/1429028133/Liberal_Democrat_General_Election_Manifesto_2015.pdf?1429028133">manifesto</a> and is the item the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32311736">BBC</a> news coverage led with. The manifesto highlights the roles of education in supporting social fairness and in producing the skills for a productive economy.</p>
<p>The schools policies proposed in the manifesto are sensible and coherent, and in many cases a development of the current policies. There are, however, a number of significant changes of direction.</p>
<p>Schools funding is emphasised in the manifesto, and the Lib Dems are distinctive in offering more funding than the other main parties (though not more than the Greens). The pledges of Labour and the Conservatives <a href="https://cmpo.wordpress.com/2015/04/14/education-policy-in-the-election-2-school-budgets/">imply</a> cuts of around 9-10% in real per-pupil terms, but the Lib Dem pledge <a href="http://election2015.ifs.org.uk/article/education-spending-what-are-the-parties-planning-to-protect">implies</a> a lower cut or even zero cuts over the parliament as a whole, though higher funding is weighted towards the second half of the parliament. Still on funding, the Lib Dems also emphasise the pupil premium which they championed over the past five years, and also promise to introduce a National Funding Formula.</p>
<p>Turning to the other aspects of the schools policies, there are some sound ideas albeit lacking detail. How do we improve failing schools? The Lib Dems promise “rapid support and intervention” to ensure schools are rated at least “Good”, but do not explain how this might work. They will also ensure a “middle tier” of accountability and support – definitely necessary –- but again this is left unspecified, other than their being locally elected. This is not the same as the coalition’s <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/schools-commissioners-group">Regional School Commissioners</a>, the Lib Dems will abolish them. There is insufficient detail to see if they are similar to Labour’s <a href="http://www.yourbritain.org.uk/uploads/editor/files/Putting_Students_and_Parents_First.pdf">Director of School Standards</a>. Still on accountability, they will open up academy chains to inspection by Ofsted, which is a <a href="https://cmpo.wordpress.com/2015/04/15/education-policy-in-the-election-3-autonomy-regulation-and-academy-chains/">welcome development</a>.</p>
<p>The free school programme will be effectively abolished, and new places only funded where there are shortages of places. This is obviously a major departure from current policy, and a <a href="https://cmpo.wordpress.com/2015/04/15/education-policy-in-the-election-3-autonomy-regulation-and-academy-chains/">welcome</a> departure, as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/fact-check-are-free-schools-raising-education-standards-38547">evidence</a> shows that the original hopes for free schools are not being fulfilled.</p>
<p>The Lib Dems propose a number of changes on the curriculum. A “core curriculum” will be taught in all state-funded schools; that is to say, academy schools will have to follow this, reversing one of the academy freedoms. The manifesto emphasises maths and English but the core curriculum goes beyond that to also include things such as “financial literacy, first aid and emergency lifesaving skills”, while nevertheless being slimmed down. Having introduced their changes, power over the curriculum will pass to an external authority.</p>
<p>The Lib Dems want all teachers to be qualified or working towards qualification, as Labour does. This is <a href="https://cmpo.wordpress.com/2015/04/13/education-policy-in-the-election-1-teachers-and-teaching/">unlikely to make much of a difference</a> to pupil attainment. Unlike Labour, however, they will not require teachers to re-certify through their careers. The Lib Dems will also raise the entry requirement into the profession in terms of GCSE maths and English; this is not supported by <a href="http://www.bris.ac.uk/cmpo/publications/papers/2009/abstract212.html">the bulk of the evidence</a>, which finds little correlation between a person’s own academic record and her/his own effectiveness as a teacher.</p>
<p><em>The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/manifesto-check-2015">Manifesto Check</a> deploys academic expertise to scrutinise the parties’ plans.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40332/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Burgess receives funding from ESRC, EEF and DfE, but this article does not reflect the views of the research councils. The Conversation's Manifesto Checks are produced in partnership with Nesta and the Alliance for Useful Evidence. </span></em></p>The Lib Dems have promised to invest heavily in the schools budget.Simon Burgess, Professor of Economics, University of BristolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/397082015-04-09T13:51:49Z2015-04-09T13:51:49ZManifesto Check: Plaid’s education reforms more run-of-the-mill than radical<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/77527/original/image-20150409-15265-1ix3smx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Plaid's education manifesto comes straight from the history books. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/s/school/search.html?page=2&thumb_size=mosaic&inline=143878204">from www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The stated aim of Plaid Cymru’s education policies is to reclaim Wales’ position as a “beacon of educational excellence”. This reflects concerns about the performance of Welsh education internationally, and in comparison to other nations in the UK, based on <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-25196974">recent PISA assessments</a>. </p>
<p>Plaid Cymru does not seek to follow the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ofsted-confirms-radical-reforms-to-education-inspection">recent radical reforms in England</a>. Instead, the party conveys a clear set of values and a desire to maintain a distinctly Welsh approach, rooted in a vision of a Welsh progressive community. Plaid Cymru’s actual policies, however, are often short on detail, and do not radically depart from the current system and policies in Wales.</p>
<h2>Consensual and collaborative</h2>
<p>Plaid Cymru rejects England’s <a href="https://www.gov.uk/types-of-school/free-schools">free schools policy</a>, and instead wants to maintain a greater role for local authorities. The party’s manifesto explicitly mentions cooperation with teachers’ unions, building on the consensual model of educational policy development that exists in Wales, compared to the more <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-the-tables-turning-in-michael-goves-war-on-teacher-unions-25417">confrontational stance taken in England</a>.</p>
<p>One of Plaid’s central proposals is for a new national curriculum. The party suggests some changes, not least a greater emphasis on ecological issues such as climate change, Welsh history and culture and languages. But these suggestions don’t depart substantively from the current <a href="http://learning.wales.gov.uk/docs/learningwales/publications/130424-developing-the-curriculum-cymreig-en.pdf">Curriculum Cymreig</a>. </p>
<p>There is also an emphasis on advanced information and communications technology and coding skills, which appears similar to <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/year-of-code-and-500000-fund-to-inspire-future-tech-experts-launched">recent reforms in England</a>. In the light of economic and technological developments, this seems a sensible proposal. But, as <a href="http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2252198/ofsted-warns-of-skills-shortage-among-computing-teachers">the English example has shown</a>, policymakers will need to ensure there is a sufficient number of teachers able to deliver such a programme.</p>
<p>Another key pledge is to provide an additional year of schooling for three to four-year-olds by qualified educational staff. This is particularly important in light of <a href="https://www.ioe.ac.uk/RB_Final_Report_3-7.pdf">recent findings</a> about how better quality provision in early years can improve outcomes over the long-term. But again, the proposal is rather vague, with no information about funding. This is true of a number of other costly commitments in the document, including more support for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds, and a programme to replace unsuitable school buildings.</p>
<h2>Incremental, not radical</h2>
<p>The incremental nature of the manifesto is evident in the proposed relationship with schools. Essentially, the approach is similar to the “earned autonomy” principle, which has formed the basis of many accountability systems across the world, and was introduced in England in the <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2002/32/contents">2002 Education Act</a>. </p>
<p>This means that high performing schools will be given a more light-touch accountability regime, with fewer inspections for schools reaching required standards. Those that don’t are subject to possible spot-check inspections – an approach that <a href="https://theconversation.com/no-notice-school-inspections-take-teachers-out-of-class-and-into-paperwork-31880">carries some risk</a> of engendering too strong a focus on inspections, rather than improvement.</p>
<p>Plaid take credit for the introduction of the <a href="http://llyw.cymru/topics/educationandskills/publications/guidance/school-effectiveness-grant-2013-2015/?lang=en">Pupil Deprivation Grant</a> (PDG), so it’s not surprising that the party restates its support for this programme and promises to help more schools implement effective support strategies. The PDG is a measure which means schools receive an additional £1,050 for each pupil eligible for free school meals, and £1,150 for each child looked after by the local authority. These sums are to be earmarked specifically for supporting these pupils. As such, it is very similar to England’s <a href="https://www.gov.uk/pupil-premium-information-for-schools-and-alternative-provision-settings">Pupil Premium</a>. </p>
<p>A distinguishing policy proposal, which again points to the progressive nature of the manifesto, is a complete ban on hitting children through the abolition of the “<a href="http://www.bab.org.uk/downloads/Smacking_Leaflet.pdf">reasonable punishment</a>” defence</p>
<h2>When in Wales…</h2>
<p>Of course, the “Party of Wales” includes an emphasis on the promotion and protection of Welsh language and culture in its manifesto. Plaid aim to do this by ensuring that the existing requirement for local authorities to <a href="http://gov.wales/topics/educationandskills/publications/guidance/welshstrategicplan/?lang=en">develop strategic plans </a> to meet the growing demand for Welsh medium education are implemented effectively. Plaid Cymru emphasises the need for students to develop a positive understanding of the history of Wales and local communities through the curriculum. In addition, there is a call for further devolution of powers, to allow the Welsh Assembly to set teachers’ pay and conditions.</p>
<p>Plaid Cymru’s education manifesto is essentially a relatively standard set of centre-left policies, with the added element of protection and promotion of Welsh language and culture. It builds incrementally on current policies in Wales, and will not upset the apple cart. But, by the same turn, it’s unlikely to meet the ambitious aim stated at the beginning of the document.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/39708/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Muijs does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Plaid hits out at the “smacking defence” in otherwise typical education manifesto.Daniel Muijs, Director of Research and Deputy Head of Southampton Education School, University of SouthamptonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/334992014-10-29T06:11:17Z2014-10-29T06:11:17ZHidden costs of state education are stigmatising poorer pupils<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63017/original/5g6npd6p-1414498631.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Uniforms, books and school trips all add up. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&searchterm=school%20uniform&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=50734690">Kids at school via bikeriderlondon/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s official: poverty in England is getting worse. Britain is on the verge of becoming a nation deeply and permanently divided by poverty, according to the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/state-of-the-nation-2014-report-published">Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission</a>, with 2020 marking the end of the “first decade since records began where there has been no fall in absolute poverty”. Half of those in poverty are working and families with children are <a href="http://www.jrf.org.uk/sites/files/jrf/uk_without_poverty_summary.pdf">by far the biggest group living in poverty.</a></p>
<p>There is little chance that Britain will meet its targets for dramatically reducing child poverty. A <a href="https://theconversation.com/children-hit-hardest-as-recession-bites-unicef-report-warns-33492">new report from UNICEF</a> has estimated that the UK lost six years of progress in child poverty reduction because of the recession and the austerity measures that have followed. </p>
<h2>£800 per year</h2>
<p>Despite universal free education in the UK, people living in poverty are struggling to pay for the extra hidden costs of education. There are increasing reports of schools stepping in to provide basic necessities such as <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2012/jun/19/breadline-britain-hungry-schoolchildren-breakfast">breakfast</a> and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/oct/14/schools-providing-basic-necessities-to-disadvantaged-pupils">clothing</a> for pupils who are going without.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/sites/default/files/P366%20TCS%20Poverty%20Commission%20Report_LR.pdf">new report from The Children’s Society</a> has documented the ways in which a lack of money affects young people’s experiences of school. Sixteen young commissioners, aged from ten to 19 years old, worked together to provide a young person’s view of the ways in which schools understand and deal with young people living below the poverty line. </p>
<p>The young commissioners pointed to school guidance which prohibits schools from charging for education. Yet they gathered evidence that parents are spending an average of £800 per child each year on school costs, as the graph below shows.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63016/original/6zj34yxg-1414497550.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63016/original/6zj34yxg-1414497550.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63016/original/6zj34yxg-1414497550.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63016/original/6zj34yxg-1414497550.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63016/original/6zj34yxg-1414497550.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63016/original/6zj34yxg-1414497550.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63016/original/6zj34yxg-1414497550.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63016/original/6zj34yxg-1414497550.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Costs of school, per child each year.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/sites/default/files/P366%20TCS%20Poverty%20Commission%20Report_LR.pdf">Children's Comission on Poverty</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Who gets free meals</h2>
<p>The young commissioners point to evidence from the independent <a href="http://www.schoolfoodplan.com">School Food Plan</a> arguing that a hot meal every day is crucial for young people whose families may not always be able provide one. But the young commissioners gathered evidence to suggest that the implementation of the plan is patchy. </p>
<p>They found that some schools publicly identify children who get free school meals and stigmatise them in the process. Children whose parents are on benefits often suffer periods when they are ineligible for free school meals if their parents’ benefits have been cut off or are under review. Qualification is based on arbitrary criteria and many young people who are only marginally above the cut-off point may also be going hungry. </p>
<p>The commissioners recommend that the best way to get around this would be for the free school meal scheme to be expanded to all those on low incomes. They also recommend that schools should use a cashless system for school meals to help avoid bullying.</p>
<h2>Uniforms, trips and materials</h2>
<p>Turning to the issue of school uniforms, the commissioners said uniforms can help to prevent young people in poverty from standing out from their peers. But they pointed out that second-hand uniforms and worn clothing can have the same negative effects. They were more concerned about state schools requiring families to purchase expensive, monogrammed uniforms from approved school suppliers and recommended that schools opt instead for simply readily available uniform items with sewn-on logos.</p>
<p>Many schools routinely assume young people have access to computers and the internet to do their homework, but these are costly. Schools also offer expensive trips and excursions which are integral to the curriculum and expect families to provide textbooks, work books, dictionaries and stationary. To avoid these costs, the commissioners argued that schools should “poverty proof” the curriculum by conducting regular audits of hidden costs, a process that should also be externally inspected.</p>
<h2>Remedies not working</h2>
<p>The young commissioners also point to the pupil premium – money given to schools to provide additional support for the most disadvantaged pupils – and ask whether it will actually help to alleviate poverty-related problems. They suggest that all teachers need to be trained to recognise, understand and address the ways in which they can actually exacerbate the effects of poverty. For example, in one school a teacher put a purple dot on the books of children receiving the pupil premium, which could lead to bullying. </p>
<p>The recommendations from the report are far from radical, so you might assume that they would be easy to implement. After all, what kind of school system allows young people to struggle or fall behind their peers simply because their families cannot afford food, clothing and materials? </p>
<p>The answer is a school system which is highly devolved and which is reluctant to direct schools to take any particular action. And when it does direct schools, as in the case of <a href="http://www.childrensfoodtrust.org.uk/schoolfoodplan/uifsm/uifsm-faqs">universal school meals for the youngest primary school children</a>, it can face considerable opposition.</p>
<h2>Inspection can’t ‘poverty proof’</h2>
<p>In England, each school is responsible for its own local policies and budgets. It falls to individual headteachers and governing bodies to make decisions about their school – including what to do about poverty. Schools may or may not decide to take up the anti-poverty recommendations by the children’s commissioners. Under the current system, the only way of seeing whether they do and what the effects are is via an inspection system strongly focused on data and on results. </p>
<p>But it’s hardly a guarantee to rely on an inspection system – under which schools are often not visited every year – to ensure equity for children living in poverty. It is not good enough for children who are hungry, bullied or unable to participate on an equal footing with their peers simply because they can’t bring the right materials to school. </p>
<p>It is also no way to address what the Children’s Society report points to as patchy good practice across the country. And such patchiness is unacceptable if we are to genuinely have a school system which offers equal opportunity to all children, regardless of their family circumstances.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/33499/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pat Thomson receives funding from AHRC, ESRC, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, The Princes Trust, Creativity Culture and Education.</span></em></p>It’s official: poverty in England is getting worse. Britain is on the verge of becoming a nation deeply and permanently divided by poverty, according to the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission…Pat Thomson, Professor of Education, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.