A Birmingham headteacher has spoken out about the severe impact of the cost of living crisis on both families and schools in the city. Tania Yasmin, executive headteacher at Greet Primary School in Sparkhill, revealed the substantial debt schools are accumulating while trying to provide lunch meals for children who might otherwise go hungry.
Thousands of pounds in debt
Speaking to BirminghamLive, Tania, who has been teaching since 1997, said: "Schools at the moment, and I'm trying to maintain confidentiality, but we have got thousands of pounds worth of dinner money debt that we are carrying." She explained that many of the meals are provided to children of working parents who do not qualify for Free School Meals but are still struggling to feed their families.
"These are parents who are not eligible [for Free School Meals], who are working, who are struggling to pay, and these are parents that we are in communication with," she continued. "But we wouldn't deny a child a dinner. We give the dinner and hope they will be able to pay, but as soon as you start getting into debt, it's impossible to pay that back."
Free School Meals eligibility
The current Free School Meals initiative in England provides free lunches to all state-school pupils in reception, year one, and year two. For year three and above, eligibility is based on household benefits. The Government plans to expand Free School Meals to all pupils whose households receive Universal Credit from September.
Hunger in the classroom
Tania reflected on how hunger and child poverty affect children's ability to learn. "Until we have met their [children's] basic needs, they're not going to be learning in the classroom. They're not going to be able to focus or concentrate," she said. "The part that is missing is about are children hungry? Are they hungry? Are they thirsty? They're two of the simplest things to solve, because if they're hungry or they're thirsty, they're not going to learn."
She added: "If they're thirsty, here's a cup of water. You've drank that. If you're hungry, here's a piece of toast, which is the kind of thing we're doing at the moment."
Recognising the signs
Tania explained how school staff can often identify hungry children simply by their appearance. "We know the children who are hungry, we can see it in their faces. We can see the sleep deprivation that comes from hunger and all of those things," she said.
