We are continuing to work with the Local Authority to address your issues in relation to breakfast club applications.

Can we re-iterate that we as a school were not aware

• that the club would be capped
• that the club application process would direct issues back to the school
• that the process would not allow for opting for specific day or an ad hoc basis.
• that the club would allocate on a first come first served basis.

We also do not run the breakfast club. We facilitate the club by providing a venue and have to ensure the safe running of the club but the club and the staff are the responsibility of the local authority.

At present the club has a limit of 130 pupils based on staffing ratio’s for safeguarding and health and safety reasons and we are trying to increase this to 140 which is the maximum number of pupils we can safely manage.

The staff/ pupils ratio’s differ for the ages of children with 5’s and under requiring a higher ratio.

We currently have 5 staff working in breakfast club supervising pupils and 1 staff member in the kitchen. These provide the appropriate ratio’s based on the requirements shared with us.

If the Local authority agrees to raise the cap we will be able to accommodate more pupils but this might not meet everyone’s needs as more staff would be required and the LA are unable to recruit staff in this area. They are constantly trying but are constantly unsuccessful.

We will send a ParentMail out to parents early next week asking them for clarification on

• Which days they need for breakfast club
• Is their application for every week
• Is their application an ad hoc just in case application

This will probably reduce the numbers as some parents don’t need every day but the application form didn’t allow for the specific day option. Some parents have applied just in case they might need it.

Any parent not using the club for 3 weeks will be removed and their place allocated to any on the waiting list.

We have received many e-mails relating to breakfast club but do not have the capacity to reply individually to each one. At present we are waiting on a response from the LA and will let you know once we have heard what the outcome is.

I appreciate that this is a testing time for many parents but we are working hard on your behalf to address the issue with the LA.

Thank you for your understanding with this situation.

Mr H Roberts