What’s cooking in Primary Schools?

It’s now early December, but still the debate rumbles on about provision for primary schools to provide free school meals for ALL infant children. This was flagged back in September, and has again reached the news today.

The cost implications are considerable, but another key issue is whether all primary schools have sufficient kitchen facilities and dining room space available to cater for all of their infants to have a hot school meal. With lots of the older children electing to have a hot meal too, there’s just not the logistical capacity in many schools to cater for them all.

If this becomes a reality, we may well find we’re even busier providing essential extra portable buildings as dining space across the country. With primary schools already short of classroom space because of rising numbers, it’s something extra for the government to chew over. Perhaps it’s the “just desserts” for a decade of reducing primary school accommodation provision?