'They buy fruit with coppers but get upset when they can't afford anything else'

SPECIAL INVESTIGATION HEADTEACHERS ON THE GROWING PROBLEM OF PUPIL HUNGER 

- David Cohen

MANDEVILLE PRIMARY AND KINGSMEAD PRIMARY, HACKNEY

Free meals should be a human right, not a benefit' Louise Nichols, executive headteacher

• Number of pupils: 370/240
• Free school meals: 62%/58%
• Pupils in poverty but not on free school meals: 38%/42%

"WE have two schools within a few miles of each other, both with a similar poverty profile, but in the one, Mandeville Primary, we provide universal free school meals, while in the other, Kingsmead Primary, we do not. This is because Mandeville sits on the border with Islington, one of four London boroughs that offers universal free school meals to all primary school children, and we need to make a similar offer to them to compete for students. It costs us £15,000 a year to provide free school meals for the other 38 per cent at Mandeville, and this is overseen by our associate head Marc Thompson, but at Kingsmead, with the financial pressures we're under, we can't afford it.