Does Cllr Gill Sanders approve of the Lib Dem policy to provide free lunches for infant pupils (‘Resources must be used in the best way possible,’ July 31) or not?
She raises two points in response to my letter. Firstly, some parents that could afford to pay might benefit. However, in Oxfordshire there are a larger number of parents in what is often called ‘the squeezed middle’ that will be helped by the new policy. Additionally, those parents that pay for private education won’t benefit; a fact Cllr Sanders chose to ignore.
Her second point was the speed the policy was introduced; in just one school year.
I recall that after I pointed out in 2011 how bad the Key Stage 1 results were in Oxford city, the Labour city council swiftly found a large sum of their money for a reading scheme open to all children regardless of parental income – even though education isn’t a city function.
It seems Cllr Sanders doesn’t value expenditure to ensure children can have free lunches in the same way. I would also point out that in addition to the central capital she mentioned there has also been extra funding for over 80 small schools in Oxfordshire to help them scale up the number of lunches they can serve to cope with whole year groups.
Cllr John Howson
County councillor for St Margaret’s Division & Lib Dem Spokesperson on Education
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