Headteacher defends 'lunch isolation' policy

The head teacher of a London secondary school has defended a policy that places pupils in ‘lunch isolation’ if their parents miss payments for school meals, according to a report from the Guardian.

Katharine Birbalsingh, the head of Michaela community school in north-west London, introduced the policy and argues that parents who refuse to pay are ‘betraying their children’.

The school operates a ‘family lunch’ programme which entails pupils serving food and eating alongside teachers while discussing selected topics. Pupils are not allowed to bring in packed lunches.

Under the lunch isolation policy, if a pupils' parents misses payments, the child is put into lunch isolation where they are given one sandwich and one piece of fruit and are kept separated from their classmates.

Defending the policy, Birbalsingh told the Guardian that it does not apply to the poorest pupils on free school meals, but instead targets those trying to play the system.

She said: “Should we charge a poor single mum twice so she can pay for Jonny just because she has a sense of personal responsibility and Jonny’s mother doesn’t?

“Free school meals looks after the poorest. Even then we have all sorts of systems for people who really are in financial need, and I mean the real ones. I don’t mean the ones who are playing the system, trying to get other poor families to pay for their child’s food.”