We find that if we fix what we can for our families they give it back tenfold

LIFE AT THE SCHOOL WHERE THEY HELP PUPILS FROM STRUGGLING FAMILIES WITH FOOD, WARMTH AND DECENT CLOTHES

- EMMA GILL

ON ANOTHER bitter, dark winter's morning at a high school in Salford, the headteacher arrives to find children already standing in the car park waiting for it to open.

It's 7.15am and school doesn't start for well over an hour, but they're early for a reason because here they won't be shivering with cold, and their bellies won't ache with hunger.

It's happening more and more across Greater Manchester. Schools are becoming places not just for an education - but an extra emergency service, helping families with what should be considered the basics: food, warmth and decent clothes to wear. As other services fray, for parents stretched by low wages, years of austerity and the pressure of rising costs everywhere, schools have become a safety net like never before.

It's a reality the Principal, Zarina Ali, of Co-op Academy Swinton, knows only too well. Among the regulars at the school's breakfast club is a young boy. He comes so often that his favourite red apples are bought in especially for him.

"He puts one in his left pocket and one in his right pocket," says Zarina. "He puts a yoghurt in his bag and he takes a bagel and some cereal and goes to the back radiator to sit where the heating is on."

The place is warmed up ready to welcome students first thing. The early school drop-off means parents can get some extra hours in at work. In the manual jobs many of them have, those extra hours can make a huge difference at the end of each month.

But, for some pupils, it's a sanctuary away from their cold and overcrowded homes, somewhere warm they can sit and do their homework before class.

It's upsetting to hear. Zarina knows what a sad indictment of society it is to have children and families so reliant on external support.