Fears for breakfast clubs funding

A new survey has revealed that approximately half of teachers have warned that their breakfast club will close within three years as a result of low levels of funding.

Breakfast company Kellogg’s polled 750 teachers with breakfast clubs in their schools and found that 43 per cent held fears that their breakfast club could close within three years, with 86 per cent of these claiming that this was due to wider pressures on school funding.

This is despite the majority of teachers arguing that breakfast clubs have a positive impact on pupil attainment, attendance and behaviour and the Department for Education stating that its plans would boost breakfast clubs.

The department saw its plans to scrap free school lunches for all infant school children in England to fund free breakfasts for all primary pupils instead dropped in July, after it hit controversy in the Conservative Party election campaigns.

The School Breakfast Club Provision in the UK report revealed that 85 per cent of schools currently have a Breakfast Club, but only two per cent of schools use pupil premium to help fund them. Surprisingly 54 per cent of schools said that their breakfast club was operating below capacity, with 62 per cent of school staff witnessing children arriving at school hungry on a weekly basis.