Breakfast on menu for all
All children in North Tyneside primary schools could receive free breakfasts before their lessons from September, following an interim report into a £250,000 pilot scheme at eight schools.
Four different options have been trialled at the schools since September 2007, with two schools each receiving either a free midday meal, a free healthy breakfast, a second breakfast mid-morning, or a free mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack for the whole of the academic year.
The interim report, published last week by researchers at Northumbria University, found that breakfast was the most beneficial in improving punctuality and readiness to learn and maintaining mental performance over the school morning.
North Tyneside council's cabinet was due to meet on Tuesday to discuss rolling out the free breakfast scheme to every primary school child at a cost of £750,000 for the next academic year. The council also discussed extending the provision of free fruit and vegetables to include Year Six pupils.
Dr Susan Carr from Northumbria University said, 'What is emerging so far is that the free breakfast seems to be the most important in terms of meeting our objectives. In our final report in July, we will be making a comparison between body mass index figures before and after the pilot. We will also be comparing academic performance and whether children's home diets have been affected.'
Carmel McConnell, founder of Magic Breakfast, England's largest provider of free breakfast for schools, said, 'The interim findings confirm our own research showing that a healthy breakfast at the start of the day maximises children's concentration. We urge other local authorities to follow this best practice demonstrated by North Tyneside.'
