Insight: Breakfast clubs - Rise and shine

A charity-run breakfast club is transforming the learning experience in schools for children and teachers. The programme provides more than 1,000 breakfasts a day to children throughout London.

Since 2001, the Magic Breakfast Programme has been delivering breakfasts to give children a healthy start to the day. Carmel McConnell came up with the idea while interviewing headteachers in Hackney. She was shocked to discover that teachers were giving food to children who were too hungry to learn.

Carmel explains, 'I was running a management consultancy at the time, but when I discovered what was happening I started buying bread and jam to drop off at schools in the morning.' She later took out a mortgage on her home and registered Magic Breakfast as a charity.

'It's shocking that children are not getting the food they need. We are a wealthy society, but children are being hospitalised for malnutrition.'

She adds, 'Lots of children are not getting food as there is no adult around in the morning, or parents are not getting up. Parents may leave money for children, but they use this to buy crisps and sweets. We see children aged three or four who are still bottle-fed and have not been weaned. There is a real lack of understanding.'

The calming effect

To receive Magic Breakfast support at least half of a school's pupils must be eligible for free meals and it must have achieved a Healthy Schools Level Two award. If a school qualifies, the charity delivers a freezer, plus bagels and cereal.

'Teachers say breakfast clubs make children calmer and more settled, where before they were listless with low energy. They are more able to take part,' says Carmel.

Carmel set up Magic Outcomes in 2002 to deliver training and development programmes to clients such as Pearson Education, Unilever and BT. For every two people attending a training programme the charity can open another breakfast club.

Magic Outcomes has produced unexpected benefits, says Carmel. 'Pearson Education has set up a mentoring scheme. Up to 30 employees help Hackney schoolchildren with reading. Schools have received free books, IT support and technology upgrades from clients such as BT.'

The charity currently supports 26 schools and hopes to help 45 by the end of 2007. However, there are barriers. 'Staff costs are about £6,000 a year. A number of schools do not have the money so they give out the food in the break.'

She adds, 'Local authorities are in the best position to help, but we need switched-on authorities that will ensure breakfast clubs are set up and supported. Extended hours teams are supposed to support breakfast clubs, but they are just not making it a big enough priority.'

CASE STUDY: DAUBENEY SCHOOL

Billie-Jean Smith is business and resources manager at Daubeney School, Hackney, where a breakfast club has been running for a year with help from Magic Breakfast. She says:

'Before we began receiving help from Magic Breakfast we had a big problem with children arriving at school hungry. The breakfast club helps to ensure that children get fed. Lots of them arrive for the breakfast club at 7.45am and stay for the after-school club, which means they eat breakfast, lunch and dinner at school.

'The club is oversubscribed. We can only offer 50 places due to staff ratios. However, we distribute food at other times of day.

'We have noticed a lot of benefits. The children have learned social skills, they sit down and eat, interact with each other over breakfast, pick their bowls up when they have finished and scrape food into the bin. Also, children who were arriving late for school now arrive early for the breakfast club, and are settled and ready to learn by the time school starts.

'Magic Breakfast is a fantastic charity. It has made a huge difference to our school and has helped the children and their parents immensely.'

• For further information go to www.magicbreakfast.co.uk.