No child should go to school hungry, but it’s still an everyday reality for many across England. And without proper sustenance, students may struggle to concentrate in the classroom, lacking energy and finding it difficult to fully engage in their learning.
So the Labour government’s manifesto commitment to fund breakfast clubs in all primary schools in England was well received.
It means, however, that many schools will soon be delivering breakfast clubs for the first time. We therefore decided to take stock and see what the evidence can tell us about effective school breakfast provision.
Today we published a new evidence review, looking at the features of effective breakfast clubs and the impact they can have on outcomes including attainment, attendance and behaviour.
Here’s what we found:
Breakfast clubs come in different forms
One of the biggest differences in breakfast clubs is whether the club is based on a universal provision (open to all children) or a targeted one (usually children from low-income households).
Universal provision can be helpful in reducing stigma for socio-economically disadvantaged pupils. Our evaluation of the Magic Breakfast programme found that encouraging all pupils to attend, while sensitively targeting pupils most likely to benefit, increased take-up.
Clubs don’t just take place before school
Another key difference in approach is when the club takes place - before school or during the school day. Most of us will likely think of breakfast clubs as running before the school day starts, as this kind of provision is often central to the wraparound care support for working parents.
However, this is not the only role for breakfast clubs: when looking at improving attendance, our review found some evidence that arriving at school earlier can be a barrier to some children.
Other models therefore focus on breakfast club provision as part of the existing school day, where breakfast is served in the classroom or a “grab and go” option is provided for children to take breakfast to class.
While this mitigates any potential negative impact on attendance, it does leave a question mark around the knock-on effect on learning time. It may also be difficult for schools to implement where they have existing rules around eating in classrooms.
Promoting clubs properly is important
Effective promotion can support the uptake of the provision. How this is done best will depend on the individual school, but approaches include advertising in newsletters or websites, leveraging school social media channels and running themed days at the club to add interest.
When thinking about targeting socio-economically disadvantaged students, it is worth considering approaches like making contact with individual parents or sending personalised letters home.
Staff at all levels need to be on board
The role of the wider school community and governing body is key. This can include a dedicated and supported delivery team, in which each team member feels part of the decision-making process and has a clearly defined role and responsibilities. This can negate some of the common pitfalls around relying on the goodwill of school staff or dealing with poor delegation.
This supported delivery team may also benefit from buy-in from the governing body, who consider how best to budget for ongoing costs and are clear about the rationale behind the provision.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to breakfast clubs. And how they’re implemented will be dependent on the unique needs of each setting and the children in its care.
The most important thing to consider is what you want your school’s breakfast club to achieve, whether that’s alleviating hunger, supporting attendance or setting students up for the day.
Our review also found that there are still gaps in the quality of the evidence around how best to implement breakfast clubs. So it is vital, as part of the government’s expansion of breakfast clubs, that explicit consideration is given to how to generate further evidence to hone in on the best models to support attendance, attainment and behaviour.
This will help us to make the most of this provision and ensure that it is utilised as an important tool to support education across England.
Chris Paterson is co-chief executive of the Education Endowment Foundation
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