I was delighted that four Aldershot and Farnborough schools will be among the first in the country to benefit from the government’s breakfast club initiative.
From April, children at St. Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, Farnborough Grange Nursery & Infant Community School, Marlborough County Infants and The Ferns Primary Academy will be able to start their school day with a nutritious free meal.
The benefits of a healthy breakfast for young people are well documented: improving concentration, boosting energy levels, and enhancing academic performance. In fact, breakfast clubs have been shown to boost children’s reading, writing, and maths by an average of two months.
Importantly, the clubs are not only about food but also about creating a warm, welcoming environment where children can socialise and prepare for the day ahead. In schools that currently provide a breakfast club, the time is often used to provide additional support to pupils, including tuition time with teaching assistants or teachers, and additional support from pastoral staff.
Offering a free breakfast can help to combat absenteeism too. They particularly encourage children from lower income households to attend school early. Evidence from current breakfast clubs shows evidence of good attendance from children from lower income families.
At the same time, the breakfast clubs are a valuable source of childcare for parents at the beginning of the day. They simultaneously boost parents’ work choices and children’s life chances.
So, by ensuring that all children have access to a nutritious morning meal, we are setting them up for success.
Though we’re starting with just four local schools for now, Labour has tripled the budget on these clubs so that we can roll them out to every state primary school. We’ll be monitoring the ‘early adopter’ schools so that we can learn from parents, teachers, and members of the community, what works and what does not, before rolling out the scheme countrywide. So, if you have feedback, I’m keen to hear it.
I strongly supported the legislation that created these clubs because, in addition to the support it gives to the children themselves, it will help to ease the financial pressures that many parents are facing. Over and above the free breakfasts, Labour’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill sets out a raft of measures designed to cut the cost of living for families, including the commitment to significantly cut uniform costs through a price cap on branded items schools can require. The Bill will save some families over £500 per child, per year.
This is just the beginning. I will continue to work closely with local schools, the council, and central government to expand and refine this programme further. My ambition is for every child in the constituency to have access to a free, nutritious breakfast, ensuring that hunger is never a barrier to learning and every child gets the best possible start to their school day.
Alex Baker MP
