A healthy breakfast before school can change a child's day – and their future – according to new report
Magic Breakfast’s free school breakfasts are boosting concentration, behaviour and creating lifelong healthy habits for children growing up in a cost of living crisis.
We’ve all heard the marketing slogan that says breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and now a charity initiative that provides free healthy breakfasts in schools is showing that it might just be true.
The charity Magic Breakfast, which provides breakfasts for children in schools in England and Scotland, has found that 81% of their partner schools believe that child hunger has increased in their school community in the past year.
But in schools that partner with the charity, all children have access to breakfast at school — not just children who are entitled to free school meals. A report by the charity shows that this leads to pupils having more energy, improves attendance and punctuality, improves educational attainment, and helps cultivate healthy eating habits.
School breakfasts help address the effect of costs of living on kids’ engagement with school
An average of nine pupils out of 30 (an average classroom size) live in poverty in the UK, according to Magic Breakfast’s interpretation of data from the UK government.
And 90% of the schools surveyed by Magic Breakfast say that a higher cost of living, higher levels of poverty, and not having enough food are currently making it harder for children to reach their full potential at school.
Starting the day hungry can make it more difficult to stay awake and concentrate in class, and can lead to a lower mood and worse behaviour in class, they say.
But introducing universal breakfast provisions can help with this; Magic Breakfast’s report found that in 93% of schools, free breakfasts improved concentration levels in class. 84% also said it improved general behaviour, and 90% said it improved mental health and emotional wellbeing.
Meanwhile, Magic Breakfast says that schools that have free breakfasts have 26 fewer half-days of absence per year in a class of 30, compared to schools that don’t.
It also has wider-ranging impacts on educational attainment and life skills
Although a piece of toast might not seem like the biggest difference, having breakfast before school can really make a difference to children’s futures. Magic Breakfast found that pupils at schools that offered a free school breakfast achieved an average of two months’ more progress over a year at Key Stage One, compared to children at schools without breakfast.
And the charity says that having breakfast at school can benefit children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), in ways that can’t be quantified with attendance or test results, too. For example, it’s a dedicated time before lessons start when children can settle after the journey to school if they have sensory needs; it’s a supportive environment to learn practical, physical skills like using cutlery and trying new foods; and chatting to staff and fellow children, as well as choosing foods, can build communication skills and confidence.
Life skills improve a lot more from free breakfasts in specialist SEND schools, with 82% of schools seeing this benefit, compared to 56% in mainstream schools.
“One of our 14-year-olds didn’t know how to butter a bagel six months ago, now he’s making bagels for the whole class,” Holly O’Connor, a pupil support officer at Kaimes School, told Magic Breakfast.
Plus, starting a routine of eating a healthy breakfast every day helps to create healthy habits that can follow children throughout life.