As you know, it is important that children be in a fit state to learn from the very start of the day. Having a loving/supportive home, a good night’s sleep and monitored screen time are all important, but in addition to this, ensuring that children have a good breakfast either before coming to school or at our breakfast club is key. When a child feels hungry, their concentration levels are undoubtedly affected.

We have recently carried out some research and it was interesting to find that, across the school, 10% of children (which is equal to 27 children – nearly a whole class) are not having breakfast before coming to school. It was also interesting to find that 54% of all children (which equates to 207 children) say they are hungry at the start of the first lesson in the morning despite having had something to eat.

It may well be that at the time of getting up, children state that they are not hungry. It may be linked to what they are actually having for breakfast. Porridge for example is proven to ‘keep them full’ for much longer than many other breakfast options. We are hoping you can support us by encouraging them to have something to eat before they come to school. You could link it to the fact that studies prove that the feeling of hunger distracts from the ability to concentrate in lessons.

As a school, we try our very best by offering excellent breakfast club provision and by offering toast and free KS 1 fruit as an option at playtime (KS 2 children are allowed to bring in fruit from home). We are aware however, that children who do not eat breakfast or cannot wait for break-time, are telling us they are hungry and it is those children who we need to ensure are having something to eat before school.

Thank you for your support and if you are struggling with getting your child to eat before school, do please ask us to support you, we have many ideas!

Miss Cook