Breakfast club helps working families, says school

More than half of Saxton Primary School's 42 pupils regularly attend breakfast club

The number of pupils taking part in a free school breakfast club trial has been much higher than expected, according to a head teacher.

More than half of the pupils at Saxton Church of England Primary School, near Tadcaster, regularly attend the government-funded initiative.

The site is one of 750 schools selected to provide free breakfasts before class as part of a pilot scheme and head teacher Rick Weights said the project supports both children and parents.

"The majority of children come from outside the village so it's really helpful for our families if they can drop their children off with us and then go on to their place of work," he said.

"We knew there was demand but we expected 10 children - we're now up to 25 or 26 every day which not only shows how popular it is, but also how useful it is," Mr Weights added.

The Department of Education (DfE) announced earlier this year that 180,000 pupils would benefit from the scheme, with more than a third of the schools included in the trial scheme located in deprived areas.

Saxton Primary School was in the first phase of a planned national rollout, with a further 2,000 schools expected to join the project in April 2026.

It introduced paid-for "wraparound care", including before and after school clubs, at the same time as the free breakfast club, which starts at 8:30 GMT every day before classes.

Head teacher Rick Weights said the breakfast club offered a "calm and settled start to the day"

Jade, wraparound care lead at the school, runs the breakfast club and said it had "blown her mind" how popular the service had been.

"It's been really nice to get positive feedback from the children and from the parents, it's really helping working families," she said.

"It's great to see the high numbers, it makes me really proud."

Children from Reception through to Year Six attend together and new "friendships are forming," Jade said.

"It's been a real delight to see the progress being made in terms of communicating with each other, they're really inclusive, the older ones are great with little ones," Jade added.

Nine-year-old Annabelle said her favourite thing about breakfast club was that "they did really good food", noting that she especially liked the toast.

"When we have a healthier breakfast it gives us more energy to learn better," she said.

Children from Reception through to Year Six attend together

"My favourite thing is that everyone gets to come when they want and they have really good toys," Amelia, aged seven, added.

Martha, 11, said she had made new friends and that she could play with her classmates after breakfast.

"I like all the colouring and all the games," she said.

In October, the DfE announced schools currently on the programme will be able to access supermarket gift vouchers and free delivery services to help them deliver breakfast clubs.

But some MPs and headteachers' unions have raised concerns the funding is too low for the scheme, ahead of the new schools joining in April 2026.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders' union NAHT, said: "We welcome the principle of free breakfast clubs being available in schools.

"A good breakfast helps children to concentrate on their learning and has enormous benefits for their health and wellbeing.

"However, it's really important that feedback from the government's initial trial is taken into account as part of this roll-out, including concerns over funding, staffing and space within school buildings."

The Association of School and College Leaders said it supported "the government's ambition to tackle child poverty and improve access to high-quality childcare" but that it also remained concerned about funding.

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