Primary school's breakfast club set to double

Headteacher Carol McQuiggan says the school's breakfast club will grow to 120 children

The size of a school's breakfast club will double when its free half-hour childcare offer begins after Easter.

Lawley Primary School in Telford was named among the first 750 schools across England to take part in the government-funded breakfast club scheme.

As part of the trial, the school will offer free breakfasts to pupils and at least 30 minutes of free childcare.

It already runs an hour-long breakfast club for a cost of £3 per child, but after the Easter break, parents can get half of the session for free and choose to pay £1.50 for the second half.

Carol McQuiggan, headteacher, told BBC Radio Shropshire the current breakfast club, which has been running for 10 years, hosts about 60 children.

"Staff are consistent. They are very used to doing it. They're feeding the children and getting it all cleared up - it's very, very efficient," she added.

The government's free breakfast club pilot scheme will begin this month

She said the number of children would double to 120 after the holidays.

"At the moment we're planning that, looking at the logistics of feeding the extra 60 children and looking at the capacity of our hall space," she added.

One child who attends the school's current breakfast club said there were "many good things" about it, which included "the food, the experience and how you get to have social time with your friends".

Several parents at the school also said it would make a "massive difference" to their household budgets as the cost of living continued to rise.

About 180,000 pupils in England are set to benefit from the pilot scheme, with more than a third of schools in deprived areas.