Cautious welcome for free school breakfast clubs

Head teacher Becky Waters said it was "absolutely amazing" to see breakfast clubs getting more funding

A primary school head teacher has welcomed nationwide plans for free breakfast clubs but said the logistics "could be tricky".

Becky Waters is the head at Dogsthorpe Infant School in Peterborough, where more than 240 children get free bagel pieces as part of the Department for Education (DfE)'s school breakfast programme.

The government recently announced an extra £30m in funding to support this scheme and to bring free breakfast clubs to every primary school.

A DfE spokesperson said it was "kicking on" with this commitment and that further information on the scheme would be available in due course.

Mrs Waters said every morning at Dogsthorpe Infant School began with a bagel-cutter or two arriving early to prepare food for the children.

"I have been known to get the bagels ready in the morning if needed," she said.

"For some of the pupils that is the difference between them eating in the morning and not eating, so that is a real crucial part for some of them."

The bagels are cut up ready for each pupil as they arrive at school

It takes about 30 to 40 minutes for a member of staff to prepare the bagels, meaning toasting and buttering them are out of the question, explained Mrs Waters.

"If we had to toast our bagels that's not just a normal kitchen toaster doing that, that would need equipment as well."

The logistics of getting the bagels ready means Mrs Waters would like to know how free breakfast clubs would work in practice.

"Targeting things like breakfast clubs is absolutely amazing," she said, adding: "Schools and heads like myself are thinking, 'how logistically will this work?'

"The logistics could be tricky to work out [and] that money has to cover staff costs as well as food costs and equipment."

Pupils at Dogsthorpe Infant School said they enjoyed having the option of a morning snack

The £30m scheme will go towards the existing school breakfast programme, which is used by around 2,700 schools, as well as new free breakfast clubs, with the first ones opening in 750 schools in the spring.

A breakfast club and wraparound care provider in Cambridgeshire, Cambridge Kids Club, raised concerns about how the scheme would be paid for.

Panash Shah, its director, said: "I think it's been underfunded at this stage."

He said breakfast clubs included a care element in addition to providing food and equipment, which needed to be taken into consideration.

"We staff at a ratio of one to eight children and I just don't see how schools are going to staff at anywhere near the ratios I would do."

He added: "I would be much happier if the provision was focused for children from low-income families."

Cambridge Kids Club director, Panash Shah, said the government scheme was "underfunded"

A spokesperson from the DfE said the government was committed to delivering free breakfast clubs to every primary school.

The first 750 new breakfast clubs will begin in selected primary schools in April 2025 as part of a "test and learn phase" before they are rolled out nationally.

The DfE spokesperson said: "We will work closely with the sector as we develop the universal breakfast club programme to consider how best to put in place new arrangements and ensure that every child is ready to learn at the start of the school day."