News / Education
The importance of Bristol breakfast clubs
As Bristol mayor Marvin Rees joined in with a game of Top Trumps, shadow education secretary Angela Rayner chatted with students over beans on toast.
The pair were at at Fonthill Primary School’s breakfast club in Southmead to discuss the positive impact of such clubs on children’s development.
Rees described the “massive value” of the clubs.
He said: “It means that not only do we begin to tackle food poverty, it also rolls into education and performance and behaviour for kids during the day.”
Rees is committed to providing a breakfast club in every school in Bristol by the summer of 2017. “It should just be a city guarantee,” he said.
Breakfast clubs provide a meal for students before school, as well as a range of games and activities.
Pupils at Fonthill Primary can eat their breakfast together, play games, or do arts and crafts.
Eight-year-old Naomi has been going to the club for two years. In between a game of Chinese Chequers, she said that Fridays are her favourite days because they serve sausages, bacon, beans and toast.
Breakfast clubs are particularly designed to help children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
“There will be students who are more vulnerable than others who have not started the day with a meal,” Rees explained.
Rayner added: “Clubs like these will compound both health inequalities and education qualities. Every child is equal here. It breaks down those divides.”
Headteacher Kathryn Absalom noted the success of the clubs since they moved the kitchens to the main building in 2015: “All these tables are full every morning.”
She explained that parents only pay for the food, while the school subsidise running costs to keep the costs at a minimum.
“They cost such a small amount of money,” Rayner said. “But if we cut school budgets even by a percentage, it can really threaten these types of services.”
The popularity of breakfast clubs in Bristol has encouraged Rees to plan to extend the opportunities for children in schools with after-school clubs, so there can be a hot meal at the end of the day.
“We need to think again about the cuts the government are trying to impose on schools at the moment,” Rayner added.
“We must listen to the headteachers and invest in our young people.”
Read more: Primary school named best breakfast club in UK
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