Free breakfast club scheme's been a 'success' for us, says Herefordshire school involved with initial launch
The government has announced 84 new schools in the West Midlands are set to join the programme in April as part of an expansion, with over 500 new clubs set to start
A Herefordshire school involved in the first government roll-out of free breakfast clubs last year has said its seen the positive impact its had following the announcement it's set to expand.
The government has confirmed over 500 new clubs will launch from the 2026 Easter holidays and take the total to it operating in 1,250 schools.
84 new schools in the West Midlands are set to join the programme in April to bring the overall number in the region to 172, which the government say is giving "49,000 children a better start and tackling cost of living pressures".
Little Dewchurch Primary School was among the 750 state schools with primary-aged children from every region of England selected for initial pilot of the scheme to offer a free breakfast to all pupils and at least 30 minutes of childcare before school from last April.
Headteacher Nicola Hudson has welcomed the decision for it to include more places and they've seen first hand how much having it has helped.
She said: "It's been a real success since we started, we've seen our numbers grow, so we currently have between 50-60% of our school attending every morning which is absolutely fantastic.
"It's had a huge impact on our children, they love coming and I think they love just having that soft start to the day, time to interact with their peers before they go into lessons and it means that the children are ready to learn and settled when they come into the classroom.
"I think schools need to be able to provide something that parents can rely on and know that their children are going to be sort of cared for and catered for before school even starts, so I think it's a great thing to see more and more schools rolling out breakfast clubs."
Figures from the government have revealed schools already enrolled on the programme have served up 1.1 million meals in the West Midlands to date and saved families up to ÂŁ450 per year, while giving them up to 95 hours of precious time back each morning.