Breakfast Clubs
Free Breakfast Clubs for Primary Schools – Early Adopter Opportunities Available
During September 2024, the Chancellor announced that up to 750 state funded schools with primary aged pupils will begin delivering free breakfast clubs from April 2025. Funding will allow these schools to run free breakfast clubs for their pupils in the summer term (April-July 2025) as part of a test and learn phase to inform delivery of a national rollout. HMT press notice
Schools that are interested to find out more about becoming an early adopter can sign up here to be notified as further information is available.
Breakfast Clubs in Wiltshire Schools
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, giving us the fuel we need to undertake activities such as walking, concentrating and learning.
It is not a requirement for schools to provide a breakfast club, but all children are encouraged to have a healthy breakfast before the school day.
Many Wiltshire schools do offer breakfast clubs and for schools that do, a number of different approaches have been taken, whether the clubs have been set up to support parents with child care before the school day, to alleviate hunger or as part of a nurturing programme.
Some schools have adopted a targeted offer where the club may be free for targeted families or a universal offer where there is a small charge for all families to access. Details of breakfast club offers can be found on school websites
National School Breakfast Programme
The current programme has been extended and is now running until July 2025. Places are still available if any eligible Wiltshire schools are interested. The offer is available to all schools that have 40% or more children in IDACI bands A-F.
As part of the programme, bagels, cereals and porridge can be delivered to schools each week to enable them to provide breakfast in a variety of ways including: a traditional breakfast club, bagel bar, classroom breakfast or arrival breakfast. All participating schools receive a 75% subsidy for breakfast club provision until the end of the current programme in July 2025, meaning they pay just 25% of the cost of food and delivery. Ideas and suggested funding streams can be provided to support the cost of breakfast.
If schools are interested in applying they can complete an expression of interest here and the team will be in touch.
Please note: If your school is currently receiving support for your breakfast provision from Magic Breakfast, or Gregg's, your school will unfortunately not qualify for the National School Breakfast Programme.
In Wiltshire, according to our latest data from 2021, 87% of primary school respondents had breakfast most days or quite often. However this fell to 64% of the secondary school sample and 47% of the year 12/FE school sample.
Useful links
Healthy Breakfast Recipes
Breakfast Club Models
Funding and resources
- Apply for national funding - for schools in disadvantaged areas
- Kellogs support for school breakfast clubs
- Apply for product donations from Warburtons
Other links
The School Food Plan includes a section on providing food other than lunch; complying with these standards will ensure the school is providing a healthy breakfast club.
The document above is from 2005. Although the links and resources mentioned may no longer exist, it still provides useful information about breakfast clubs.
