Breakfast clubs are an excellent way for pupils to start their day and now most Islington's schools have one.Now, 33 schools, over 60 percent, offer 845 early morning places to children aged 5 to 14 years in the borough. Schools serve various menus from fruit or cereal to scrambled egg on toast. Children are on time for school and ready for the day ahead.Councillor James Kempton, executive member for children said: "Breakfast clubs providing much needed childcare for working families, are one of a range of family friendly initiatives being run by the council. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day but not every child comes with a full stomach. Research shows that pupils who eat a healthy breakfast concentrate better and learn more at school. Promoting healthy eating is a priority for us and through breakfast clubs we can start to educate children early on about the importance of a healthy lifestyle."A recent survey carried out by the council showed that schools already offering breakfast provision had seen a substantial and lasting uptake of places. Parent from Pooles Park primary school commenting on her son remarked that “He loves it in the mornings now, he gets up early, and he didn’t use to.” Additional research undertaken by each school identified the need to create high quality affordable early morning childcare places for children in Islington’s schools.Schools are focusing on:children of parents who work in the morningschildren of parents who would like to work but have no morning childcare arrangementschildren who are left outside school very early in the morningchildren who come to school without having eaten breakfast for a variety of reasonschildren with poor nutritionchildren with poor punctuality and attendanceThe council's, Islington Learning Plus submitted a bid to the New Opportunities Fund for Out of School Hours Childcare in 2003 creating 400 new early morning childcare places in sixteen schools for three years. The clubs have proved both popular and successful. A similar successful bid will fund another 348 places for three years in another thirteen schools from February 2005.Information and resources from Kellogg’s and ContinYou are also available at www.breakfast-club.co.uk/ Ends
Page Last Updated: 29 July 2008