Dozens more primary schools to offer free breakfast

Free breakfast clubs are to be introduced for pupils at 60 more primary schools across Yorkshire.

The schools would become part of the free breakfast club programme in April, joining 74 across Yorkshire already signed up, the government said.

Among the new schools were 27 in West Yorkshire, 26 in South Yorkshire and seven in North Yorkshire, a spokesperson said.

The long-term goal was to make free breakfast clubs available in every state-funded primary school in England, they added.

The scheme was first launched across 750 schools in England last April, with another 500 new clubs joining this year.

The Department for Education said the scheme meant children had benefited from healthy breakfasts and being in school earlier, with evidence showing improved attendance, attainment and behaviour.

In Bradford, seven schools had newly enrolled on the scheme, with two in Calderdale, seven in Kirklees and 11 in Leeds, according to government figures.

In South Yorkshire, two had signed up in Barnsley, five in Doncaster, seven in Rotherham and 12 in Sheffield.

Meanwhile, seven schools in North Yorkshire had signed up to start offering the free breakfast clubs from April.

The government has urged headteachers of schools which were not part of scheme to apply to join, with applications open for enrolment in September.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders' union, said a good breakfast helped children "focus on learning" as well as benefiting their health and wellbeing.

However, he urged the government to "seek to understand any barriers remaining for those which have so far chosen not to apply, be they around funding, staffing, space, or anything else, and look at what can be done to help overcome them".

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