Nursery World - Cereal thrillers

The effects of breakfast clubs are giving educators food for thought, says Radhika Holmstrom, but no one has yet devised a sure way to keep them going Coming to school on an empty stomach affects children's health, their behaviour, their concentration and ultimately their ability to learn.

Coming to school on an empty stomach affects children's health, their behaviour, their concentration and ultimately their ability to learn.

Increasingly, part of schools' solution to this raft of health, educational and social problems is to provide a breakfast club before classes start.

There are now probably more than 1,000 clubs around the country, but are they achieving their aims?

Overall, the answer is yes. A new University of East Anglia report, called A National Evaluation of School Breakfast Clubs, has looked at 253 breakfast clubs and concluded that breakfast clubs 'have had a positive impact on the school day, and may have been reaching many families whose members are at risk of or are actually experiencing social exclusion.'

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