A primary school headteacher, Barbara Middleton from Shiremoor Primary School in Newcastle, has turned down the Government’s free breakfast club initiative, citing concerns over its cost and operational challenges. Middleton expressed her reservations regarding the program’s requirement for schools to allocate a minimum of 30 minutes before classes for breakfast, which she found impractical. She mentioned that the allocated funding was insufficient to cover the necessary staffing for a safe operation.

Recently, Sir Keir Starmer visited a school breakfast club in Manchester and announced an additional 500 free breakfast clubs. The Department for Education (DfE) stated that many schools view the scheme as reasonable and feasible. Participating schools receive £25 per day along with £1 per student involved to cover food and staff expenses. Headteacher Craig Brown of Dean Bank Primary and Nursery School in Ferryhill, Co Durham, has enrolled in the program and will commence the free club soon.

Brown estimated that the school would receive around £10,000 from the government for the upcoming academic year, yet he clarified to the BBC that this amount would not fully cover the program’s operational costs. The decision to participate was driven by the considerable increase in funding compared to their previous breakfast club, which relied on support from a charitable foundation.

While Middleton’s school currently provides a morning bagel to each student, partially funded by Magic Breakfast charity, she highlighted the logistical challenges of implementing the government’s breakfast program. She mentioned the difficulty in staffing and accommodating over 300 children in one hall for the mandatory 30-minute breakfast period before classes. Middleton emphasized that allowing students to eat in class before lessons was not practical as teachers needed that time to prepare for the day ahead.