2025 Spring Term

The know zone

  • Free breakfast clubs: good for everyone?
    Tiffnie Harris highlights the impact that the government's plans for free breakfast club provision will have in primary schools in England. More
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    Leaders play a crucial role in ensuring that their schools and colleges provide good careers guidance says Beth Jones from the Gatsby Charitable Foundation. Here, she highlights the recent changes made to the Gatsby Benchmarks. More
  • Mission impossible?
    Julia Harnden provides a summary of what the government's funding settlement for 2025/26 means for school and college budgets. More
  • Rising from the ashes
    The 'bonfire of BTECs' has now been extinguished - so where do we go from here? Following the outcomes of the Rapid Review, Kevin Gilmartin clarifies the findings and looks at the post-16 landscape going forward. More
  • Stop the FE funding drought
    ASCL's Dr Anne Murdoch says colleges have been starved of funding for far too long and the government must use the upcoming Spending Review to end this injustice. More
  • Report cards
    It is essential that the inspection system is clear to parents and has the confidence of the profession. Currently, as they stand, Ofsted's proposed new report cards are worse than single-word judgements. What are your thoughts? Here, ASCL members share their views. More
  • Clear direction of travel
    Headteacher Martin Blain says he's proud to represent the primary sector on ASCL Council. Here, he shares his passion for Council and shaping children's lives to open up opportunities both in the UK and around the world. More
  • Do it 'your way'
    Carl Smith says there's never a shortage of people telling school and college leaders how to do their jobs. Here, he shares some advice on how not to be a head. More
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Tiffnie Harris highlights the impact that the government’s plans for free breakfast club provision will have in primary schools in England.

Free breakfast clubs: good for everyone?

Clause 21 of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill (tinyurl.com/26bsnnk7) aims to deliver Labour’s manifesto ambition that “[schools] in England must secure that breakfast club provision is available, free of charge, for all qualifying primary pupils at the school”. The word ‘secure’ means here that the school does not have to run the club itself, and ‘provision’ identified as:

  • “(a)… childcare for a period of at least 30 minutes ending immediately before the start of the school day, and
  • (b)… breakfast before the start of the first school session on each day”.

Last December, primary schools in England were invited to apply to become one of the 750 early adopter schools to run the trial Breakfast Club programme starting in April this year. All successful applicants were informed by mid-February, and these schools are supporting the ‘test and learn’ phase by running a breakfast club this year that lasts for at least thirty minutes in duration, includes food, and is free and open to all pupils from Reception to Year 6. Full details are in the guidance documents published in January (tinyurl.com/s2berrha).

DfE funding has been allocated to these schools to cover staffing (based on a support staff model), cleaning and food that is based on cereal, fruit, toast, bagels and muffins. Guidance suggestions include cereals, higher fibre bread, fruit breads, hot cross buns and crumpets alongside fresh vegetables, dried or canned fruit, yoghurt, cooked mushrooms and tomatoes or baked beans (reduced sugar and salt) if you opt for a hot breakfast offer and clause 22 of the Bill refers to the Requirements for School Food Regulations 2014 (tinyurl.com/z9c822ud) that sets out the mandatory standards for food served in schools.

Most primary schools do already offer a (non-statutory) breakfast club that meets contextual and community needs, but this new provision will be a universal, free-of-charge offer for all pupils who want it. How this will run alongside paid-for provision, will be up to a school to decide.

Aside from a free breakfast, there are many benefits for children that include a soft start to the school day and the opportunity for increased socialisation with peers. The Youth Sport Trust (tinyurl.com/37skny3v) suggests that breakfast clubs offer an opportunity for increased physical activity in primaries, “unlocking benefits for children including regulating emotions, improving concentration, building friendships and enhancing learning. Incorporating physical activity into breakfast clubs can support more children to achieve 60 active minutes a day, as recommended by the UK’s Chief Medical Officer.”

Additionally, see the case studies on the DfE website about the benefits of breakfast clubs – (tinyurl.com/jzvyfp9x).

Unintended consequences

Nobody would of course dispute a policy that provides free food for all children before the school day. However, there are some unintended consequences in its implementation, particularly around logistics, which the government must understand ahead of its national rollout from April 2026. Smaller primary school concerns focus predominantly on lack of availability of space and staffing issues, while larger schools suggest that 30 minutes might not actually be long enough to potentially get so many children through. All schools worry about longer-term inadequate funding.

Over the past year, the work of ASCL Council (www.ascl.org.uk/council), our policymaking body of elected members, has included lengthy discussions on what schools and colleges should be responsible for. Our concern is that the ‘mission creep’ of ever-expanding expectations on schools is making it harder for them to do their core job – teaching children.

The expectation on schools to provide breakfast clubs is another example of this, where schools are enlisted to provide what many see as childcare rather than education.

We would welcome your views as we continue to engage with the government on this – and would especially like to hear from you if you have joined the early adopter programme. You can email us at TellUs@ascl.org.uk using the subject ‘Breakfast Clubs’.

Tiffnie Harris
ASCL Primary and Data Specialist
@tiffharris.bsky.social

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