A free school meals trial in York has taken its next step with the launch of a breakfast club as attention turns to funding the programme’s future expansion.
Fishergate Primary School has begun offering free breakfasts and activities for children from less well off families, with plans to extend the offer to more pupils.
Headteacher Tina Clarke told the Local Democracy Reporting Service it was setting children up for the day, feeding pupils who were missing breakfasts before and taking pressure off parents.
Council children spokesperson Cllr Bob Webb said he hoped to extend the programme further this year but the existing funding model needed to expand to support those plans.
Fishergate Primary School has joined Clifton’s Burton Green Primary School and Acomb’s Westfield Primary Community School in City of York Council’s free school meals pilot scheme.
It comes alongside a Government-run national free breakfast clubs early adopter scheme which is funding trials in 750 schools including York’s St Paul’s Church of England Primary School from April.
Westfield began offering free lunches to pupils in years three to six from January 2024, with the scheme later extended to a breakfast club offer in Burton Green.
The pilots followed manifesto commitment from the current ruling Labour administration which pledged to provide every primary pupil with a free school meal when it came to power in 2023.
The programme has been hailed for helping children learn and parents with the cost of living and the council put an extra £50,000 towards its expansion in this year’s Budget.
But much of the funding has come from private donations through the York Hungry Minds appeal, with free meals in all 57 primary schools set to cost an estimated £3m-a-year.
The York Hungry Minds, which is run by the Two Ridings Community Foundation, appeal has been set up to try an raise the money through private donations including from businesses.
Critics including the council’s Liberal Democrat opposition have said the money is yet to be found and it would be better spent on other measures even if it is raised.
Fishergate’s headteacher Ms Clarke said the council trial was going well so far but proper funding was needed to support the national aim of expanding them into every school.
Ms Clarke said: “The children are already really enjoying it, the atmosphere’s lovely and it’s a gentle start to the day for them and they’re much more settled and ready to learn.
“We knew before that some of the children hadn’t had breakfast before they came in and we were filling that need ourselves but not as well as we’re able to do now.
“The parents are also really pleased because they can drop their children off earlier and they don’t have to pay for somewhere for them to go before school.
“We welcome national ambitions for free breakfast clubs but they would need to be properly funded.
“If we had to do this ourselves the cost would have been signficant, the staffing costs alone would have been substantial, increasingly schools are being asked to do more with less.”
Children and education executive member Cllr Webb said they had opted for a breakfast club rather than free lunches at Fishergate following research into the council’s pilots so far.
He added research showed breakfast clubs were better value for money and had a more positive effect on the children involved but more pilots would require more resources and support.
Cllr Webb said: “Our ongoing pilots have shown that breakfast clubs have boosted attendance and improved children’s cognitive skills before they start the first and hardest lessons of the day.
“If a child is already on free school meals then they’re getting free two meals a day rather than just one.
“It’s a soft start between home and school that offers children a little bit of social time and if a child’s had a tough time at home it gives them a space to talk about that too.
“The lunch offer at Westfield has been fantastic and it’ll continue for as long as the school wants it to and if they decide they want breakfasts instead we’ll talk to them about it.
“In the short term the plan is to expand the council’s scheme and to get this into more schools on the ground this year.
“We’ve also got the national breakfast club early adopter programme and if that gets fully rolled out we could look at using our resources to top it up.
“The extra funding in the Budget will be used to help York Hungry Minds find more resources.
“We’ve found over the last year that it’s been harder for myself and council leader Cllr Claire Douglas to raise the money through having conversations, we need a more formal fundraising model now to expand York Hungry Minds so we can get more donations.”