Every teacher knows the classroom is full of surprises. From reception to sixth form, the workday of educators is as varied as the students we teach, and no amount of planning time can fully prepare us for this.
I have the pleasure of being deputy headteacher at Simonside Primary School in Jarrow, where we understand that to ensure the school day is as smooth as possible, it needs to start right.
One of the ways we help prepare our students for the day ahead is through our breakfast club programme. We’ve been running it for 16 years, and it has had a transformative impact on our students and school community.
In November, we were honoured to travel to the House of Commons and receive the award for Best Breakfast Club in the North East at the 2024 Kellogg’s Breakfast Club Awards – alongside 13 other schools across the country.
This recognition of the hard work and dedication of our staff is hugely important, and the £1,000 prize received by each of the schools will go a long way towards making our breakfast clubs even better.
In the meantime, the government is preparing to name the 750 early adopter schools who will road-test its national breakfast club offer. So, to help them hit the ground running, here’s how our breakfast club operates and how this has led to success.
A warm welcome
For me, one of the greatest impacts of our breakfast club has been its role in tackling absenteeism.
Breakfast clubs are fundamental in encouraging students to arrive at school every morning, which translates to consistent attendance in the classroom throughout the day.
Rather than opting for an immediate disciplinary route when approaching absenteeism, if we begin to see a worrying trend regarding student attendance, we immediately encourage those pupils to attend our breakfast club.
We also couple our breakfast club programme with personalised rewards to acknowledge improvements in attendance and punctuality.
Much more than a meal
The results of this have been amazing, and they rely on making sure our students actually want to attend.
We do this by making it a place that provides more than just a nutritious breakfast. We strive for it to be as welcoming and as fun as possible.
Our club provides craft activities and colouring, board games, toys and other activities. We also have technology at hand, including iPads and activities such as Just Dance.
The welcoming atmosphere of our breakfast clubs provides our students with a calm, staggered start to the school day. This gives them the opportunity to be ready to enter the classroom with a more positive and confident mindset.
It also provides a space for students to catch up on homework, have fun and socialise with their peers. Importantly, this helps children to build important relationships and a sense of community.
We also use the breakfast club as an opportunity to develop children’s skills further. They order and serve their own breakfast. They wash their own dishes once they’ve finished. These small actions help build good habits, confidence and independence.
In it together
It’s also important to remember it’s not just the staff who make our programme such a success, but also the families of our students. Our breakfast club is open to all families in equal measure, championing inclusivity and supporting every student irrespective of their background.
For all these reasons, at Simonside Primary School we say that our day begins well before the first bell rings. Breakfast club isn’t an emergency measure or a bolt-on but a fundamental part of our offer to our community,
If breakfast is the most important meal of the day, then with around one-quarter of our children attending on a daily basis, our attitude is that breakfast club is the first lesson of the day.
As we move towards a national breakfast club offer in all primary schools, I encourage all schools to think this way too.
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