Stuart Anderson MP has urged Education Ministers to roll out breakfast club provision in all primary schools as soon as possible. It follows a visit to Kinlet C of E Primary School that he made on 27th June 2025.
On his visit to the school, Stuart met with a group of year six pupils called the 'Courageous Advocates.' They visited Parliament on 14th March 2025 and sat in the public viewing gallery to watch a live debate on food provision at schools.
The Government is funding 750 early adopter schools to "test and learn" from new free breakfast clubs. In October 2024, Stuart urged schools in South Shropshire to join the school breakfast club pilot.
At the time, Stuart said that it was important for schools in rural areas to feature in the new pilot, so that Ministers can successfuly deliver the scheme in full. Over 3,000 schools expressed an interest in joining the programme.
Ministers have said: "Schools have been selected to ensure a representative sample of all primary schools across a range of locations." However, Ministers have also admitted that just under a third of the breakfast club early adopter schools are in rural areas.
This means that more than two thirds of schools are in urban areas. Ministers have added that the pilot will "gain insights into any challenges and barriers schools may face, in order to develop solutions ahead of national roll out."
Following his visit, Stuart has now urged Ministers to set out payment schedules and allocations for the next academic year as soon as possible. The scheme builds on the National School Breakfast Programme, which the last government had set up to £40 million invested using funds from the Soft Drinks Industry Levy.
Under the scheme, schools received a 75% subsidy for the food and delivery costs of breakfast club provision. This created or improved breakfast clubs in up to 2,450 schools across the UK.
An evaluation conducted in 2019 by the Education Endowment Foundation found that Year 2 children in breakfast club schools made the equivalent of two months' additional progress. Pupil behaviour also improved in breakfast club schools, enhancing their readiness to learn and improving classroom environments.
Stuart Anderson MP said:
"I was delighted to visit Kinlet C of E Primary School and meet a group of year six pupils called the 'Courageous Advocates, who are speaking up on behalf of fellow pupils in South Shropshire on issues that matter to them. I believe that the government should accept their request to proceed with national rollout of breakfast clubs as soon as possible. I have urged Ministers to set out payment schedules and allocations for our local schools at the earliest opportunity."
The Courageous Advocates said:
"We look for problems - either in our school or our local area - and we try and figure out if there is a solution to it. We have noticed a lot of our pupils coming to school hungry, because they haven't had breakfast. We think this is because families are stressed, or rushed, or they don't have much money. We would like to fix this problem by trialling giving our children breakfast when they arrive at school... On Friday 14th March, we went to the Houses of Parliament, and we heard a debate happening in the House of Commons all about this. We heard how not having breakfast can make children lack focus, become more easily distracted, and can affect their behaviour. We feel that this is a big problem in our school, and we would like your help to fix it."
