A study has found that the provision of free breakfast clubs for primary schools in disadvantaged areas boosted maths and literacy results. The work was evaluated by the Institute for Fiscal Studies and looked at free breakfasts provided before the start of teaching. It found strong improvements in writing, reading and maths for pupils. You can explore this in more detail here.
The study's Abstract notes:
Breakfast consumption has been consistently associated with health outcomes and cognitive functioning in schoolchildren. Evidence of direct links with educational outcomes remains equivocal. We aimed to examine the link between breakfast consumption in 9–11-year-old children and educational outcomes obtained 6–18 months later. ... Significant associations were found between all dietary behaviours and better performance in SATs, adjusted for gender and individual- and school-level free school meal entitlement ... .
Future research should aim to explore the mechanisms by which breakfast consumption and educational outcomes are linked, and understand how to promote breakfast consumption among schoolchildren. Communicating findings of educational benefits to schools may help to enhance buy-in to efforts to improve health behaviours of pupils.
Perhaps promoting breakfast provision amongst parents would be a good idea as well.
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