National School Breakfast Programme

The National School Breakfast Programme provides free breakfasts to 1,775 schools in our country, feeding 280,000 children each school day.

We are fortunate to have 10 schools in Mitcham and Morden involved with with the scheme: Bond; Lonesome; Liberty; St Marks; William Morris; St Peter and Paul’s; Cricket Green; St Thomas of Canterbury; Melrose and the SMART Centre. Some 1,530 children benefit from the programme each day across our constituency, but thousands of others also benefit. An independent study suggests that every child in a school on the scheme gets two months’ extra learning in reading and maths over the course of a year compared to children in schools with no such provision in place. Not only are the children fed, which helps them to concentrate, but their behaviour, their punctuality and their attendance improves.

Mrs Kennedy, headteacher at St Marks Primary School commented that: “We cannot imagine being without this initiative, having seen the impact it has on our pupils, their energy levels and consequently their ability to access morning lessons... We’ve also seen a significant improvement in punctuality as well as overall attendance.”

The importance of the programme could not be clearer. But it is under threat.

This scheme is currently paid for from the sugar tax. There is currently £123 million of sugar tax money at the Treasury waiting to be spent and yet this scheme ends in March 2020. Would it not make so much sense to allocate some of the money that is already there to extend this brilliant programme?

If your child or school benefits from the programme and you would like to support my campaign, please don't hesitate to contact me at mcdonaghs@parliament.uk.