More than 400 children eat breakfast at school

Thursday 08 March 2018

New figures have emerged showing the numbers of children making use of breakfast clubs at the island's primary schools.

The issue hit the headlines recently following a recent speech by the States CEO Charlie Parker, who said that around 300 children were given their breakfast in schools, while making a point about the need for skills investment to start as early as possible.

He said: “I don’t know if you know this but at the moment we’ve got 300 kids every day being fed by schools at breakfast because they don’t come to school having eaten, that number is going up.”

In the same answer Mr Parker also said around the same number of children don’t have uniform, and around half of that number have difficulty using the toilet properly. He ended by saying:  “Unfortunately some of what’s going on at the beginning of that food chain is really sub-optimal and we cannot have kids in that situation. When kids come to school covered in rat bites, we have a problem and we need to deal with that.”

Pictured: Charlie Parker speaking at the Chamber of Commerce event (Gary Grimshaw). 

Express has asked for clarification on exactly where the figures used by Mr Parker came from - that is still unclear, but a States spokesperson did release the following statement: “When the Chief Executive was speaking to the Chamber of Commerce, he summarised information from a variety of sources, including the Education Department, Social Services and the Children’s Commissioner. The Education Department’s figures show that more than 500 children attend school breakfast clubs. Some places are paid for by parents, and others are funded by charities or schools, but the department does not maintain a central list that distinguishes the two. The issue of toilet training is one that has been noted by some schools with nurseries attached.”

The Education Department have also released the details on breakfast clubs, which show 516 children attend breakfast clubs in Jersey’s primary schools, with 439 pupils eating there.

The breakfast provided at the clubs often includes cereal, toast and juice – with even some schools extending their menu to include porridge, cheese, fruit and hot chocolate – for prices ranging between £1 and £4 per child per day.

Pictured: details on school breakfast clubs, released by the Education Department.

The clubs are opened by schools at various times from as early as 07:30, and although the Education Department hasn’t specified the reasons why the clubs have started, head teachers have told Express it’s to enable working parents to drop their children at school early in order to get to their jobs on time.

One head teacher also said the breakfast club reduces stress in the morning if parents have a number of school drop-offs to do,  and makes sure the children are on time for the start of their lessons, and also provide a nutritional breakfast.

The subject of breakfast clubs provided by primary schools has been highlighted as an ‘achievement’ in both the 2015 and the 2017 Education Department’s Business Plans; as they provide support for families as well as play settings with many of the clubs including activities like physical and mental games as well as homework support.