Brekkie scheme piloted

Councilgreenlight

Children at an East Kilbride primary could soon receive a free breakfast at school – after a pilot project was approved.

South Lanarkshire Council rubber-stamped proposals to trial free breakfast clubs at primaries at a meeting of the education resources committee.

And Castlefield Primary in Greenhills is one of five schools which will be involved in the initial trial before the summer holidays, with 40 taking part in the wider pilot from August.

It comes after the initiative was put forward during budget discussions in February and £225,000 was allocated for 2018/19.

The five schools have been identified “based on free school meal entitlement statistics across localities,” according to the report put before councillors.

A final evaluation of the pilot is then scheduled for April 2019 – before the expected rollout of the breakfast clubs throughout the local authority area later that year.

The report to councillors states: “Nationally, the introduction of breakfast clubs has mainly been driven by concerns that a proportion of pupils are not eating breakfast and arriving at school hungry, which may impact negatively on their wellbeing, learning and behaviour.”

The breakfast clubs will be open at schools from 8.15am until 8.45am.

The report notes that school janitors start at 7.30am and the cooks at 8am, so there is no requirement for a change in shift patterns and supervision would be through school support assistants and volunteers.