Breakfast demand overwhelms school

PARENTS at a Cardiff primary desperate to sign their children up to a breakfast club had their names picked from a hat, as the school was inundated with demand.

Ysgol Y Wern in Llanishen admitted it wasn’t able to give a place to everyone who applied – despite having 150 spaces available in its breakfast club.

The school – which has more than 600 pupils in 21 classes – said it had to select names from a draw to give all parents a chance of securing a place.

But Ysgol Y Wern has said all its free school meal pupils have been given a place on the breakfast club.

It comes after more than 130 parents at Ysgol Y Berllan Deg, in Llanedeyrn, queued from 3am to get their children a place at the school’s breakfast club.

A Ysgol Y Wern spokesman said: “Despite having to close the kitchen for refurbishment, the school is keeping 150 breakfast places available for children in the next school year.

“This is 20 more places than in the current school year as we wanted to do as much as we possibly could to help our families.

“There is lots of interest in breakfast club places and we were oversubscribed on the opening day for applications.

“In order to be fair to all those parents and to give them all a chance of securing a place, names were selected by a draw.

“Unfortunately we don’t have the capacity to give a place to everyone who applied, but I want our parents to know that we are doing everything we can to help.”

Breakfast clubs are a government scheme offering primary school children the chance of a free, healthy breakfast at school every day. They are vital for many parents, who can drop their children off at school early so they can commute to work.