Researchers found these unhealthy breakfast options did not have any positive impact on the academic performance.
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Andy Stockinger runs a breakfast club at St John’s Church in Peasedown St John and told Premier’s News Hour it’s a “great way for the church to get involved in the community”.
Hannah Littlecott of Cardiff University and lead author of the study said that while eating breakfast has been associated with general health and improved concentration, “evidence regarding links to concrete educational outcomes has been unclear”.
Eating a healthy breakfast has been shown to help increase school performance.
In fact, those who ate breakfast were up to twice as likely to record an above average educational performance compared with children who did not eat breakfast.
According to the poll of 900 teachers, three quarters said that being hungry or thirsty made a child more lethargic, while 83 per cent said youngsters are unable to concentrate if they have not eaten properly.
Dr Graham Moore, who worked on the study, said: “We analysed links between whether young people were eating breakfast and the quality of that breakfast”.
Cardiff University say the “ground-breaking” results show a direct and positive link between children eating a proper breakfast and doing well at school.
However, the research shows for the first time that children are twice as likely to score higher than average marks in assessments at 11 if they have started the day with a healthy breakfast.
“We have also provided significant financial support to schools to help them deliver universal infant free school meals and the new School Food Standards mean pupils of all ages are eating good food that fuels their learning.
There is therefore good reason to believe that where schools are able to find ways of encouraging those young people who don’t eat breakfast at home to eat a school breakfast, they will reap significant educational benefits”.
Participants were asked to list all food and drink they consumed within just over a 24-hour period, including two breakfasts in total, complete with times for when the food and drink was taken.
Littlecott said that for schools, dedicating time and resource towards improving child health could be seen as an unwelcome diversion from their core business of educating pupils.
‘Many schools throughout the United Kingdom now offer their pupils a breakfast. Interventions in young people’s health can lead to overall boost in the educational attainment of young people.
Professor Chris Bonell, from the University College London Institute of Education, said that the research emphasised the need for schools to “focus on the health and education of their pupils as complementary, rather than as competing priorities”.
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Researchers add that it provides compelling evidence that any decision to scrap free school meals in Chancellor George Osborne’s comprehensive spending review next week could have a serious effect on academic standards.
