In 2013 Magic Breakfast and Give a Book started the project Magic Breakfast Book Clubs. In these clubs children are not only able to feed their bodies with a healthy Magic Breakfast, but also feed their minds by reading the brand new, popular books provided by Give a Book.

Give a Book is an inspirational charity started by Victoria Gray in 2011; the charity donates books to a wide range of people at a time when they really need it. Each school receives £500 of new books, notepads and pens to set up their very own breakfast book club. The school can choose books and reading themes to ensure their breakfast club supports child literacy priorities. So far we have set up Magic Breakfast Book Clubs in fourteen of our partner schools, with plans for four more.

"Reaction from children has been very positive, they were very excited to get the new books, pencils and notebooks. The system we use is like a lending library, the breakfast club runs daily between 08:15 and 08:45 with about 25 children attending. The books are available at the breakfast club for the children to browse, choose one, sign it out and take it home. Notes are written in the notebook about the books they like. It’s a great initiative, thank you!" Caterina Park, Literacy coordinator, Wilberforce Primary, Queen’s Park, London. 

The reading clubs help to develop the children’s independence and peer mentoring skills.

"We have been very fortunate to have a new partnership with Give A Book who have provided us with a hundred high quality books for our Magic Breakfast club. When we received the books we had several breakfast club sessions where children stamped and labelled the books and our Breakfast Club monitors are responsible for keeping the library tidy and the books in good condition. It's lovely to see older children and younger children enjoying books together." Alison Ticher, Home/School Liaison Officer, St Johns C of E Primary School, Tower Hamlets, London.

Give a Book and Magic Breakfast also provide Breakfast Pals, a cross-age reading scheme, to breakfast clubs in over 20 schools.

"I think it's good to help them with tricky words and understand the books more. I think it helps me to enjoy the story as well". Aisha, Breakfast Pals Reading Partner, Saint Aloysius Catholic Infants, Camden, London.

Magic Breakfast's founder, Carmel McConnell, said "We are delighted to be working with Give a Book to provide brand new books in our breakfast clubs – it’s a perfect partnership given our ethos of Fuel for Learning. If we can help children develop a love of reading as well as giving them a healthy breakfast, we can hopefully give them an even better start in life”.

 

Find out more about Give a Book here www.giveabook.org.uk

This blog was written by Jan Jemson, Magic Breakfast's Book Club Coordinator and School Change Leader in London and the South-East.