School breakfasts and education

There is a positive correlation between breakfast consumption and children’s cognitive function, including improvements to children’s attention, memory, and executive function (i).

An independent trial found that Year 2 pupils in schools supported by Magic Breakfast made, on average, an additional 2 months' academic progress over the course of a year compared to pupils in schools with no breakfast provision. These benefits extended to all children in the school not just those accessing a school breakfast (ii).

Teachers report that school breakfast provision improves pupils' behaviour, readiness to learn, energy levels, concentration, punctuality and attendance (iii).

School breakfasts and health

Skipping breakfast is associated with being overweight or obese in children.

90% of teachers responding to Magic Breakfast's 2019 Survey of partner schools reported that they observed an improvement in children’s healthy eating habits following the introduction of school breakfast provision.

82% of teachers we surveyed reported they had observed improvements in children's mental and emotional well-being as a result of school breakfast provision.

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References:

(i) The Effects of Breakfast and Breakfast Composition on Cognition in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic
Review. Adolphus et al. 2016.
(ii) Magic Breakfast: Evaluation report and executive summary. Education Endowment Foundation. November, 2016.
https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/public/files/Projects/Evaluation_Reports/Magic_Breakfast.pdf 
(iii) Measuring and Monitoring Survey. Magic Breakfast. 2019.