Half Of Teachers Have Taken Food For Hungry Pupils

Half of teachers in Yorkshire have brought in food for pupils they believed hadn't had breakfast. New figures today from a national survey by YouGov shows the Yorkshire & Humber region is the worst in the country for the problem.

21% of those questioned say that it's god noticeably worse in the last 12 months. And more than half (56%) say that hunger is making pupils more disruptive, with 68% saying the youngsters in their care "unable to learn".

Alistair Darnell's the head at Castleton Primary in Leeds which provides a free breakfast club to over 100 children every day, which is supported by <a class="article-body-link" href="https://www.greggs.co.uk/ "Greggs"">Greggs.

He says it's totally transformed the school: "Children who don't have a good breakfast, it's very obvious to us by break time they really are flagging. Before, we had a lot of issues with concentration, attendance was relatively low. What we have now is that children are ready for learning straight away and concentration is heaps, heaps better as well. "Unfortunately we do have some families that are unable to give their children a decent breakfast every morning, so this is a real lifeline to some of those to start the day well. "Our breakfast club numbers started off below a hundred and have consistently now been above a hundred, so the demand for children wanting a breakfast in school is immense and I would think these numbers are going to grow and grow."