Headteachers are calling on the Chancellor of the Exchequer to increase funding for the government’s flagship National School Breakfast Programme, amid warnings that pupil hunger “is steadily getting worse”.
In a letter to Jeremy Hunt, coordinated by charity Magic Breakfast, 150 headteachers and school leaders have asked for “up to £18m over the next 18 months” to fund another 2,500 schools across England to deliver the National School Breakfast Programme (NSBP).
They warn that the NSBP, which is funded by the government until 2024, currently “only reaches a quarter” of the 10,000 schools across England that experience high levels of disadvantage.
The “urgent request” comes as teachers express the “difficulties” they face teaching hungry pupils who become “unsettled and disruptive”, impacting the whole class.
