For 13 years a free breakfast club at a voluntary aided Catholic school in Merseyside has been helping tackle child poverty, improve concentration and – since the pandemic – boost attendance. 

Two thirds of pupils at Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Primary School, in Seaforth, Archdiocese of Liverpool, are eligible for Free School Meals and the Pupil Premium, more than double the national average. 

Each day every pupil from Reception to Year 6 are offered fruit, cereal, toast, baked beans and a bagel from 8am, as well as occasional porridge, and hot chocolate milk on cold days. This is supported through local partnerships with Magic Breakfast and Tesco arranged by Deanne Arden, the school’s Business Manager.  

She said: “We are in an area of high deprivation. They might arrive in school hungry, but they're not hungry for the rest of the morning, having health food at the start of the day. It helps them concentrate, but it also helps to get the children in school.”

This has helped improve attendance since the pandemic, particularly from pupils with anxiety or emotional school avoidance behaviour, who appreciate the calming, social environment before classes and schoolwork begin.   

Parents are grateful to drop off their child early so they can then make sure their older children get to secondary school on time. After hours Our Lady Star of the Sea also offers wraparound childcare to support parents.   

Headteacher Claire Roberts said: ”With the cost of living crisis, we know how hard it is for our working families, so the free breakfast club gives our parents the flexibility to go to work and to not worry about the costs of childcare.”

Further initiatives to relieve child poverty include a second-hand uniform service, while parents donate non-uniform clothes their children have outgrown which are then made available to others in need. 

Pupils also receive vouchers from the parish branch of the St Vincent de Paul charity, with donations providing vouchers, toys and pyjamas for pupils, in addition to Free School Meal vouchers designed to provide food during school holidays.

Our Lady Star of the Sea has also received the national School of Sanctuary award for welcoming refugee and asylum seeker children.   

Miss Arden said: “When we've had new people start and new arrivals new to the country, we've given them the uniform that we have here. If children come in not wearing a coat, we will give them a coat that's been donated to us.”

Find out more about Catholic education in the Archdiocese of Liverpool