Breakfast Club Plus

Breakfast Club Plus How to set up your own breakfast club and keep it going extratıme Supporting out-of-school-hours learning Supporting breakfast clubs since 1998 Contents About Extra Tme Page 2 ContinYou’s work in study support Introduction Page 4 About the Breakfast Club Plus resource What is a breakfast club? Page 6 What happens at breakfast clubs Opening the doors Page 10 How to make sure your breakfast club is inclusive Asking around Page 12 Who to consult and what to ask them Making the case Page 16 Showing how breakfast clubs can help with school improvement Take your partner Page 22 Guidance on building partnerships Who’s going to run your club? Page 24 Who can help and what they need to do Hear all about it! Page 28 Ideas for promoting your club Show me the money! Page 30 Help with funding What do we do now? Page 36 Planning the club’s activities How are we doing? Page 48 Advice on monitoring and evaluation Finding out more Page 52 Sources of further information and advice Extra Time describes ContinYou’s approach to study support, sometimes known as out-of-school-hours learning (oshl). This approach aims to: • ensure that high-quality study support activities are within the reach of every child and young person in the UK • provide a wide range of accessible learning opportunities that extend, enrich and promote learning beyond the mainstream classroom. Extra Time is also the name of a range of services and resources that support the strategic development of study support activities in schools, local authorities and communities. Study support Study support describes the wide variety of informal learning activities that young people voluntarily take part in outside normal school hours. There is growing evidence that participation in these activities leads to improvements in young people’s self-esteem, attitudes towards learning, achievements, classroom behaviour and school attendance. Since 1992, ContinYou (formerly CEDC and Education Extra) has been the leading UK not-for-profit organisation promoting and developing the concept of study support. We have identified three main types of study support activities: • extension activities, such as homework, study or revision clubs, which extend curriculum learning by building on what children learn during the school day • enriching activities, such as rocket clubs or dance clubs, which complement and expand on what children learn during the school day, providing ‘extras’ for which there may not be space in the formal curriculum • enabling activities, such as reading or maths clubs, or volunteering or mentoring activities, which help to make the curriculum accessible to young people and/or enable them to develop life skills. Within study support there is a clear link between informal learning and mainstream educational achievement – it is the effect on children’s achievements that adds value to traditional extra-curricular activities. Why is study support so important? Developing study support activities brings many benefits to schools and communities, as well as to individual pupils. These activities contribute to key strategies for achieving: • school improvement and higher standards of achievement • better behaviour and attendance • ‘full-service’ extended schooling • the development of extended services in and around schools • creativity and enrichment • workforce reform and remodelling • easier transition between primary and secondary education • greater social inclusion • personalised learning • ways of building schools of the future • joined-up children’s services. ContinYou’s Extra Time resources will help you to develop the varied menu of activities that is part of the ‘core offer’ of extended services for all schools. They will also help you to embed study support within your school development plan. About Extra Time Copyright © ContinYou 2006 The Schools ETC network To receive all the latest news about developments and good practice in extended schools and in study support, join the Schools ETC (Extending To Communities) network. Schools ETC is a new magazine that highlights the huge range of new partnerships and initiatives being taken in schools across the UK to support learning beyond the classroom. It covers: • study support and out-of-schoolhours learning activities • parenting support and family learning • partnerships for on- and off-site ‘wraparound’ childcare • closer links with specialist support services, such as health services and social care • community access to ICT, sports and arts facilities and adult learning. A subscription to Schools ETC provides: • a quarterly, full-colour magazine • practical advice sheets • free membership of Sum-it! (a maths club network) up to March 07 • free membership of Book-it! (a book club network) up to March 07 • access to a subscribers' award • discounts on ContinYou events and conferences • an e-newsletter for extended schools • invitations to regional networking events. All members also receive copies of the magazine Children Now, including the monthly ‘In Practice’ supplement on extended schools. The basic subscription rate is £35. For information about discounted rates for bulk subscriptions, or to register your subscription, contact Jason Barlow at jason.barlow@continyou.org.uk or on 020 8709 9904. ContinYou publications ContinYou can offer a wide range of advice, information and research publications. For full information about our resources, look at our website – www.continyou.org.uk – or ring us on 020 8709 9900. Find out more: www.breakfastclubplus.org.uk 3 This is one of a series of publications produced by ContinYou. Others in the series are: • Sum-it! – maths clubs • Book-it! – reading clubs • OwnZone – personalised care and learning clubs. These are available both as printed documents and as pdfs on our website. Two further publications in the series are available online only: • Let’s cook – cookery clubs • Moving forward – study support clubs to support transition. Welcome to Breakfast Club Plus, the Extra Time guide to help schools set up breakfast clubs and keep them going. The guide is aimed at anyone who is starting up a breakfast club or who wants to improve on the breakfast provision that they are currently offering. Whatever your role is – whether you are a headteacher, teacher, learning support assistant, parent, governor or community volunteer – you will find lots of advice and guidance here that will help you to establish and sustain a thriving breakfast club. Each section of this booklet deals with a different issue that you need to think about when you are planning your club. It answers many of the practical questions facing you, and offers case studies, top tips and hints on keeping your club going. The guide also includes a set of activity sheets with ideas for making the club fun for your pupils. We know how busy you will be – it’s not practical to expect you to read through the whole guide at one sitting, and then to search the internet to find what you need. So we have designed this guide for you to dip into as and when you need to. Even with all the information you will find here, you may feel very much on your own as you try to get your new club under way. ContinYou can offer you further support through: • training to accompany this ‘start-up’ guide, which will bring the written word to life. Our training has been designed to be fun as well as informative. You will hear from people who are already running successful breakfast clubs about how they made things work. You will pick up tips on funding, as well as lots of other practical suggestions. • membership of the online Breakfast Club Plus network (www.breakfastclubplus.org.uk) – this will provide you with support and advice, resources, news and information throughout the year. It will give you access to more indepth advice, as well as practical tools to help you manage your breakfast club. To find out more about the training and about joining the online network, visit breakfastclubplus.org.uk. The comprehensive guidance in this guide, together with the option of further support through training and membership of the online network, means that you will have at your fingertips everything you need to help you create a successful breakfast club. Introduction Copyright © ContinYou 2006 ‘I am more than happy to support Breakfast Club Plus. Breakfast clubs can play a significant role in helping to improve children’s attendance and motivation, and in increasing social inclusion. They also provide an important opportunity to promote healthy eating amongst our children.’ Stephen Twigg MP, former Minister of State for School Standards How do we know what works? ContinYou is a leading UK educational charity with a network of over 11,000 schools, and is a pioneer of school breakfast club provision throughout the UK. Since 1998, with support from Kellogg’s, we have worked to convince schools of the benefits of breakfast clubs through a range of initiatives that have raised their profile, increased their effectiveness and measured their impact. We know what works and what doesn’t. We know what problems you will face and we have some good ideas for resolving them. How do we know all this? Because: • we have managed a national Breakfast Club Award scheme for three years that has supported clubs across the UK with grants of over £165,000 • we have commissioned research into breakfast club provision (Improving breakfast clubs: lessons from the best, National Policy Institute, 2002) • we have developed and delivered a successful training programme for local authorities and clusters of schools • we have managed the successful Food in Schools Breakfast Club Project in the West Midlands, funded by the Department of Health. Now you know that we have the right credentials to offer this support and advice, have a look through this guide and see how we can help you to realise your vision of breakfast club provision. Find out more: www.breakfastclubplus.org.uk 5 You might be forgiven for thinking that a breakfast club is only about providing breakfast or childcare. Although in some UK schools up to 50 per cent of pupils leave home in the morning without anything to eat, the truth is that a good breakfast club can be about much more than just providing food at the start of the day. Breakfast clubs are an ideal way of taking action over growing concerns about children’s obesity and inactivity. Breakfast clubs are fast becoming some of the most effective environments for promoting healthy and nutritional eating, for enriching and extending the curriculum through informal learning, and for tackling issues of social exclusion and academic underachievement. Evidence from pilot work shows that breakfast clubs have positive effects on the children who attend, resulting in: • better behaviour • greater concentration • improved attendance • improved punctuality • less bullying • improved social skills and greater confidence to interact with children and adults alike • a greater understanding of the importance of healthy eating • a renewed interest in curriculum subjects • better relationships with family members and the wider community • more curriculum time for learning. What happens at a breakfast club? Breakfast clubs offer great opportunities for trying new things and for developing children’s learning and their enthusiasm for new areas of work. Breakfast clubs not only offer a starting point for teaching about health, science, and life skills, but they also offer opportunities for physical activity, drama, help with homework and other curriculum-related activities. What does a breakfast club look like? A breakfast club offers at least one activity in addition to breakfast. It can be effective in providing learning support, creative opportunities and a healthy start to the day. Our experience in this field has shown that there are three main models of how a breakfast club might work: • ‘Tea and Toast’ – this is held in school, has a simple menu, and is run by volunteers, community members, teaching staff and/or guest tutors • ‘Servery and Canteen’ – food is served from the main school kitchen, offers multiple food options, and is run by club co-ordinators/guest tutors/ volunteers and external/ school catering staff • ‘Community Focused’ – this takes place in a community centre/church hall, has a simple menu, and is run by community staff. What is a breakfast club? Copyright © ContinYou 2006 Each model has its own strengths and weaknesses. Ideally, each of them should offer a range of healthy food choices (see below for sample menus). It is important to remember to choose a model, or a combination of models, that most closely meets the needs of your own group. A key success factor will be the strength of the relationship between the club and the school or local authority meals service. This will be able to offer support and help with the use of equipment, and with health and safety, food hygiene and other practical issues. Above all, a good breakfast club should be child centred, inclusive and fun. It will enable its members to make confident choices about a balanced diet, and will offer them opportunities to learn new things and try out lots of different activities. Sharing responsibility Encourage pupils to get involved in the running of the breakfast club. You could ask them to take responsibility for specific tasks, such as arranging the room, serving food or collecting money. You could suggest that older pupils act as mentors to younger ones. If the club has a steering group, you could allocate a couple of places to breakfast club members. What do we need? In order to run a ‘healthy eating’ breakfast club, you don’t need up-to-the-minute equipment or to be a professional chef, you simply need a few basic resources, plus a little creativity. Whatever your breakfast club is like, you will need access to the following: • a kettle • a fridge (or space in a fridge) • cutlery and crockery • tables and chairs • running water (hot and cold) • cleaning products • toilets • waste disposal facilities. Other resources that would widen the opportunities available include: • additional space/the ability to split the room into sections • a freezer • a radio/stereo • play materials • books, newspapers, magazines • computers • games. What’s on the menu? The aims of a breakfast club should be: • to give pupils the opportunity to eat healthy food • to contribute to the overall objectives of the school. We realise that not all pupils will want to make healthy choices all the time, and that having any breakfast is better than having no breakfast. Breakfast clubs are not about banning foods or labelling things ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Nevertheless, it’s important to enable pupils to make informed choices about what they eat, and to encourage them to try new things. Make sure that pupils understand what ‘healthy eating’ means. Encourage them to choose one item from each of the following groups: Drinks • Unsweetened fruit juice • Semi-skimmed milk • Decaffeinated coffee/tea – no sugar Cereals • Corn Flakes • Rice Krispies • Weetabix/Sultana Bran Bread • Crumpets • Brown bread/toast • English muffins Extras • Low/no sugar jam, marmalade or other healthy choice toppings • Fruit, including sultanas as a replacement for sugar on cereal • Yoghurt or fromage frais. Find out more: www.breakfastclubplus.org.uk 7 Top tip! Tie in with assemblies by asking the children to explain to the rest of the school why healthy eating is important. Top tip! Set aside a designated storage space for club equipment. You could ask club members to decorate it. Invite some pupils to be equipment monitors. Who’s the club for? When you plan your breakfast club activities, you need to be clear about who you are designing the club for. Do you want to reach a particular group of pupils (such as persistent latecomers) or are you happy just to see who turns up? There is evidence to show that taking part in study support activities provides disaffected pupils, or those at risk of exclusion, with an opportunity to re-engage with learning and a way back into succeeding in school. Think about what categories of pupils you want to attract – you might decide you want to give priority to: • pupils who are at risk of exclusion • pupils with special educational or other needs • pupils who have low self-esteem, poor motivation or a history of underachievement • pupils who come from less advantaged backgrounds • pupils who come from particular ethnic backgrounds • either boys or girls • pupils who are about to transfer from primary to secondary school • pupils whose health causes you concern. Targeting particular categories of pupils doesn’t mean that you are preventing other pupils from taking part. You just need to reserve a proportion of places for targeted pupils, while offering the rest on an open-access basis. Top tips for healthy eating! • Reward pupils for making healthy choices with cheaper prices. • Hold family sessions from time to time, to encourage positive attitudes towards healthy food. • Make fruit ‘smoothies’. Try new combinations of fruit. Primary schools in the Fresh Fruit in School schemes could use any edible leftovers from the previous day to reduce costs. • Track the changes in pupils’ choices and in their attitudes towards foods that they may initially see as ‘boring’ or too healthy. You should find that pupils move towards making healthier choices. • Have ‘3 for 2’ offers on healthy foods. • Make sure that healthy options are easy to eat, and that pupils can eat them quickly. • Highlight the healthiest option each day by putting a health ‘mascot’ (a toy of some kind) beside it. • Use the school reward system – give pupils points for making healthy choices, in the same way as you do for good attendance. • Ask pupils to tell you what they think of any new foods that they try – they could fill in comment boxes giving a thumbs up/ thumbs down or showing a score or a ‘cheer-ometer’. Keep it snappy and fun, to encourage them to try new healthy options. Make a poster each term showing what foods pupils enjoyed most/least. • Have ‘sugar free’ days with special related quizzes and activities. • Provide raisins and apricots for pupils to try as an alternative to sugar on top of cereals. ‘Yusuf was excluded from his previous school and spent nine months out of school. He started coming to Breakfast Club. He liked to help set it up. Three months later, all support was withdrawn, because he was coping so well in school. He still comes in to help.’ Applegarth Junior School, Croydon LEA 8 Copyright © ContinYou 2006 Keeping it going If the format seems tired, attendance is dropping or you don’t feel the club is achieving all it could, then change it! Don’t be afraid to start again. Find out more: www.breakfastclubplus.org.uk 9 Here’s how • The breakfast club at Bushfield Community College (Peterborough) is targeted at Year 7 pupils, who are referred by class tutors on the basis of a specific list of criteria. Those attending complete agreed target sheets, which are renewed periodically. The programme of activities for club members is designed to empower them and to help with their social development. The programme includes ‘healthy lifestyle’ diaries, activities to promote self-esteem and personal safety, circle time, help with homework, creative activities, and a buddy system. ‘Buddies’ help to support younger children both inside and outside the breakfast club. Club members are responsible for clearing up, as well as helping to run activities. Teachers have noticed that breakfast club members behave better and attend school more regularly, and that ‘students feel important – and full!’ • The breakfast club at Applegarth Junior School (Croydon) has been running for over five years. It serves up to a hundred breakfasts daily. The children can have a drink and choose between cereal, toast, baked beans on toast, bacon rolls, sausages in a roll, muesli bars, fruit and yoghurt. • The club was originally set up to address issues of attendance, punctuality and poor attitudes towards school and learning, and to develop social skills. Six ‘Breakfast Buddies’ who run the club have been the key to its success. They provide a warm welcome to each new member and spend time talking with other pupils, picking up problems, offering attention and support and encouraging pupils to get on well together. • The Buddies are an important part of the school’s child protection monitoring programme. They are employed in the school during the day, where their relationship with the • pupils extends into more formal learning situations. This means that they can personally encourage other pupils, particularly those in need, to attend the club. They can also provide direct feedback to teaching staff on any individual problems or improvements noted in the club. • After breakfast, most children move to activities set up in a separate area of the dining hall. Games, books and art materials are provided, as well as homework and literacy activities. Older children are encouraged to help younger ones. Children from Years 5 and 6 also attend ‘Early Bird’ sessions in the ICT suite after breakfast. Pupils receive certificates for full attendance. Having decided that you want to set up a breakfast club, how will you get pupils to come to it, and keep them wanting to come back for more? How will you make sure that it’s truly open to everyone – that there’s nothing that would put some pupils off attending? There are a variety of reasons why it may be difficult for some young people to attend a breakfast club. Thinking about some of the less obvious factors during planning can help to make your club as accessible as possible and may make the difference between success and failure. We have covered some of these issues in more detail elsewhere in this guidance, but here’s a checklist to start you thinking: • Involve pupils – help them to feel the club belongs to them by asking them what they want from the club (see the section ‘Asking around’). Find out what they expect to achieve from joining the club. • Target particular pupils – design your activities with a certain group of pupils in mind, or give extra encouragement to pupils that you wouldn’t normally expect to attend. • Offer a menu of activities – try to offer a good mixture of activities so that there is something for everyone. This gives room for more innovative or unusual activities that you would not normally expect to find at a breakfast club, but that can help to attract more reluctant pupils, such as yoga, dance, pupils’ own club radio show or magazine. • Be relevant – try to design activities that pupils will find relevant to their culture or interests. • Get the timing right – this is a critical factor. You need to think about how long you realistically need to provide high-quality activities, and whether it’s best to schedule them before or after breakfast. Here are some pointers: • Time in the mornings is short. There’s a danger that, if you are too adventurous in the activities you plan, there won’t be time to finish them and tidy them away in time for school. • Some breakfast clubs offer a lot of activities and begin 90 minutes before school, with only 20 minutes to eat once the activity is completed and the equipment is tidied away. • Other clubs run activities after pupils have eaten, or offer free play and simple games and run for just 40 minutes. • You could change the times of the school day or run a second sitting during break. • Get the place right – where you hold your club can make a difference to the number of pupils who attend. You should aim to keep your breakfast club distinct from what pupils do during the school day. Here are some things you could do: • If you can’t get away from the main dining area/canteen, try to change the look and feel of the room. • If you are running a small club in a big hall, mark out the ‘club space’ with posters or markers. • If possible, have a slight distinction between eating and activity areas. • If possible, offer a ‘buffer’ area where club members can go to relax, do exercises, and so on. • Try to set aside an area for club members to display some of their work or photos of club activities – this gives a sense of pride and ownership and is also an excellent way to attract other pupils. Opening the doors Copyright © ContinYou 2006 • Think about transport – this can be a big issue, particularly in rural areas. You will need to consider: • where your potential club members have to travel from and how they get to school • whether they come on the school bus – if so, what time does it arrive? • how you can schedule the club so that everyone has a chance to attend. Some schools have changed the start time of their school day to fit in with the bus time-tables, while others have managed to negotiate with the local authority transport service. • Listen to what pupils say – give participants ongoing opportunities to comment on what they do or do not enjoy about the activities. Make sure that you tell them what you intend to do with the information, otherwise they may not bother again. • Recognise pupils’ achievements – there are lots of ways that you can do this, depending on whether you have any money available. A certificate, or a letter home or to their class tutor recognising what they have achieved or praising their behaviour can have the same effect as an end-of-term party, or CD/book token or other gift. You could also ask pupils to vote for who should receive prizes. Think about linking recognition to healthy eating. • Encourage parents to support the club – try to ensure that you keep parents well informed about the club. Reassure them about who’s running it, why it’s happening, what activities will be on offer and what arrangements will be made when the club is not running. Getting parents on board can have a big influence on the number of pupils who join the club. Keeping it going After a while, speak to pupils who don’t come to the club or to those who have left it. Find out what stopped them from coming – whether there were logistical, practical, emotional, financial or other reasons. You may be surprised by what makes a difference to whether someone comes to your club or not. Find out more: www.breakfastclubplus.org.uk 11 Here’s how • The ‘Megabytes’ breakfast club at West End Primary School (Lancashire) also serves as an internet café. Children can develop their ICT skills using one of the six laptops available. Teachers offer help with homework during the breakfast club session and parents act as mentors to many of the students. Children also have access to games, arts, crafts and a reading corner. A breakfast club steering committee meets regularly to ensure that the provision is of high quality. • The breakfast club at the Grantham Spitalgate Church of England Primary School (Lincolnshire) was set up in April 2001. The club takes place every morning in the school hall. There are themed breakfasts, such as food from other countries and ‘try something new’ days. Students also take part in the ‘Big Breakfast Celebration’, which includes lots of activities, such as a bouncy castle, face painting, an ‘It’s a Knockout’ competition, a disco, a drumming workshop and jugglers. On regular breakfast club days, pupils play games, and art and craft activities are on offer. A computer is also available. • Up to 75 children attend the breakfast club at Fairchildes Primary School (Croydon). Breakfast options range from a full English breakfast to muesli bars, fruit and other ‘healthy selections’. Club members also have the opportunity to visit the library for a journal writing session or to use the ICT room. In addition to this, pupils can take part in various art activities, and there are games and puzzles they can use. These options are very successful in their aim of developing children’s social skills. The club promotes family eating and up to 25 parents also attend each day. As a result of the breakfast club, pupils are better at arriving at school on time, they concentrate better and they are less likely to feel hungry by mid-morning. When you are planning your breakfast club you could ask yourself the following questions: • What will members enjoy? • When’s the best time to run the club? • Who should run it? • What are we trying to achieve? • Who else might be interested or want to get involved? • What else could we offer? There will be lots of other things you need to decide. But, to shape a programme that appeals to pupils and achieves its goals, you shouldn’t just be asking yourself these questions. You should also be consulting your pupils and partners. Why bother? A programme based on information gathered from these groups has a much better chance of surviving than one that is based on guesswork because: • by involving pupils in planning the activities, you will give them a greater sense of ownership and commitment to the club • it will give you some insight into pupils’ interests, perspectives and expectations • it will help you to identify a suitable target group • it will help you to identify what pupils need and to set learning objectives for the programme • it will enable you to establish support networks that may be able to help you with information, resources and, possibly, funding • it will help to ensure that your ideas fit within the strategic plans of your school and local authority, and of partner organisations and agencies • it will enable you to identify interests and skills that you can use in the club. Who to consult? You need to identify the main stakeholders in your breakfast club, as well as possible partners. Who these are will vary from school to school, depending on your priorities. You don’t need to consult everyone, but try to get a good cross-section of views. Think about approaching: • pupils • the Senior Management Team • parents • family learning co-ordinators • school staff • school governors • LA strategy managers • the school meals service • Healthy School Co-ordinators • nutritionists • community groups • local statutory agencies • local Primary Care Trusts/GPs • dental practitioners • local transport providers • ‘safe route to school’ groups • possible partners, such as supermarkets, shops and businesses. Asking around Copyright © ContinYou 2006 Top tip! If you have a steering group overseeing the organisation of the breakfast club, share the responsibility for consultation among members of the steering group. You could also seek the views of the people and organisations associated with the different activities you will be running alongside serving breakfast, such as sports development officers, artists, coaches and others. How should you consult people? How you consult depends on who you consult. Consultation is not just about questionnaires and surveys. The best way of finding out what parents think might be to hold an information evening, but, if you want to discuss your plans with prospective partners, it might be better to approach them individually by phoning or visiting them. Make it easy However you decide to consult people, try to make it easy for everyone to take part, especially ‘hard-to-reach’ pupils, who may be the group you most want to attract to your breakfast club. Try to make sure that the timing, format, length and language of the consultation does not put anyone off contributing. Have a look at Engaging young people in evaluation and consultation, found at www.nof.org.uk, for more help on consulting pupils. What should you ask? Again, this depends on who you are asking. The main thing is to think as widely as possible and to make the most of the opportunity to get the views of others, without overloading them! Have a look at the section ‘Opening the doors’ for ideas of some of the issues you might want to find out about. Find out more: www.breakfastclubplus.org.uk 13 Top tips! There are lots of ways that you can make it fun for young people – and others – to give you their views about setting up a breakfast club. You could try: • focus groups • graffiti walls • suggestion boxes • online surveys • face-to-face meetings • playground questionnaires • school gate questionnaires. Top tips! • Ask pupils for their views about the timing, format and staffing of the club. Find out about their interests and what other activities they take part in and why. • Ask community partners how the activities of the club will tie in with their own objectives, and how they might be able to offer expertise or resources (this information can also add value to future funding applications!). • Ask parents and families whether they have any interests, hobbies or skills that they could contribute to the club. • You can download examples of ‘needs analysis’ questionnaires from the members’ pages of www.breakfastclubplus.org.uk – you can use them with pupils, families, staff and partners. When should you consult people? Consultation should be an ongoing, two-way process that you start during the planning stage of your club. Don’t worry that you won’t be able to take on board all the ideas that come from a consultation. You will be able to incorporate at least some of the ideas and adapt others. Or they may stimulate your own ideas. Providing you give feedback on how you will use the information that is given to you, partners will usually be happy to respond again. For example, on the first day of your breakfast club, you could ask the pupils what they expect to happen at the club. After a term or so, review your activities by looking at whether the club has met, exceeded or missed those expectations. For more information on this, see the section ‘How are we doing?’ Doing an audit It can be very helpful to find out what out-of-school activities are already taking place, who they are for, when they happen and what they are designed to achieve. Looking at attendance patterns, club registers and formats of the clubs will give you an idea of the best time to run your activity and what might appeal to pupils most. Keeping it going Don’t be scared to ask whether you are getting it right! You might be surprised – and, as long as you don’t make rash promises to change the whole club overnight, members will continue to feel included throughout the club’s life. Here’s how • The breakfast club in Monks Abbey Primary School (Lincolnshire) was set up in 2003. Research in the area had found that there was a need to provide this service, as some children were arriving at school without having had any breakfast. Often these children were living in socially deprived areas. Some of them were children who would otherwise turn up late for school, or not at all, and could be disruptive in class. No charge is made for attendance at the club, because those who need it most would then be excluded. Teachers target the children, as they know who needs this service most. The pupils undertook some research of their own to find out what club members would like to eat. The club always offers some healthy options. • The breakfast club at a primary school in Southwark opened in January 2003. The club was planned by seven volunteers, including a teacher, meals supervisors and the catering contractor. Parents were consulted during a parents’ forum session and questionnaires were used to get feedback. • The club is now staffed by a lead teacher, kitchen managers and two supervisors. The supervisors are classroom assistants and firstaiders. The leader is passionate about health and nutrition – the challenge is to resist costing pressures that encourage staff to purchase less nutritious foods, such as squash, rather than healthy ones, such as fresh juices. • (This information comes from an evaluation of school breakfast clubs in Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham in August 2004, commissioned by Health First on behalf of the Health Action Zone – formerly Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham Health Action Zone – and Aylesbury New Deal for Communities.) 14 Copyright © ContinYou 2006 Why are breakfast clubs so important? What will make people want to support them, whether financially or in kind? Why should you, your senior management team, parents, pupils and the community be supportive and glad that you have taken on the co-ordination of the club? How will it tie in with the school development plan? What about the Behaviour Improvement Programme? Research has repeatedly shown that, if children eat a healthy breakfast and spend time with other children and adults before school, they will: • behave better • attend school more regularly • concentrate better, and therefore probably do better at school • be more likely to arrive at school on time • be less likely to take part in bullying because they have better relationships with other children, in both their own and other age groups • have better social skills and be more confident in their contact with other children and with adults • understand better how important it is to eat in a healthy way and maintain a good energy balance • be more interested in curriculum subjects • have better relationships with their family, and with people in the wider community. Teachers have said that breakfast clubs result in at least 30 minutes more effective teaching time per day. Over an academic year, those minutes will certainly add up! These are all important benefits, but what funders, partners, senior managers, parents and policy makers want to know is: how do breakfast clubs link with new initiatives and curriculum development? Without a doubt, breakfast clubs can extend learning opportunities and levels of achievement for all children across all key stages. Breakfast clubs throughout the UK provide a wide range of curriculum extension activities, including physical activities, drama and help with homework, as well as opportunities for learning in areas such as health, science and life skills. You can use pages 18–21 to find ways of adding value to your club by making links with the curriculum and with educational and social policies and initiatives. Making the case Copyright © ContinYou 2006 ‘Many teachers in my school felt that the breakfast club helped claw back up to thirty minutes per day through pupils arriving in class on time, calmer, more ready to learn and with enhanced concentration.’ Headteacher Keeping it going New initiatives and new strategies are being developed all the time, but they tend to have the same core values and purpose. Keep up to date with changes (visit the website www.breakfastclubplus.org.uk) but don’t worry about changing tack every time a new one is announced. A long-running, successful club will be based on a solid core – get it right at first, listen to members’ needs and wishes and you won’t go far wrong. Find out more: www.breakfastclubplus.org.uk 17 Top tips! • Find out which key topics pupils are studying each term and link breakfast club activities to these. • Recognise special cultural or religious days by adapting the menu and using appropriate decorations. • You could create a reading corner with ‘handy hints’ and notes available on the texts being studied in English literature each term. • Ask class teachers to tell you about any improvements in the classroom made by pupils who attend a club regularly. Record these comments. ‘The school’s breakfast club is at the heart of the school’s out-of-hours learning. It has a huge impact on the ethos of the school. Attendance rates have improved, as have time-keeping and pupils’ attainment (homework being completed on time). Funding is a challenge, but the benefits are so obvious, it is worth the battle.’ Study support co-ordinator, Lee Chapel Primary School, Essex Here’s how • Over a hundred pupils arrive at the breakfast club at Henry Cort Community School (Hampshire) from 8 o’clock every morning to enjoy a healthy breakfast and to take part in paired reading, hockey coaching and junior sports leadership activities, as well as to make use of the ICT and library facilities. A counsellor is available to support the school’s strategies for inclusion and the promotion of positive behaviour by offering a counselling service for targeted pupils before school each day. The school supports pupils’ transition into the school by arranging breakfasts with class tutors for tutor groups in Years 7 and 8. • At Falmer High School (Brighton and Hove) a teacher co-ordinates the breakfast club with support from a learning support assistant and senior students. As well as providing a healthy start to the day, the breakfast club provides a safe environment, with prefects and ‘bully busters’ welcoming the younger children in particular, making them feel at home and offering security to those who arrive early and may be the target of bullies. A range of activities is on offer, including cribbage, bingo, chess and a variety of other educational games. The club is highly successful. It ensures that students receive nutritious food first thing in the morning and are engaged in activities in a warm, safe environment. Curriculum links The potential links with the curriculum are endless. The suggestions given on this page and the next should help you to get started. Some of them are ideas for activities that pupils can do, while others are about the way you organise things within the club. English and/or literacy • Write recipes. • Have story-time with discussion and book reviews. • Write plays. • Have a reading corner. • Put on drama activities. • Play word games. Maths and/or numeracy • Do measurements and calculations for recipes. • Link with maths clubs. • Give pupils help with homework. Science • Discover the energy balance of different foods. • Find out what happens if you put milk on… burn… add water to… Geography • Link with other clubs nationally and internationally. • Learn about time zones. • Learn about the different types of farming associated with breakfast produce. History • Find out how and why breakfast has changed over the years. Invite grandparents to come along. • Make ‘old-fashioned’ foods/update old recipes. • Undertake a group project investigating old-fashioned kitchen tools. ICT • Make use of the Breakfast Club Plus website. • Design a breakfast club page for the school website. • Use email forums to develop typing and e-communication skills. Modern foreign languages • Have language corners. • Label foods/parts of the room with the equivalent words in other languages. Consider languages spoken by other members of the group, as well as those taught in school. • Set up email links with schools in other countries to learn more about their clubs, exchange recipes, and so on. Design and technology • Design marketing material for the club. • Make additional resources either for the breakfast club or for other oshl clubs in the school. Art and design • Design posters, leaflets and flyers to promote the club. • Make membership cards and badges. • Design a recipe book and sell it to raise funds. Religious education • Have themed days with different menus to encourage enthusiasm for, and appreciation of, alternative cultures/traditions. 18 Copyright © ContinYou 2006 Physical education • Have a half-hour workout prior to eating. • Encourage everyone to take part in an ‘activity session’ run by a guest tutor twice a week – this could be aerobics, dance, swimming or anything pupils would like. • Emphasise the importance of a good energy balance. Music • Hold a music session once a week/offer rehearsal time for pupils learning instruments. • Invite local musicians in to show/teach/facilitate an interactive session about different instruments. • Make simple instruments with paper/card/wood or metal. • Have a club song. Club members could either compose it themselves, or they could make up new words to an existing song. PSHE/Citizenship • Organise team activities to encourage team play, co-operation and participation. • Encourage some or all of the group to help out with local school- or community-based projects/ initiatives. • Introduce a ‘Breakfast Buddies’ scheme to help tackle bullying. Life/work/social skills • Introduce healthy, balanced menus and teach pupils why healthy choices are important. • Invite local business people in to share information on career opportunities. You could run tasks and activities linked with particular areas of work. • Encourage pupils to support and mentor each other, so that they communicate better across the age groups. • Invite a wide range of adults, parents and teachers to attend. If pupils learn to talk confidently with people of different ages and from different walks of life, this will help them to respect and understand other people. • Design quizzes and games to place emphasis on particular aspects of food – for example: ‘Which of these foods is healthiest?’, ‘Which contains the most salt?’, ‘How much sugar is there in each of these foods?’. • Encourage parents to stay and enjoy breakfast with their children. National initiatives Breakfast clubs link with a wide range of other initiatives in the school and in the wider community. The tables on pages 20 and 21 show how breakfast clubs can be tailored to help contribute to the objectives of a number of these initiatives. Find out more: www.breakfastclubplus.org.uk 19 Initiative Overview of this initiative Breakfast clubs could complement this by: Booster classes Years 5 and 6 www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/literacy/publications/ intervention/63485/ww These classes provide extra help to enable pupils to reach Level 4 in literacy and numeracy at the end of Key Stage 2. • theming the sessions • providing a quiet working area and supplying copies of text books and other materials • encouraging internet research to aid study Children Act (Every child matters) www.everychildmatters.gov.uk This aims to protect children at risk of harm and neglect and to support all children to enable them to develop their full potential. Priorities include safety, inclusion, play, green spaces, health and choice. • offering a safe place for all children to play and to eat well in the morning Extended Schools www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/ extendedschools/ An extended school is one that provides a range of services and activities, often beyond the school day, to help meet the needs of its pupils, their families and the wider community. • providing well-staffed, well-run breakfast clubs to contribute to the success of extended schools Five Year Education Strategy www.dfes.gov.uk/publications/5yearstrategy/ This puts a clear focus on children, learners, parents and employers, not just in setting out what schools will offer, but in designing ways of doing it that promote personalisation and choice. • using a whole-school approach • encouraging members to feel that the club belongs to them • helping pupils in target areas of education Healthy Living Blueprint www.dh.gov.uk This sets out how schools can take a holistic approach to help pupils to eat sensibly and stay physically active. • promoting healthy living and eating • working towards community and family involvement • offering occasional drop-in sessions from outreach services such as the dental hygienist or the school nurse Healthy Schools www.wiredforhealth.gov.uk This initiative gives schools the opportunity to demonstrate their commitment to health education and promotion, and to improving the health of the whole school community. Key Stage 3 National Strategy www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/keystage3/ This aims to make education for 11- to 14-year-olds challenging, demanding, vigorous and inspiring across the whole curriculum. Literacy Support Schemes and Springboard www.dfes.gov.uk These schemes are targeted at children who have not achieved expected levels of attainment in literacy or maths. • building in support sessions for pupils whose levels of attainment need raising in either of these areas • helping to increase their levels of concentration • bringing all elements of the curriculum alive through combining the curriculum and creative activities • offering healthy choices for breakfast • educating pupils about energy balance • enabling children to learn about making the right choices 20 Copyright © ContinYou 2006 National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal www.neighbourhood.gov.uk/pages.asp?id=908 This is a cross-government initiative to reduce social exclusion and revitalise the most deprived neighbourhoods. It aims to raise achievement in schools and encourage young people to continue in education and training. • offering free breakfasts to those most in need • inviting whole families to attend • dedicating some sessions to teaching about recipes and cooking techniques, and to raising basic skills Find out more: www.breakfastclubplus.org.uk 21 Initiative Overview of this initiative Breakfast clubs could complement this by: Public Health White Paper www.doh.gov.uk Pupil Support www.dfes.gov.uk/publications/guidanceonthelaw/ 11-99/11-99.htm This aims to promote social inclusion and to reduce truancy and exclusion. • increasing pupils’ confidence, concentration and interest in school • encouraging pupils to support each other School Food Trust www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk This was set up in 2005, with funding from the DfES, to promote the education and health of children and young people by improving the quality of food supplied and consumed in schools. • ensuring that breakfast foods meet the recommendations of the School Food Trust • linking into their whole-school nutrition guidelines Specialist schools www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/specialistschools/ Specialist schools develop a particular character and ethos and aim to raise standards in their specialism, and more generally across the school. They share expertise and resources with partner schools and with the community. • capitalising on specialist status through offering themed and/or guest sessions run by professionals in the field Resource Unit for supplementary and mother-tongue schools www.continyou.org.uk/resourceunit • linking up with the Resource Unit to find ways to support members from minority ethnic backgrounds • ensuring that the breakfast foods provided are in accord with members’ cultural backgrounds Study Support www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/studysupport/ The aim is to raise achievement and tackle social exclusion by supporting a range of oshl opportunities. • introducing ‘bite-sized’ study support This sets ambitious targets for improving the health of the nation, for saving 300,000 lives over the next ten years, and for closing the health gap between the rich and the poor. This is the longest-standing provider of information, training and consultancy to supplementary schools in the UK. It helps supplementary schools to raise the educational attainments and aspirations of their students. Teaching Assistants www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/ teachingassistants/ • encouraging parents/community members/teaching assistants to attend in order to develop their skills and interests This initiative aims to support the recruitment and training of teaching assistants. • educating club members about the importance of healthy eating • promoting the breakfast club in assembly • encouraging community involvement Effective partnerships are a vital part of successful breakfast club activities. But good partnerships don’t just happen; they need to be managed and worked at. So, why bother? By working with partners, you will introduce a new dimension to your breakfast club, widening the opportunities available to your pupils and staff and developing lasting relationships that stand the school in good stead in the future. Good partnerships will benefit everyone involved. The following summary gives an idea of what you might expect. The benefits for pupils can include: • a wider variety of learning techniques and opportunities • the chance to work with role models from a variety of backgrounds • access to equipment or resources, such as ICT, that would not normally be available to them • opportunities to increase their knowledge and understanding of the community, and to develop citizenship skills. The benefits for schools can include: • the opportunity for staff to acquire new skills • the chance to make the most of community resources • the opportunity to use new equipment or resources that they can adapt for use within the school • the building of new and innovative networks of support • the raising of the school’s profile within the community • access to new resources and funding opportunities • new partnerships with other schools in the area. The benefits for partners can include: • the opportunity to gain new skills and knowledge by working alongside school staff • the chance to tackle shared agendas • the chance to gain a higher profile in the local community • a better take-up of local services • better links with a range of other agencies • a greater appreciation in the community of the services that they provide. Take your partner Copyright © ContinYou 2006 ‘The quality of study support will, in the final analysis, be directly related to the partnerships it creates and encourages. Active partnerships are the key to the long-term sustainability of study support.’ Study Support Code of Practice, 2004 When planning your breakfast club, you should consider which partners can add value and variety to your activities. There is a huge number of individuals and organisations that can offer you advice and support, including: • other schools • parents and grandparents • community groups • the school meals service • local voluntary groups and charities • local libraries, museums and galleries • sports and arts organisations • school sports co-ordinators • local businesses/Education Business Partnerships • local authority agencies, such as youth services, health services and emergency services • local FE colleges • local religious and cultural groups. A recent evaluation of oshl partnerships between schools and the community found that the most successful partnerships were characterised by: • well-led multi-agency teams • joint planning • shared objectives, with sustainability in mind • a clear rationale of why each partner was involved • clear communication between all parties • regular review and reporting • sensitivity to staffing and management demands • an awareness of the welfare of young people and the concerns of parents. Other sources of information on partnerships can be found in the following documents: • Partners for Study Support Grant Programme: Good practice guide (visit www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/ studysupport/docs) • The study support toolkit: making it work in schools (as above) • Building the future of learning (visit www.nof.org.uk). Keeping it going Send your partners letters from club members and copies of any newsletters you produce. Invite them to attend events and give out certificates. These simple steps celebrate their involvement in the club and will remind them that you are there. Your invitation might be reciprocated with the chance to attend a large networking event and you never know who you might meet there. Find out more: www.breakfastclubplus.org.uk 23 Top tips! • When approaching partners, make it clear what added value their involvement will bring to the club and how pupils will benefit from it. • When asking for support, don’t forget to link what you want to achieve with a benefit for the partner – stress how it links with their own objectives. Here’s how • Middleton Primary School is a large primary school in a deprived area of Leeds. The breakfast club is staffed by four paid staff from the school and eight volunteers who are parents or carers. Learning mentors have given parent volunteers the chance to attend a range of training courses, including first aid, managing challenging behaviour and giving children help with literacy and numeracy. The club has support from the Sure Start social worker, as well as links with the police liaison officer, and the Behaviour and Education Support Team. Parents are very positive about the provision, and parent volunteers feel that they have gained the respect of staff as well as making new friends. • This breakfast club is part of Leeds Children’s Breakfast Initiative. ‘When parents engage with their children in activities that extend and complement what they are doing in the classroom, the added benefit of raised achievement can be as much as fifteen per cent. In order to maximise this opportunity schools need to work with parents and enable them to link with the child’s work at school’ Desforges and Aboucher, 2003 Once you have decided what you want your breakfast club to achieve, and how you want to organise it, you will need to think about the best people to run it. This doesn’t always have to mean teachers. There are a number of distinct roles in setting up and sustaining any study support club. The most important thing is that everyone involved is clear about their individual responsibilities and that they communicate well with each other. Co-ordinating the club A designated breakfast club co-ordinator should be responsible for ensuring that the club is developed to meet its objectives. This person is often, though not always, the same person who organises the activities. A typical co-ordinator might be responsible for: • planning activities • identifying the target group of pupils • staffing • looking after premises • marketing and promotion • reporting to funders • liaising with the senior management team, governors and others • health and safety • child protection issues • monitoring and evaluation • forging appropriate links with the community. The steering group Successful breakfast clubs are often overseen by a steering group which takes responsibility for ensuring that all the necessary steps and checks are in place for running safe and successful activities. The group’s remit may cover the same areas as those set out for the co-ordinator above, thereby removing the burden of responsibility from any one individual. It’s important to keep the group to a manageable size, and to ensure that it is effective. Try to include a crosssection of stakeholders, including club members, senior school staff and partners. Having a range of members on your steering group will give you access to a broader base of information and expertise. This means that stakeholders are involved in decision making, and work can be shared between members. Who’s going to run your club? Copyright © ContinYou 2006 ‘Our steering committee works at a strategic level, supporting and guiding the multi-agency members, who come from areas such as health, social care and education. It offers the project improved communication, with wider expertise. As a result, key issues can be visualised from the wider picture of multi-agency working, opening doors for the LEA breakfast club co-ordinator to develop a growing and sustainable breakfast club provision.’ Kate Wood, Breakfast Club Co-ordinator, Education and Culture, Borough of Telford and Wrekin Organising the activities Because your breakfast club is about learning, rather than teaching, you may not always need a teacher to organise the activities. Be creative about who this should be. Consider all the resources available within the school and the wider community. Depending on how you structure your club, you could think about involving teaching assistants, lunchtime supervisors, older students, parents, youth workers, local employers, professional guest tutors (actors, dancers or athletes) or other members of the community. If it’s not the co-ordinator who runs the activities, those who do so will normally be responsible for: • organising the club space • setting up and putting away furniture, resources and other equipment • attendance and monitoring records • delivering agreed programme of activities • health and safety • liaising with guest speakers and others from outside the school. By involving staff from a variety of backgrounds to run the activities, you can add value to the experiences of both pupils and staff, as: • this provides a more varied mix of ideas, skills and talents to draw on • pupils gain a broader insight into life outside the school • staff have an opportunity to develop new skills and to try new teaching methods • pupils have the chance to work alongside adult role models from a variety of backgrounds in a non-threatening environment • older pupils have the opportunity to develop mentoring and leadership skills • this promotes stronger links between parents and other members of the community and the school • this reduces the pressure on teaching staff • pupils gain a better understanding of cultural differences • pupils have the chance to see parents and staff working in different environments. Support from senior management Getting the support of the headteacher or other members of the senior management team will make a difference to the success of your programme. Experience shows that activities are more likely to be sustained when the headteacher or another senior manager is involved and supports the project. Recognising commitment Don’t forget to spend some time acknowledging the contribution of everyone involved in running your breakfast club. Staff will feel much happier about putting in extra time if they feel that their effort is genuinely valued. Find out more: www.breakfastclubplus.org.uk 25 Top tip! Ask the pupils who they would like to help with the activities. Top tip! Avoid early morning staffing crises when breakfast club staff phone in sick. Keep details of parents who have volunteered to help at short notice. Top tip! Ask your headteacher or senior management team to help with: • finding funding • incorporating the club into the whole-school ethos • finding solutions to staffing problems • promoting the club and giving it credibility. Top tip! • Get club members to write personal letters of thanks. • Get pupils to organise an end-of-scheme celebration or thank-you party. If school staff help with the club, you may need to consider how you reimburse them for their time. Some will be happy to help on a voluntary basis, but you may need to offer payment to others, or to recognise their contribution in some other way. Discuss possible options with your headteacher. You might want to see whether there is scope for using directed time, or for giving time off in lieu. For further detailed information on paying and rewarding school staff, look at www.teachernet.gov.uk/ management/Payandperformance/ pay/2004/Pay_publication_2004. Involvement in planning and running breakfast club activities can also count towards the accreditation of professional development, such as NVQs. What do we do about…? There are many other questions and areas that you will need to consider when employing and recruiting staff for your breakfast club. Most of the answers will be specific to your school, senior management team or local authority. Others will depend on whether you are: running the club in a school or a community building; operating as a childcare facility or an open-access club; working with partner organisations on a day-to-day basis; a registered charity with your own constitution. It would be impossible to give all the answers to all the possible questions here. You will need to consider and discuss the following areas before the club can begin operating safely: • Health and safety – including first aid, risk assessments (daily and periodically), fire escapes and action plans – to find out more, look at www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/ studysupport/docs/safekeep • Training – contact your local Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership/local education authority to see what courses they offer. • Criminal Records Bureau – do you need to get enhanced or basic disclosures for your staff; do you need to get disclosures for both volunteers and paid staff? How long will a disclosure be valid for? Will a police check be sufficient? • Food hygiene – how many people need to be qualified? If you are working with a caterer, are they qualified? Who is responsible for organising, and paying for, training? • Adult:child ratio – What is the agreed figure? Is it different for childcare and study support? • Ofsted – Do we have to be registered with Ofsted? If you have a specific question, email: administrator@breakfastclubplus.org.uk. Keeping it going If you have a high turnover of staff, this can lead to sustainability problems. Reward staff for their commitment and value their input at all times. Make strong links with parents and teachers so that, if you do have an emergency, you will have lots of helpful hands to call on. Here’s how • The breakfast club in Joseph Ruston Technology College (Lincolnshire) was set up in April 2002. This service was needed by children who were arriving at school having had no breakfast. The club takes place every morning in the school refectory from 7.45 until 8.50am, when the students go into their classrooms. • Breakfast club staff include community volunteers, older pupils and teachers. The breakfast club co-ordinator recruits staff through the school and through the local press. • Staff are offered training in food hygiene, health and safety, first aid and play work. Paid staff and volunteers are also offered the opportunity to undertake NVQ courses. 26 Copyright © ContinYou 2006 There will be various times during the life of your breakfast club when you will probably want to tell others about what’s been happening. Promoting your club effectively will help to attract pupils. By publicising the club’s achievements, you can also help to raise the profile of the club and the school within the community, and to establish confidence with funders, your senior management team, governors and the local authority. Before deciding how you will promote your breakfast club, ask yourself the following questions to help you decide on the most effective way of reaching the right people: • Why do you want to tell people about the breakfast club? • Who needs to know? • What do they need to know? • What else can be gained from publicising the club? • How can you involve the club members? • What are the best ways of publicising the club? Depending on who you want to reach and why, you could try a number of different ways to promote the club. You will need to bear in mind how much money you have and what support you can expect from your partners. For example, you could: • devise a catchy name and a logo for the club • produce club badges, caps or t-shirts • produce membership cards promoting the ethos/aims of the club • provide attendance certificates • produce flyers and posters to put up round the school • publicise the club in the local media • produce flyers or newsletters for parents, families and the wider community, or run information events • put on performances, presentations and displays • contribute articles to local authority or governors’ newsletters. Hear all about it! Copyright © ContinYou 2006 ‘Sustained growth and access to resources will depend on good communication with multiple audiences.’ Study support code of practice, 2004 Top tips! • Your most effective marketing tool is your club members. Their enthusiasm will be the most convincing way of telling others what you are achieving and of persuading them to support the club. • Even companies not associated with food need to raise their profile within the community. If financial support is unlikely, ask for donations of items such as t-shirts, caps and badges. • The benefit that you can give back to your funders is potentially immense. Offer to promote them to parents, to make posters about them, to mention them in press releases and to have their logo on display. These small efforts save the company money from their promotional budget and therefore releases more for them to pass on to you! • Whet members’ appetites by sending home information about next week’s breakfast menus on Friday! Here are some golden rules for writing a good press release: • Newspaper editors cut copy from the bottom up – get your message across in the first paragraph. • Make sure that the first paragraph covers all the basic information: who, why, when, where and how. • Keep it punchy and factual. Don’t use flowery language. Present only information that is correct and that cannot be misinterpreted. • Avoid self-praise. • Remember to date your press release. Send it on headed paper with a large ‘Press release’ heading at the top. Remember, you don’t always need to have a big ‘news’ story to get a mention in the local paper. A photo opportunity such as an end-of-term party, a special visitor or a trip can be all you need to attract interest. For further advice and information on writing an effective press release, see www.press-release-writing.com. Alongside is a sample press release that you can use as a model. Keeping it going • Don’t be modest about what you have achieved. Shout it from the roof tops! What you are doing is remarkable, even if it just seems like everyday routine to you. • Send press releases regularly and put up posters in community venues. This will make sure that people you approach in future will already be aware of the good work you have done. Find out more: www.breakfastclubplus.org.uk 29 Top tip! Get to know the ‘schools’ correspondent at your local paper. Here’s how • The food technician at Garratt Park School in London (Wandsworth) raised the profile of the breakfast club through the local media. This helped the school to be successful in applying for external awards, and encouraged voluntary contributions to the School Fund which supports the club. • Club members at Highbury Fields School (Islington) produce a Breakfast Bulletin describing club activities. It includes news about events, articles by members, profiles of staff, competitions and an opinions column. In one issue, the club co-ordinator reported: ‘I am thrilled with the club’s success – we have a regular group of up to 25 girls who attend. The breakfast club is good fun and I look forward to a lively start to my day!’ A Bitesize start to the day Littletown Primary School today launched its new ‘Bitesize’ breakfast club. Up to 30 pupils a day will be able to start their day with a healthy breakfast at school as well as having the chance to play games and catch up with their homework. Club co-ordinator Jane Smith said: ‘We noticed that a lot of children were arriving at school very early – their parents were dropping them off on their way to work. Some of these children were skipping breakfast and were finding it hard to settle down to lessons. So we asked parents and pupils what they wanted the school to provide at the start of the day, and “Bitesize” is the answer. Our pupils can now receive a healthy breakfast at the start of the day. We know that eating a good breakfast improves concentration throughout the day and “Bitesize” will help keep our pupils safe and off the streets in the morning. The additional activities we are offering will make sure there is something fun for everyone.‘ The Bitesize club is the result of an innovative partnership between the school and its partners. As well as breakfast, the Bitesize club will offer children support with homework, PE/sport activities, access to computers and games and quizzes. We will involve the local community – members of agencies such as the police, and health and youth services, will be invited to drop in for breakfast, get to know the club members and discuss their work with them. The menu will change each week, but pupils will be offered a choice of cereal, toast, bagels or croissants and cooked breakfasts. Special events and religious holidays will be reflected in special menus. For further information, contact Jane Smith on 0123 456789. It’s all very well knowing what you want from your breakfast club, but how are you going to pay for it and sustain it? Getting funding together can seem daunting, but it needn’t be. This section will provide you with hints on writing a successful funding application, ideas about who to approach for support and top tips on managing the funds once you’ve got them. Where do I start? If this is your first attempt at applying for funding, remember the golden rule: keep your proposal as simple as possible. You can always add to a successful base in the future. When looking for funding, you need to match the needs of the beneficiaries with the aims of the donors. Try to find out what the motivation and priorities of the donor you are approaching might be. If it is in-house/statutory funding, you will need to identify current school or local authority initiatives and show how the club will contribute to these. Other donors, such as local businesses, may want to have opportunities for good PR, or may be keen to build links with schools or to offer their employees opportunities for volunteering. A good bid will tell the donor how what you are doing will help them to meet their aims. Once you’ve found out more about the donor, prepare answers to the questions listed below. These will provide you with the basis for any funding application form, letter or interview. Not only will you feel more confident when approaching funders, but the more thoroughly an idea is thought through, the more likely it is to be successful. Who? • Who wants the club? • Who is it for? (is there a specific target group? will there be open access? can families attend?) • Who will be responsible for the planning, staffing, running and updating of the club? • Who else can help? (the local police, the school meals service, for example) Why? • Why are you doing it? (to improve pupils’ attainment? to increase their concentration and motivation? to increase the understanding of numeracy in pupils’ families and in the local community? to improve pupils’ attendance and punctuality?) • Why will it be different from ‘normal’ lessons? Where? • Where will it take place? (in more than one room? on the school site or off-site?) • Where will you recruit staff, emergency cover and volunteers from? • Where will you find out about recruitment, police checks, health and safety, and other requirements? • Where can you get resources at low cost or no cost at all ? (for example, gifts in kind, time from volunteers?) Show me the money! Copyright © ContinYou 2006 When? • When will you start and end the club? (times and dates!) • When do you need to approach funders? They may have application deadlines. • When will you hear back from the funders you have approached? (This can be up to three months after the application deadline.) • When will you tell people about the club? What? • What activities are you going to run to achieve the club’s aims? • What paperwork do you need to get copies of or to complete? (Think about health and safety/insurance/ questionnaires/photo consent forms/codes of conduct, and so on.) • What are you going to do if too many or too few children want to attend? • What is your club going to be called? How? • How will you know if the club has been a success? • How will you report your progress to funders? • How much is it going to cost? (Research this fully and break down your costs in all paperwork, but specifically in your funding applications.) • How are you going to establish the rules for the club? • How are you going to promote and reward good attendance? (using certificates, badges or stickers? – and how will you budget for these?) Once you have the answers to all these questions, you can decide on the best way to gain financial and material support for your club. Broadly speaking, there are four main types of funding available: • corporate sponsorship/donations • statutory funding streams • grants from charitable trusts • donated resources/funding in kind. Find out more: www.breakfastclubplus.org.uk 31 • For large organisations, get copies of annual reports and investigate their corporate social responsibility (CSR) policy, which will tell you how much money they donate to charities and community groups every year. Charitable trusts • It can often take up to three months for trust fund applications to be approved – think ahead and build in enough time for this in your planning. • If the guidance says ‘call before application’, do so. If it says ‘written requests only’, then don’t ring them up! • The remits and aims of trust funds are usually quite specific, so make sure that you read all accompanying literature before you complete a bid. • Be creative! If a funder only funds new projects, don’t think you have to start again from scratch. Changing one aspect of the club design, such as the target group or its theme, may be enough for it to qualify. Top tips! Corporate sponsorship • Approach local businesses or local branches of bigger organisations before you approach the ‘parent’ company – they are more likely to appreciate the local benefit of supporting your club. • Consider what advertising benefits your club could offer to local sponsoring organisations, such as posters, press coverage and events. • Address your letters to a particular person – not just ‘Dear Sir’, or ‘To whom it may concern’. In your letter you could offer to meet the person to discuss the project and its potential impact. • Business in the Community has links with companies throughout the country and can put schools in contact with local businesses. Further details can be obtained from their website at www.bitc.org.uk. • Approach your local Education Business Partnership to see what support it can provide – see www.nebpn.org. Who’s got the money? There are many sources from which you can obtain money if you have the time to devote to fundraising. Listed below are some of the main sources that may help. Regularly updated funding information can be found on the members’ pages of www.breakfastclubplus.org.uk. School Development Grant (SDG) (in England) – schools are free to spend their SDG on any activity to support improvement in teaching and learning, including breakfast clubs and other enrichment programmes. Extended Schools – the provision of study support activities (including breakfast clubs) is one of the key elements of extending services in schools. Awards for All – this funds projects that enable people to take part in art, sport, heritage and community activities, as well as projects that promote education, the environment and health in the local community. Visit www.awardsforall.org.uk or telephone 0845 6002040 for a grant application pack. Young People’s Fund – this fund finances projects involving young people, aged from 11 to 18, with the following outcomes: being healthy; staying safe; enjoying and achieving; making a positive contribution; economic well-being. Telephone 0845 4102030 for more details or visit www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/ programmes. Children’s Fund (England only – all regions) – grants of between £250 and £7,000 are available to locally managed voluntary, community or self-help groups (including PTAs) to run activities for disadvantaged children or young people. Telephone 0845 113 0161 or visit www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/strate gy/childrensfund/. The Community Foundation Network – in addition to administering £70m of the Children’s Fund, community foundations are responsible for a wide range of region-specific charitable funds across the UK. Many of these funds will support out-of-school-hours learning activities. Visit www.communityfoundations.org.uk. • Look at the government website www.governmentfunding.org.uk this provides information on grants available from four government departments – the Home Office, the Department for Education and Skills, the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions and the Department of Health. • If you would like to register for charitable status, log on to www.navca.org.uk/liodir and click on ‘NACVS Directory’. This will give you the contact details for your local Council for Voluntary Service. Donations • If you need computer hardware, visit www.donateapc.org.uk. General • Find out whether school governors or members of the Parent–Teacher Association (PTA) can obtain donations or resources to support the club from their employers. • If the PTA is a registered charity, piggyback on this status to gain access to funding. • Speak to local authority advisers to link your plans with other local authority or school initiatives. 32 Copyright © ContinYou 2006 Health Action Zones have been established in 26 areas of deprivation and poor health to tackle health inequalities and modernise services through local innovation. Visit www.haznet.org.uk. Excellence in Cities (EiC) and EiC clusters – EiC aims to bring additional resources to core urban areas. Visit www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/excellence. Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) – your local PCT may be able to support your healthy breakfast club. School Sports Partnerships (England only) – by September 2006 all schools will belong to a school sports partnership. Each partnership is allocated money for PE and sports oshl activities from the Big Lottery Fund. An average-sized partnership would receive £75,000 over three years. This money can be used to provide breakfast activity sessions for targeted groups of young people. For further information about School Sports Partnerships, look at the websites www.youthsporttrust.org and www.qca.org.uk/pess. Breakfast club funding As well as these general funding sources, there are a number of specific routes to securing funding for your breakfast club. We have listed below some of the most successful routes available. Most of them focus on funding food, community or oshl activities. If you are hoping to run particular activities, such as ICT support or reading as part of your club, you could well be able to tap into a number of other, more specific, subject grants. Online members can find further details of funding initiatives on the members’ pages of www.breakfastclubplus.org.uk. • The charity Feed the Children provides funding for UK breakfast clubs – www.feedthechildren.co.uk/ pages/ourworkeurope.htm. • Barclays Bank funds projects that meet one of their five criteria areas, all of which can be tailored to breakfast clubs. Telephone the Community Affairs Team on 020 7699 2969. They also encourage their staff to volunteer. You could also look at what the other banks are doing. • Greggs Bakeries run a breakfast club network. It would be worth finding out whether a bakery near you might be interested in becoming involved and supporting your club. • Your Parent Teacher Association or Friends of the School Association may have funding to support the development of your breakfast club, especially if it meets the need for before-school childcare. • Breakfast clubs have the potential to reduce truancy, bullying and other anti-social behaviour. If you are setting up a club in an area where crime or anti-social behaviour is a problem, you could talk to your local community police officer or town centre manager. They may be able to support your funding application or may have access to funds that the club could apply for. • Major supermarkets are beginning to realise the importance of supporting breakfast clubs. Approach your local store for financial support and/or support in kind. • www.magicoutcomes.com provides bagels and fruit for school breakfasts. • It may be worth approaching the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund – www.neighbourhood.gov.uk. • You could approach your local Round Table, Rotary Club, Women’s Institute or Townswomen’s Guild. Their community focus enables them to support local initiatives. Find out more: www.breakfastclubplus.org.uk 33 ‘Working with Leeds Children’s Breakfast Initiative is very much in line with Leeds Co-op’s thinking and raison d’être as a community-based retailer. We are keen to support breakfast clubs, and to work towards providing and promoting a healthy diet for children.’ Leeds Children’s Breakfast Initiative evaluation report, 2004 Some useful funding resources The following publications are available by mail order from the Directory of Social Change (Tel: 020 7209 5151; Website: www.dsc.org.uk/ acatalog/): • Schools funding guide – this includes 200 possible sources of funding/support, covering companies, regional and central government, the National Lottery, grant-making trusts and foundations and European bodies. Price: £19.95 • Guide to UK company giving – a reference guide profiling more than 500 companies’ community support, including cash donations and gifts in kind, to voluntary and community organisations. Price £34.95 • Directory of grant-making trusts – this comprehensive reference work covers 2,500 grant-making trusts, each with the potential to give at least £20,000 a year. ISBN: 1 903991 58 7 Price: £95.00 Online members can find more information on the Breakfast Club Plus website. Taking care of the pennies Wherever your funding comes from, you will need to account for how it is spent. This means keeping detailed records of income and expenditure. Keeping financial records up to date will allow you to monitor the progress of your programme and will mean that you can ensure that resources for forthcoming activities are available when they are needed. Activities will adapt and change as the club develops. Being in control of your financial records will mean that your budget and financial management processes can support this. Look at these top tips for keeping the finances in hand. Keeping it going • Keep your current funders informed and invite them to events, so that they will see they are getting a return on their investment and be more likely to continue funding you in the future. • Start looking for alternative funding streams at least four months before you need it – even if your current funder thinks that they will be able to maintain your grant. Sadly, these things are not guaranteed. Top tips! • Think of everything you may need when you plan your budget and make sure that your costings are realistic. • Consider the funder’s requirements when setting up financial systems – this will make it easier to submit monitoring and financial information on time and will avoid delays in funding being released. • Keep expenditure ‘headings’ as simple as possible, as this will give you plenty of flexibility. • Keep a cash book at the club to record cash expenditure. Keep copies of all receipts and invoices. They may be needed to validate your spending. • Review planned and actual expenditure against budget on a regular basis. • Make sure you involve the right people at the right time if you are making changes to your budget. 34 Copyright © ContinYou 2006 Find out more: www.breakfastclubplus.org.uk 35 Here’s how • The ‘Bounce and Breakfast Club’ at Westcroft School and Sports College (Wolverhampton) is funded by selling bacon sandwiches to staff! The PE department funds the shortfall, as physical activity is included in the provision. • About 40 children attend the breakfast club at Johnson Fold Community Primary School (Bolton) each day. They are not charged for the breakfast, as the school has secured funding from both Warburtons and Greggs Bakeries. • The integration manager co-ordinates breakfast club activity at Clune Park School in Port Glasgow (Inverclyde). The club won a Kellogg’s award in 2000 and is now funded by the ‘Better Neighbourhood Services’ fund. • The school community resource manager at Horton Park Primary School (Bradford) works with a manager from CAT (Canterbury Acting Together) to run the breakfast club. NOF funding has been secured for the past three years. Just over £4,000 per annum is used to cover the expenses of volunteers and the pay of a supervisor (£5 per session over 38 weeks), as well as the cost of play and learning materials. Eighteen children attend regularly. They pay 30p per day. This year the contribution from fundraising by parents amounted to £900. At present the school is applying to the Primary Care Trust in South Bradford and to ASDA for sponsorship. You can run a wide variety of activities at breakfast clubs, primarily because there is the possibility of holding five different sessions a week. Most breakfast clubs have a range of activities that the members can opt in and out of. Some run their activity sessions before pupils eat breakfast, and others afterwards. The activities you run at your club must reflect the needs and wishes of the members. As long as you offer plenty of accessible activities, the members of your club will have fun and want to be there. Remember to ask them what they want (see the section ‘Asking around’) and be prepared to change what you are doing every now and then to keep them interested. Offering a good range of activities is comparatively easy once you get going. Ideas for activities On pages 38–45 you will find activity sheets with suggestions that you could put together to make up an activity programme for your breakfast club for a term. Each activity could be used in a focus session once a week,or could be expanded to cover a whole week’s worth of club time. On page 37, you will find some of more general suggestions and tips on how to engage members in activities other than just eating breakfast. Remember, though, that free play can be as valuable as structured sessions. The most important thing is to offer both in a tailored and accessible way. The sample activities are suitable for all children and young people. However, you will need to adapt them to make them specific to your club and to the age group of the pupils. On the member pages of the website www.breakfastclubplus.org.uk, online members will find links to other useful websites, suggestions about how to extend the activities, and updates with new activities. Copyright © ContinYou 2006 What do we do now? Top tips on planning activities! • To enable you to create a sense of continuity, and to tie all the sessions together, make a rough plan, in advance of the first session, of what you are going to do for the whole term. You can use the planners on pages 46–47 to help you with this. • Consider whether the activities you are planning are inclusive – can they be adapted to suit all the children in the group? • If members know that the activities are planned ahead, this will encourage them to come back to ‘see what happens’ or to ‘make the next bit’. • To avoid disappointment, make sure that you know, as far in advance as possible, where you are going to get all the equipment and materials you need. • Look at the school calendar – are other activities such as residential or other trips taking place that will lower attendance at any key points? • Although the activities may be linked together, would a newcomer still be able to join in at any point during the term? Pick and mix On this page are some examples of flexible activities that you could build into your club on a regular basis to supplement the kind of ‘one-off’ activities suggested on pages 38–45. Reading corners Make sure that there is a wide range of reading material available to all club members all the time. See whether a local newsagent would be willing to donate a couple of different newspapers. Borrow some books from the school library. You could encourage pupils to discuss the differences between the papers, or ask them to write their own stories and comic books. Free and structured play From animation to acrobatics, portraying a character to pat-a-cake, play is an important part of every child’s development. Consider whether you can create different play spaces within your breakfast club area. Hello, we are the breakfast club This is a very valuable tool that helps people in the group to get to know each other, and that celebrates diversity. Start by deciding on about eight statements for each member of the group to complete in their own way. These might include: ‘I like to communicate by...’, ‘My favourite breakfast food is…’, ‘I like to move around by…’. It is important to note that everyone can contribute their responses in whatever way that they choose – they could write or draw, or make a collage or a recording. Their responses can then be made into a members’ book or picture. Physical activities It is very important to ensure that all club members have a good understanding of what energy balance means. Think about what physical activities you could build into your breakfast club. These do not have to be actual ‘sports’ activities – they could be things like walking, hopscotch, skipping or team games. Homework corners These can offer a good opportunity for children to discuss their work and seek advice from one another, as well as giving them the chance to tell you about any problems, difficulties or successes they are having. Often children don’t have a quiet area at home to work in, so the only place they can do their homework is at school. Also, if members of their family don’t see the importance of homework, children won’t give it as much emphasis as it deserves. Board games Games can stimulate the mind and lead to great personal and interpersonal development. The benefits of this should not be underestimated. The game ‘Four-in-arow’ has proved popular at existing breakfast clubs. Choose games that are not too active or noisy. Have ‘game monitors’ who are responsible for ensuring that pupils put all games away at the end of the session and that nothing is missing. Yoga This is great for relaxing the body and mind. You could devote a whole session to yoga, or simply engage the whole group in a few basic breathing exercises at the end of each session to help them relax and prepare for the day. In the ‘Finding out more’ section of this booklet you will find some links to websites with exercises that anyone can do, regardless of experience. Club newsletter Encourage the students to develop their skills in writing and journalism by producing their own club newsletter. They could interview each other, make up advertisements, and take photos. You could either publish the newsletter online or photocopy it for parents. Find out more: www.breakfastclubplus.org.uk 37 Who’s it for? This activity is suitable for all age groups. What skills does it develop? Language skills What do I need? • A random object – it could be anything, a piece of pottery or a memento of some kind How long does it take? 10 minutes upwards, depending on the size of the group and the chosen topic Chat-about Copyright © ContinYou 2006 • Each member of the group takes it in turn to hold the object and tells a story to explain what it is, where it comes from, who it belongs/ed to and how it comes to be at the breakfast club. Each person can choose whether to start afresh, or whether to build on or contradict the previous person’s tale. • Other members of the group must not interrupt the person who is holding the object. This helps to create an atmosphere in which people can express themselves freely at their own pace. • Discussion can be based on topical or factual events, or can be completely fictional and imaginary. What happens? The overall aim is to create an open forum of discussion/story-telling. This game is based on the ‘sacred pottery’ in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings – a great book to use as an introduction to the use of speaking tools. Activity Who’s it for? This activity is suitable for all age groups. What skills does it develop? Maths, Science, health promotion What do I need? • A favourite recipe • The appropriate ingredients and utensils • Pens, pencils and paper How long does it take? One session, or a number of sessions, each looking at different quantities or recipes Enough for everyone? Copyright © ContinYou 2006 • Choose a simple dish that all members of the group can make, such as a milk shake or smoothie, scrambled eggs, salsa, a fruit salad or Rice Krispie cakes. • Think about what constitutes one portion of the selected dish. Spend some time discussing why we have portions and how they are measured (see the website www.deni.gov.uk/schools/meals/ healthyeating_annexa.pdf or www.food.gov.uk – use the site to search for more information on portion sizes). • Ask members of the group to think about how to calculate the amount of ingredients required for more or fewer people than stated in the recipe. • Work out the amount of each ingredient required to make one portion for each member of the group. • Make the dish. Remember to encourage all members of the group to be actively involved in deciding how much to put in. • If applicable, ask the members to think about the volume of the dish – whether it will rise or expand during the process. If so, is it possible to calculate by how much? What factors affect the answers to this question? (These might include temperature, consistency of temperature, and the accuracy of the recipe.) • Share the dish out and see whether the calculations were correct – is there enough for everyone? What happens? The overall aim is to enable the group to calculate the amount of ingredients needed to feed a pre-determined number of people. You could consider making a treat for all breakfast club members to take home. Remember to stick to simple but effective recipes. Ones that don’t require any cooking are best for younger children. Activity 39 Who’s it for? This activity is suitable for all age groups. What skills does it develop? Geography, Art, Design and Technology What do I need? • Pens, pencils and paper • Glue/sticky tape • Leaflets, magazines and newspapers with images of food and farming • A selection of grains, fruits, seeds and other fresh produce as samples How long does it take? The time needed will depend on the size of wall hanging that the group makes. It would be a good idea to run this activity over a number of sessions to offer continuity and opportunities for further exploration. Food around the world Copyright © ContinYou 2006 • Visit websites with information about food and food production, or encourage your members to do so, if they have internet access. You could try looking at www.bigbarn.co.uk/aboutus/ On the education pages of www.hgca.com you will find additional ideas, and you will be able to download activity sheets on cereals, local produce and farming techniques. • Talk about the different foods that people eat for breakfast in different parts of the world, and locally, and then ask club members to work together to design and make a wall hanging showing this. • Remember to encourage the group to talk about where the foods come from and how they grow. • Encourage group members to use different kinds of collage and artistic skills by sticking the seeds and pictures cut from leaflets and magazines to the wall hanging, and by drawing images and designs. • Ask group members to prepare a short presentation to go with the wall hanging – they could make this at an assembly or at a breakfast club session to which they invite members of their families, people from the local community or breakfast club sponsors. What happens? The overall aim is to create a wall hanging or map that gives information about local produce and local producers. Activity Who’s it for? This activity is suitable for all age groups. What skills does it develop? History, language and Citizenship What do I need? • Pens, pencils and paper • A tape recorder • A special guest, preferably an older member of the community – perhaps the grandparent of one of the students How long does it take? One session for preparation and one session for the activity ‘In the good ol’ days’ Copyright © ContinYou 2006 • Explain to group members that a visitor is going to come to the club. It will be their job as investigative reporters to find out as much as they can about what that person used to eat for breakfast when they were the same age as members of the group. They could also ask the visitor what they eat for breakfast now and what their ideal breakfast would be. Suggest to the group some of the things they might ask about, such as: why their guest used to eat the things they did; what was different about breakfast then compared with now; and whether they had a breakfast club at their school. • Spend the first session helping the group to come up with a list of questions that they are all happy with. • Give different members of the group responsibility for asking questions on different topics. • In the second session, group members should interview their visitor along the lines that have been agreed. You could set it up like a daytime chat show with a host, microphone runners and the sound monitor (looking after the tape recorder). What happens? The overall aim is for the group to develop their interviewing skills and to discover more about what breakfast time was like for previous generations. Activity 41 Who’s it for? It is intended for use with younger students (at Key Stages 1 and 2). What skills does it develop? Music/Geography What do I need? • A cardboard tube for each person – they should be of medium length, but not all the same length • Cardboard strips/heavy-weight paper to cover the ends of the tubes • Paper • Sticky tape/glue • Rubber bands • Pens and pencils • Glitter, wrapping paper, confetti, old magazines optional • Seeds or rice Get ready for the session by finding out about rainsticks. There are hundreds of internet sites about the Amazon and the origins of rain sticks. Use a search engine such as Google to find out more. How long does it take? 40 minutes to 1 hour Rain, rain, go away Copyright © ContinYou 2006 • Hand out a cardboard tube to each member of the group. • Ask them to use the extra cardboard/strong paper to create ends for the tubes by drawing two circles on the card, one inside the other, the same size as the end of the tube (see the diagram). They should cut out the larger circle and then cut a few slits from the outer edge to the inner circle. • Next pupils should attach one of the circles to one end of the tube, using a rubber band, sticky tape or glue. They should leave the second end uncovered at the moment. • Now ask group members to decorate the tubes, using the materials provided – pens/paper/ glitter/old magazines and so on. • To finish the rain stick, they should fill the tube at least a quarter full with rice or seeds and attach the second cap. • Explain to the group how to use the rain stick – hold it in a vertical position, and rotate it slowly until it is completely upside down. • Ask group members to compare the different sounds made by the longer sticks and the shorter ones, and consider whether the rice or the seeds sound more like rain. What happens? The aim of this activity is to raise children’s awareness of musical instruments related to the Amazon culture. Introduce the session by talking about rainforests, the weather, and the origins of rain sticks and what they are usually made of. Activity Who’s it for? This activity is suitable for all age groups. What skills does it develop? Healthy eating/nutrition What do I need? Session 1 • Lists of possible ingredients for smoothies – a different list for each group. Remember that soft fruits work best. (NB Some of the pupils may have allergies to certain foods – you will need to check this out.) • Paper and pencils Session 2 • The fruits that the groups have chosen • Other ingredients, such as honey/maple syrup, semi-skimmed milk, plain yoghurt and wheatgerm • A blender How long does it take? • Session 1: 20–30 minutes • Session 2: 20–30 minutes Making smoothies Copyright © ContinYou 2006 Session 1 • Divide the group into equal teams (three groups work well). Give each team a different list of possible ingredients. • Ask each team to make up a recipe for a smoothie, based on any of the ingredients on their list. The recipe can be as exotic as the team wants but everyone has to try it. Remind the groups to check that there’s nothing in their recipe that a member of the group is allergic to. While the groups are devising their concoctions, ask them to think about whether smoothies are healthy, and to explain their answers. • Ask each group to produce a drawing of their smoothie. Session 2 • Make sure that each group has all its ingredients. Ask pupils to wash the fruit and then put all the ingredients into a blender and switch it on for about a minute. • Pour out a small amount of each smoothie for each person, but don’t tell them what is in each one. • Ask everyone to taste all three smoothies (with a drink of water in between to cleanse the palette) and to decide what they think each one is made of. They could discuss it and write down their answers as a team. • Once everyone has tried guessing the main ingredients, reveal what the smoothies were really made of and see how close they were. What happens? The aim is to raise awareness about how much fun healthy eating can be and about ways of combining different tastes, textures and flavours. Activity 43 Who’s it for? This activity is suitable for all age groups. What skills does it develop? Modern foreign languages What do I need? • A selection of games • Pens, pencils and paper • Post-it notes How long does it take? This could be a regular ongoing activity, held once a week. Parlez-vous français? Sprechen Sie Deutsch? Copyright © ContinYou 2006 • Put post-it notes round the area where you hold the breakfast club, labelling different pieces of furniture in whatever language(s) you have chosen. • You could turn this into a team game by asking pupils to work in groups. Give each group six stickers with the names of different pieces of furniture written on them, and allow a set amount of time for the groups to decide what their labels say and to stick them in the right place. • Offer pupils a selection of verbally interactive/descriptive games, such as ‘Guess who!’, with the additional stipulation that they have to conduct the whole game in French, German, Punjabi, or whatever the chosen language is. • Ask group members to devise word searches and crosswords in foreign languages – the clues as well as the solutions should be in the chosen language. What happens? The overall aim is to help pupils become more interested in and do better at foreign languages. You can focus on one language, or on a range of languages. This could include languages spoken by pupils and their families as well as those that are taught at school. Activity Who’s it for? All age groups can participate in this activity. You can introduce rules and themes to make it more challenging for older students. What skills does it develop? Art, design, imagination and creativity. It really helps club members to become accustomed to turning a mistake into a piece of art. What do I need? • Pencils and coloured pens • Sheets of plain paper – as large as possible • Paints How long does it take? A minimum of 15 minutes, but it can easily be extended This activity sheet has been supported by Art Attack. For more information on ideas for art activities, visit www.artattack.co.uk. Art Attack © 2006 The Media Merchants Television Company Limited A HIT Entertainment Company Squiggles Copyright © ContinYou 2006 • Put out sheets of paper on the floor and ask club members, in pairs, to sit down by one of the sheets. • Explain that you want one person from each pair to squiggle a random shape on their piece of paper, and the other to turn this shape into something recognisable. They should make the squiggles, and the images, as large as possible. Suggest that they start off with pencils and then try other drawing materials. • You could give club members different time limits for completing an image, or prescribe a theme for the drawings. • If there is time, encourage the members to colour in their drawings. Alternatively, they could try the activity with paint and really big sheets of paper. What happens? Activity 45 46 Copyright © ContinYou 2006 Date Activities Special arrangements Club session planner Find out more: www.breakfastclubplus.org.uk 47 Session objectives Warm up/introductory activity Description Links to other subjects Main activity/activities Description Links to other subjects Summing-up activity Description Links to other subjects Staff Special arrangements Club activity planning sheet (equipment, venue, insurance, permission slips,monetary contributions, etc) Date: By now you are hopefully feeling confident about getting started. But you’re not quite yet there. Before you open your doors you need to know how you will be able to tell if your club is a success or not. Monitoring what happens and evaluating what this means is often left until the last minute, but this is as much an essential part of planning as deciding where to hold your club. Monitoring and evaluation are essential to ensure the long-term sustainability of your activities. Here are ten good reasons for monitoring what’s going on: • You can tell if you are making progress towards achieving your aims. • You can tell if you are reaching your target group. • It is usually a funding requirement. • You can make sure you are meeting the needs of the target group. • You can identify whether you need to make changes to how the club is run, such as timing or location. • You can tell whether you are meeting members’ expectations. • You can find out whether club members enjoy what they do at the club. • You can identify individual members’ achievements and celebrate them. • You can celebrate the success of your club within the school and the community. • You will have evidence to support future funding applications. What do I need to know? You may feel unsure about what information you will be able to collect and what it tells you, but don’t be. If you have set yourself realistic and measurable goals for what you want to achieve at the outset, you are half way there. Things you can measure include changes in: • attainment in a particular subject • behaviour in the classroom, school or playground • attendance or punctuality rates • pupils’ self-esteem and confidence • classroom participation • pupils’ enthusiasm for learning • pupils’ awareness of health issues, such as what constitutes a healthy diet, how to interpret food labels, food safety and personal hygiene. What members can individually gain from participating in a breakfast club can vary enormously and is not always predictable. As a guide, outcomes may fall into one of four types: • personal outcomes: the impact on pupils’ attitudes and how they feel about themselves, such as confidence, self-esteem, creativity and raising aspirations • learning outcomes: the impact on pupils’ knowledge, on their levels of basic skills, their thinking or learning skills and their academic attainment • practical outcomes: the impact on barriers such as access to resources or on social barriers such as those associated with transition and with the integration of pupils with special needs • life skills: the impact on the broader range of social skills that are important in adulthood such as communication, team working, citizenship and leadership. H Copyright © ContinYou 2006 How are we doing? Collecting monitoring information does not have to be difficult. There are lots of different measurement tools that you can use. The most important thing is to keep it relevant, as brief as possible and easy for your group to complete. If you are an online member, on the website you will have access to model questionnaires that you can use to collect qualitative or ‘soft’ data with pupils of different ages and with teaching staff, along with other ideas and examples of how to measure progress. Find out more: www.breakfastclubplus.org.uk 49 Top tip! • Remember to ask whether what you are providing and how you are providing it is enjoyable and beneficial for both club members and staff. Compare these results with what people said they wanted or were expecting during the original consultation. • Qualitative data is ‘soft’ information that is difficult to count or measure, such as anecdotal evidence of improved behaviour or increased confidence. • Quantitative data is ‘hard’ information that can be measured with numbers, such as improvements in school achievements. Finally, here are a few pointers for making your monitoring and evaluation meaningful: • Seek information regularly but not too often – people will soon get bored with responding if they don’t see anything happening as a result of their participation. • Know what you want to measure, why you want to measure it and what you are going to do with the information. • Decide on how you are going to collect the information before you start. • Make sure that what you ask is relevant and don’t ask too many questions! • Collect ‘baseline’ information when you start the club and as new members join – this gives you something to measure progress against. • Think about who will have an opinion. Seek the views of a range of people, such as club members, teaching staff, partners and parents. • Think about how and when you will obtain the information – use a variety of methods to suit the group you are asking. • Make the way you collect the information clear, quick and simple – it can even be fun! • Be consistent – use the same measurement ‘tool’ (such as a survey) each time you ask the same group for information, so that you can compare like with like. • Be aware that other factors beyond participation in the breakfast club may have also affected progress toward your target – this means that, although you cannot say that participation caused a particular change, it may have contributed to that change. Keeping it going • Set realistic goals. • Aim to send out and collate information on a regular basis, but don’t be too ambitious. This will only lead to frustration and annoyance, both from the people being asked to complete paperwork and from you when you find you are not getting enough responses! Copyright © ContinYou 2006 Here’s how In the first year that it hosted a maths club, Sydenham School (Lewisham) ran it as part of a breakfast club. The three main objectives that this girls’ school set for the club were: • to improve the attitude to maths of those who struggle with the subject • to improve the team-working skills of students who didn’t want to share their work or who were embarrassed that they might have got things wrong • to demonstrate to