What's happening in the world of breakfast

NEW! The Breakfast Bulletin has adapted to modern times! The  termly publication has become a monthly e-newsletter – enabling clubs to access up to the minute information in bite sized chunks. 

The bulletin will provide you with all the latest breakfast club and funding news helping you to keep your clubs current, ensure you are up-to-date with the latest rules and regulations and provide a monthly review of inspirational ideas. 

New members can Join the Breakfast Club Plus network by signing up on the right hand side of this page.

You can get great ideas for your club, view the current breakfast club bulletin, or view the breakfast bulletin archive on our breakfast bulletin page.

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Britain's best teachers help search for the best breakfast clubs

The UK's best teachers, David Miller (secondary), Libby Pryce (primary) and Natalie Richards (outstanding new teacher), are backing the search for Britain's best breakfast clubs.

David Miller, who teaches English and Media at St Ninian's High School in East Dunbartonshire, said: 'Eating breakfast has a hugely positive impact on children's memory, concentration and creative thinking. Breakfast Clubs are much more than a social and pleasant way to start the day; like a school they can provide the best start in life!.'

Libby Pryce added: 'I congratulate all breakfast clubs across the country who are doing such a fantastic job increasing the number of children eating breakfasts regularly, promoting healthy eating, providing child care before school and ensuring children arrive at school on time. The Kellogg's Breakfast Club Awards are one way of recognising their contribution to our children's health and well being and I support it whole heartedly.'

Natalie, who is Head of Drama at Bishop Gore Comprehensive School in Swansea, said: 'The number of children you see going to school with cakes and sweets doesn't bode well for a healthy day in the classroom so I'm very happy to support breakfast clubs in schools.'

We'd like to thank those if you have already submitted your award application, and we would like to remind those of you who have not yet entered, that the deadline for the Breakfast Club Plus awards is the 12 December 2008.

Visit the Breakfast Club Plus awards page for more information.

Children's minister calls for more out-of-school-hours services

Children's Minister Beverley Hughes has called on parents across England to demand more out-of-hours activities at their local schools.

She announced that although 65 per cent of schools are already offering a full programme of out-of-hours activities, parents could help encourage the rest to follow suit.

The Minister also launched a new online directory of extended schools (http://schoolsfinder.direct.gov.uk), a leaflet to help parents work with their schools, an extended schools publicity toolkit for schools and local authorities so they can promote their services and an updated extended schools prospectus.

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Inspiring Scotland

Funding body Inspiring Scotland is to hand out more than £55 million to youth charities across Scotland. The funds will assist 14 to 19 year olds who struggle to make a successful transition to adulthood. For more information visit www.inspiringscotland.org.uk.

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£4.5 million for Young Inspector Service

Young people from the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods in England are to be trained to have a real influence and voice in assessing the quality of their local youth services, based on robust standards that young people themselves will devise.

To read the full story, visit www.dcsf.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2008_0257

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Scottish Education Awards 2009

Schools across Scotland are being encouraged to celebrate their successes as the 2009 Scottish Education Awards are launched.

Awards will be given across seventeen categories. The closing date for nominations is Friday 27 February 2009.

www.scottisheducationawards.org.uk.

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Health initiative for Welsh Heads of the Valleys area

An initiative to drive healthy living networks across the Heads of the Valleys area has been announced. In response to a report by the World Health Organisation (WHO), Health Challenge Valleys has been launched to maximise health improvement through better co-ordination.

The programme is targeting professionals and agencies not traditionally associated with improving health and wellbeing but who could make a contribution. Health Challenge Valleys recognises this and the importance of tackling the social or wider determinants of health and well-being in reducing health inequalities.

www.healthchallengevalleys.com

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£500,000 to promote benefits of books to boys in Wales

The campaign, Read A Million Words Together, has been developed by the Welsh Assembly Government's Basic Skills Cymru team with the aim of ensuring that more boys in Wales achieve the levels of literacy necessary to succeed.

Building on the success of Read a Million Words in 2007, the campaign focuses on making reading more accessible to boys, extending the range of reading materials in the curriculum to include more non-fiction titles, short stories and books which appeal to boys' tastes.

www.readamillionwordsinwales.org.uk

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Blue Peter to raise money for breakfast clubs

ContinYou has been chosen to benefit from this year's Blue Peter Christmas appeal, Mission Nutrition, which aims to raise £1 million through bring-and-buy sales.

Alongside Save the Children and the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens (FCFCG), ContinYou is raising money to put 4 million meals on plates around the world, in what Blue Peter says will be its biggest appeal yet.

The appeal, which is being launched to mark Blue Peter's 50th anniversary, aims to help children eat and grow better food, to tackle the challenge of the global food crisis and international credit crunch, and to leave a lasting legacy for children in the UK and across the globe.

The money raised for ContinYou will be used to deliver new breakfast clubs across the UK.

The appeal launches on November 4 on BBC One at 4.30pm.

For more information, view our Blue Peter Mission Nutrition pages.

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Five year olds who eat breakfast are less likely to be obese

Children who eat breakfast daily are less likely to become obese, new research suggests. Researchers have found that obese five year olds are about twice as likely not to eat breakfast as normal-weight children.

The finding has emerged from a UK-wide survey of children born in the first two years of the new millennium that was conducted by researchers at the Institute of Education, University of London. The survey, one of the biggest of its kind, involved weighing and measuring more than 15,000 children.

The survey team at the Centre for Longitudinal Studies also found that children's breakfast habits were strongly related to parents' work status. Children whose parents were not employed were almost three times as likely to go without breakfast as those with two working parents.

However, economic pressures, such as the inability to afford healthy food, do not appear to be key contributors to weight gain.

The report can be downloaded from the Centre's website www.cls.ioe.ac.uk.

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Active Kids Get Cooking Challenge 2009

The Active Kids Get Cooking Challenge 2009 has been launched. The challenge this year is: 'Taking inspiration from breakfasts around the world, create a 'spectacular breakfast' for a special occasion which demonstrates your food skills and techniques.'

This challenge is designed to emphasise the importance of eating breakfast, and challenge students to demonstrate their culinary skills while being creative with this important meal time.

The closing date is 15 May 2009.

For more information and to download challenge worksheets, visit www.activekidsgetcooking.org.uk.

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Breakfast ‘keeps young people lean’

A five-year study in the US has found that those who skip breakfast on average weigh 5lb more than those who eat first thing. The study in the US journal 'Pediatrics' found that those who ate breakfast consumed more calories over the day, but found that they were also likely to be much more active.

You can read the full report here: Pediatrics (The Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics)

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