Written evidence by Magic Breakfast (RFP0101)

Education Committee

Reading for Pleasure inquiry

Summary

• Breakfast clubs offer a unique, cost-effective opportunity to embed reading for pleasure into the school day while addressing child morning hunger.
• Evidence from the Breakfast Bookstars initiative shows that combining nutritious breakfasts with structured reading activities improves literacy, wellbeing, and school engagement in disadvantaged communities.
• Magic Breakfast recommends that the Government should support and incentivise collaborations that embed reading activities into the free breakfast club programme to maximise the benefits to children and their families.

Who is Magic Breakfast

This evidence is submitted by Magic Breakfast. Magic Breakfast is the UK’s leading expert in school breakfasts. We are a charity with over twenty years of experience delivering breakfasts and providing expert advice to schools, and we make a difference to over 300,000 children and young people every day across England and Scotland.  

Dual challenges: food insecurity and declining literacy

In the UK, two of the most significant barriers to learning are the risk of hunger, and a decline in literacy rates. Research shows that

• High levels of poverty across the UK mean children face going to school hungry. 2.1 million children are at risk of hunger, with 1 in 7 households experiencing food insecurity. This means that 4 children in a class of 30 are at risk of hunger[1].
• There is a significant gap in attainment, with children from disadvantaged areas finishing primary school an average of 10 months behind their peers[2].

• Schools face a lack of resources with one in seven primary schools lacking a library, rising to one in four in disadvantaged areas[3].
• While book ownership is one of the top three predictors of reading performance[4] a National Literacy Trust survey found that 1 in 10 children and young people aged 5 to 18 say they do not have a book of their own at home.[5]
• There is a significantly declining rate of enjoyment in reading among children. Only 1 in 3 children enjoy reading, and just 18.7% read daily in their free time- the lowest levels since 2005[6].

Breakfast Bookstars: tackling hunger and poor literacy one library and one breakfast at a time

Breakfast Bookstars is a partnership between Magic Breakfast and the National Literacy Trust funded by Arch Insurance International which runs from 2024–2028. The partnership aims to tackle two significant barriers to learning, child hunger and poor literacy skills, by providing children with:

• Nutritious breakfasts to improve readiness to learn and cognitive function.
• New libraries and reading activities in 25 Magic Breakfast partner schools in disadvantaged areas in 2024/2025, expanding to a further 23 schools in 2025/2026 and rising to 90 schools in total by the end of the project.

Reading activities alongside breakfast provision include books being freely available, providing time for solo reading, opening sessions to family members to read alongside children, targeted reading support with staff, and staff and children reading to each other.

What is the impact?

Schools report significant benefits when reading is integrated into breakfast clubs. In a survey of the first cohort of schools after taking part in the first year of the project, schools told Magic Breakfast that including reading in their breakfast provision had positive impacts on:

• Readiness to learn (91%)
• Mental health & wellbeing (91%)
• Attitudes toward reading (91%)
• Reading ability (80%)
• Punctuality in the morning (73%)
• Parental engagement with school (73%)
• Attendance (73%)

Why does this work?

Both school breakfast provision and interventions that encourage reading for pleasure are shown to improve children’s readiness to learn and pupil engagement and sense of belonging – which lead to improved educational outcomes.

Free breakfast provision can improve reading, writing, and maths by two months’ progress per academic year and improves attendance[7], and eating breakfast has also been shown to improve cognitive function[8]. In schools with breakfast provision, pupil behaviour in the classroom environment is improved which means that having an effective breakfast provision can improve outcomes for children who do not even attend breakfast club[9].

Children who enjoy reading and read daily have higher reading ability than those who do not[10]. This is extremely important at school, as good literacy skills unlock learning. Children who enjoy reading are also three times more likely to have good mental wellbeing than children who don’t enjoy it[11].

Breakfast Bookstars benefits children both through breakfast provision and activities that nurture reading for pleasure. Reading during breakfast creates a regulated, positive environment thatreduces anxiety and supports mental wellbeing. Providing books alongside breakfast provision can therefore support a calm, soft start to the day and enhance a child’s readiness to learn and engagement across the school day.

Magic Breakfast’s approach to breakfast provision also removes stigma and barriers to learning by providing a universal offer to all pupils within a school. The diverse book collections included in Breakfast Bookstars complements this ethos by reflecting pupils’ identities, which in turn fosters empathy and engagement.

Magic Breakfast recommendation

The Government has made a successful start in rolling out the new free breakfast clubs in primary schools. The scheme is backed by £80 million in the 2026/27 financial year and is a key driver towards the Government’s opportunity mission- seeking to break the link between a child’s background and their future success. 

The impact data above, from the Breakfast Bookstars programme, shows that even in just the first year of the programme breakfast club provision has been a powerful vehicle to support children to read regularly for pleasure, and to build this into the school day. Evidence shows that school breakfast provision and regularly reading for pleasure can both improve academic attainment, and combining these two interventions can be an effective way of delivering both. 

We recommend that the Government embed Reading for Pleasure in the free breakfast clubs programme by ensuring schools

• have access to guidance and case studies to support them in designing their club to include reading as a key activity
• have the financial resources to provide high quality breakfast clubs alongside reading materials that meet the needs of all their pupils.

January 2026