IT'S twenty minutes before the official start of the school day and pupils are sitting in rows chatting indoors with children in later year groups, some starting their day’s learning, all there having just had a healthy breakfast.
The Press was invited to Burton Green Primary School’s Healthy Breakfast Club on Tuesday (November 5), a free option for 144 pupils on roll at the school in Burton Stone Lane.
Part of the Hope Sentamu Learning Trust, the school in Clifton is part of a pilot project called York Hungry Minds, initiated by City of York Council in November 2023 and running since January to provide a ‘free school meal’ option for Key Stage Two (KS2)(Years 3-6) pupils.
Current eligibility for KS2 pupils depends upon government criteria around household income, and the Labour administration pledged to ensure every primary school child in York gets a free school meal.
Funding to provide Burton Green’s breakfast option has come through donations from Persimmon Homes Charitable Foundation and the council put in £100,000 via a community fund for a universal free school lunch option for KS2 pupils for a year at Westfield Primary Community School in Askham Lane, a local authority-maintained school.
Recommended reading:
York Hungry Minds school meals project hailed a success
Free school lunches begin at Westfield Primary School
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