The Breakfast Club

Finding a school for twin boy and twin girl was stressful.  Not only did it involve a lot of Ofsted reading  for myself and he who helped create them but we also had to try, quite unsuccessfully, to understand SATs.

 It also had to have a large area for twin boy to run around like a mad man in to try and burn off some energy and hens for Twin girl to look at during playtime (her request not mine).  I wanted a school that had good academics but also focused on play, I didn’t want homework and I did want after school activity.  I wanted the moon on a stick and on top of all that as a working mum I needed a school with a breakfast club…..

I found one!  Even with hens.

But breakfast clubs are at risk, nearly 50% of school teachers admit that budget constraints could lead to their breakfast club being cut.  Should this happen at our school I will be up a creek without a paddle.  We don’t use our breakfast club daily but I need it when early morning meetings mean the kids have to go to school earlier and knowing that they receive breakfast as well as childcare is an enormous relief and timesaver.  Without the breakfast club, myself and many other parents would be forced to look for alternate childcare before school and to my knowledge not too many childminders are happy to have children on an as and when needs basis.  Financially it would be absurd for us to pay for a yearlong childminding place for two children when we currently use the club on an ad hoc basis.

Plus twin boy and twin girl would be heartbroken as quite frankly they prefer the relaxed breakfast at their breakfast club rather than the burnt toast often thrust at them by mummy as she speeds out of the door en route to work.

But breakfast clubs aren’t just important to working mums like me. Shadow chancellor, Ed Balls has described the clubs as one of the most crucial tools in the fight against child poverty, while Education Secretary Michael Gove has stated that corporate organisations may need to ‘put their hands in their pockets’ to bridge the funding gap.

In direct response to this Kelloggs ‘Help Give a Child a Breakfast’ campaign is being launched in October. Kellogg’s Cornflakes is making a 3p donation for every pack sold to the Kellogg’s Breakfast Club Trust with the target of raising a minimum of £300,000 – which equates to one million breakfasts for children by the end of 2012. – That’s a lot of full tummies all set up for the school day ahead.

The campaign aims to help bridge the funding gap and Kellogg’s are calling on the support of mums everywhere to spread the word and as a user of breakfast club and friend to many mums who also need them to support their work/family life I am 100% behind them.

So what you can do…..

• Buy a box of Kellogg’s Cornflakes and take it along to your child’s breakfast club – encourage the school to apply for a Give a Child a Breakfast grant of £400 & £50 Kellogg’s vouchers.
• If your child’s school hasn’t got a breakfast club, they can register to set one up by visiting www.giveachildabreakfast.co.uk – Kellogg’s will help them with training and a start up grant 

I’ll hand over my final words to the real users of our breakfast club and hopefully they can convince you this campaign is worth following…..

I give you the words of wisdom from Twin Boy and Twin Girl talking about why you should all go buy some fornflakes….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=149KQXN0gJI&feature=youtu.be

I really dont know where they get their acting skills from….

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