Magic Breakfast: Pupil and Parent Voice 2023-24

Magic Breakfast is a charity that delivers healthy breakfast food and provides expert advice to schools in the UK, to support children at risk of hunger with fuel for learning at the start of the school day. Whilst the charity had undertaken research with partner schools, a gap in knowledge was pupils’ and parents’ perspectives of school breakfast provision and experiences of poverty and hunger. We were commissioned to conduct a national piece of multi-method research to gather these perspectives.

A mixed methodology was adopted to engage parents and carers as well as pupils from primary schools, secondary schools and special schools across the UK.  This included online surveys, focus groups and one to one interviews. Different techniques were used to be inclusive of younger children and individuals with disabilities and additional needs. Discussions explored morning routines, existing school breakfast provision and the impact of eating, or not eating, a nutritious breakfast.

The research findings and report we produced have been widely used by the charity to lobby for change including in parliament and in their communications with donors to evidence the impact and value of Magic Breakfast’s offer. The report, which was informed by our findings, can be found here.