PRIMARY school youngsters are discovering that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

A new partnership has seen a daily breakfast club set up at Northallerton’s Alverton primary school.

Broadacres housing association is providing funding of £3,500, through its customer involvement budget, to enable the club to run for the next two years.

And the local Greggs store on the town’s high Street is providing fresh bread for toast through the Greggs Foundation.

The club is proving popular with parents and children, who can choose from a range of cereals, toast, fresh fruit, yoghurts, fresh juice, milk or water. On Fridays, they can also opt for a cooked breakfast.

School head Sharon Robinson said: “Even though we are still very much in the early days of the club, we are already seeing the benefits.

“It helps with attendance because the children are getting to school earlier and concentration levels have also improved.”

Lynne Hindmarch of the Greggs Foundation said: “It costs just over 20p a day to provide breakfast for one child, so when you consider it is the most important meal of the day and the major health benefits it has, we believe it is money well spent.”

Broadacres spokesman Andy Powell added: “We want to ensure that all school pupils have an equal platform to achieve and succeed and breakfast clubs like this are a great way to do that and we look forward to seeing the positive outcomes of the project.”

*One in seven children in the UK go to school without any breakfast and research has found that pupils who have eaten are more punctual, concentrate better and have more energy and enthusiasm.