Skipping breakfast is not a good idea for the students, even if they are so tied up and busy in the mornings.
According to a recent study, students who rarely ate breakfast on school days achieved lower grades than those who ate breakfast frequently.
The study was done by researchers, from the University of Leeds, showing for the time a link between eating breakfast and performance for secondary school students in the UK.
Adding together all of a student’s exam results, they found that students who said they rarely ate breakfast achieved nearly two grades lower than those who rarely missed their morning meal.
Lead researcher Dr Katie Adolphus, from the University of Leeds’ School of Psychology, said: “Our study suggests that secondary school students are at a disadvantage if they are not getting a morning meal to fuel their brains for the start of the school day.
“The UK has a growing problem of food poverty, with an estimated half a million children arriving at school each day too hungry to learn. Previously we have shown that eating breakfast has a positive impact on children’s cognition.
The Leeds researchers say their findings support the calls to expand the current limited free school breakfast programme to include every state school in England.
The researchers surveyed 294 students from schools and colleges in West Yorkshire in 2011, and found that 29% rarely or never ate breakfast on school days, whilst 18% ate breakfast occasionally, and 53% frequently. Their figures are similar to the latest national data for England in 2019, which found that more than 16% of secondary school children miss breakfast. Those who rarely ate breakfast scored on average 10.25 points lower than those who frequently ate breakfast.
