Free breakfast clubs for pupils in 750 schools

FREE breakfast clubs begin in 750 schools from Tuesday in a move to give parents 30 minutes of childcare a day.

- By David Williamson

The initiative is designed to help working parents juggle busy mornings and save them up to £450 annually, while boosting learning and helping to tackle the nation's truancy crisis.

Half a million primary school pupils missed at least one day of school every fortnight last year and one in 50 pupils were suspended at least once.

One in three were considered not ready to start school at age five, and a third leave primary school without fundamental reading, writing and maths skills.