Stoke-on-Trent based Ormiston Sir Stanley Matthews Academy (OSSMA) has been shortlisted for the Kellogg’s Breakfast Club awards 2021, a competition set up to reward the best breakfast clubs all across the UK.

The application is now with an independent judging panel who will decide on a winner over the next two weeks. Kellogg's will notify the winning breakfast club after the 10th February 2021.

The breakfast club at OSSMA began in 2018 offering a small number of students a free breakfast in the morning. It has since expanded following funding from Kelloggs and the Government’s National School's Breakfast Programme.

The programme has also helped students during the Coronavirus lockdowns; with principal Nick Brennan joining kitchen staff and local charity Bee-Active to deliver breakfast items to eligible students. In-school meals continued for the children of key workers.

Today, the academy are still providing free healthy breakfast items to free school meal students, along with a daily free breakfast offer to all vulnerable and key-worker students.

Stoke-on-Trent MP Jack Brereton has welcomed the achievement.

Jack Brereton MP said:

“I want to thank the team at Ormiston Sir Stanley Matthews’ Academy for going above and beyond to provide for our students in this most difficult of times. Breakfast clubs such as the excellent example at OSSMA are vital to ensure schoolchildren get a healthy meal to start the day.

I will continue to work with the Government and local organisations to ensure the National School Breakfast programme can be maintained and boosted when necessary”

Nick Brennan, Principal at OSSMA, said:

"We want to ensure that our students continue to have access to breakfast even during lockdown. Breakfast has been suggested to positively affect learning in children in terms of behaviour, cognitive, and school performance. We firmly believe that students eating a daily healthy breakfast will help them be settled and ready to learn at the start of the school day."