By Beth McDonald

They say it’s the most important meal of the day and pupils at Notre Dame High School agree about the absolute brilliance of breakfast.

Pupils and staff can’t seem to get enough of the new scheme Magic Breakfast which provides a free breakfast for everyone before the school day starts. And it’s even solved the (seemingly impossible) challenge of getting pupils off their mobile phones!

‘Magic Breakfast’ offers a variety of delicious grub, such as bagels, cereal, fresh orange juice and many more nutritious foods. Breakfast prepares pupils for classes and skipping it can cause a lack of motivation and, most importantly, focus.

Although only in its early days “Magic Breakfast” has already had a huge positive impact for our school as now many more students have access to a breakfast who normally would skip breakfast. They are now loving the opportunity of meeting up with friends and enjoying time together.

And it is this bringing pupils together that is turning out to be the truly magical part. Many pupils are getting into school earlier to meet with their friends for a chat before its heads down and hard work for the rest of the day. ‘Magic Breakfast’ is helping to maintain strong friendships and increasing the overall happiness of pupils across all six years groups.

Depute Head Teacher Margaret McKernan spearheaded the initiative and explained: “It’s got really busy since we started two weeks ago. I think there are more pupils getting in on time who I know are often late. It’s a nice start to the day. You see everyone around, not on their phones, but actually engaging and chatting with their pals. I thinks there more interaction between groups of friends and shy pupils have been coming up with their friends after the first week.”

S5 pupil, Lucy McFarlane, 16, said: “I really enjoy it. There’s quite a lot of variety of breakfasts to have. I normally have Shreddies and an orange juice but then, on Pancake Tuesday, I mixed it up and had a pancake as well. It’s a great way for you to meet up with friends and have a good little laugh over breakfast. We don’t always get that time in our exam year to keep friendships going.”

Magic Breakfast is a charity that supplies breakfast items to school to stop teenagers going hungry during the day and rather than targeting certain types of people it is free to all to enjoy.