A year-long pilot study to ascertain the effect of healthy school meals on children’s behaviour and performance is starting today.

Pupils at eight primary schools are being given free, nutritious breakfasts, lunches or snacks for the rest of the academic year while researchers analyse the children’s weight, achievement, motivation, ability to concentrate and level of illness.

The results from the schools in North Tyneside will be compared with students from ten nearby schools that will not be offering free food.

A dramatic difference in behaviour and attendance was noticed when schools in Hull decided to offer free meals to all children in an attempt to remove the stigma and improve uptake of the scheme, which is normally available only to children from poor backgrounds.

But the policy was scrapped this month for cost reasons and the number of pupils having a school meal has reportedly slumped.

Under the new £250,000 scheme, the schools will serve healthy food at different times, with researchers studying the children from the start of the day. Two schools each will offer breakfast, morning snacks, lunch or morning and afternoon snacks.

Leaders of North Tyneside Council intend to introduce the most successful option into all of its primary schools from next September, as obesity affects 15 per cent of under11s in the borough. For breakfast the children can have cereal, toast and spread, a piece of fruit and orange juice or milk. The mid-morning snack choices will include a cheese-topped bun, sultana bun, date whirl, fruit and orange juice. Those having two snacks a day will have fruit and milk in the morning, with the same choice as above in the afternoon. The pupils having school lunches will eat meals such as low-fat sausage in onion gravy with parsley potatoes, plus vegetables or salad and pudding or fresh fruit.

Children at the other schools in the borough will not be offered the snacks but will have lunches of the same standard that have to be paid for.

A spokesman for the scheme said that other studies had shown that children who ate nutritious food were calmer, more motivated and had fewer days off sick.

He added: “Concentration and performance at school are affected by hunger and diet. Instilling good eating habits at an early age by making small changes in a child’s diet can have a long-term effect on their health, helping growth and development but also helping to prevent obesity.”

The pilot scheme will be independently evaluated by a team from Northumbria University.

Researchers will monitor children’s classroom behaviour and question children, parents and teachers involved in the scheme at all 18 schools. They will produce an interim report in December and a final report next July.

Susan Carr, from Northumbria University, said: “We will be looking at children and talking to parents and teachers to look for a range of outcomes and see the impact of different food options.

“We will also be looking at the social demographic – what works at which school. There’s a mixture of data already collected by schools such as attendance, achievement and body-mass index in some cases.”

Kate Green, chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group, said: “This is a very welcome experiment. During the Hull scheme, take-up of school meals more or less doubled.

“We think central government should provide money to help all lcoal authorities to do this.”

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