SATS: pupils hungry in exams

New figures out today have revealed 35 per cent of pupils in Sheffield taking SATS tests this week will be hungry during their exams after skipping breakfast. At Philimore Community Primary school they run a breakfast club to make sure children are not hungry during their tests.

Rebecca Sutton from Philamore Community Primary School in Sheffield explains more.

Hungry youngsters tuck into their breakfast at Sheffield's Philimore Community Primary School. But they are among the lucky ones in the city with new figures showing almost a third of children skip breakfast - twice the national average.

There is concern this can mean poor performance in Standard Assessment Tests which take place this week.

"We have often come across children who complain mid morning of headaches and feeling a tired and one of our first questions to a child saying that would be have you had any breakfast this morning?

The SATS results that they get now follow them into their secondary school so it is important."

Rebecca Sutton, Phillimore Community Primary School, Sheffield.

A third of school children in Sheffield skip breakfast because of exam stress new research has revealed. The figures have been released as primary school children across the country begin taking their SATS exams.

Figures for Sheffield are as follows:-

• One in four pupils who did not eat breakfast were unable to concentrate during exams and became anxious and irritable.
• 36 per cent skipped meals because of nerves
• One in five pupils said they never ate breakfast
• 50 per cent said they wished they had eaten breakfast before their exams

Figures for Leeds are as follows:

• One in five pupils felt more pressure from their teachers when they sat their SATs
• Nerves left half of pupils unable to sleep during exams
• 19 per cent said they could not eat
• 62 per cent of pupils said not eating breakfast would leave them tiered during exams