What did we do?

In March 2008, we carried out a study called 'Ready to Learn?' with Teachers' TV. We wanted to find out how sleep, breakfast and exercise affected children’s learning.

More than 78,000 pupils took part from nearly 700 different schools. All children who took part were aged between 5 and 16 years.

What did we find out?

We found out lots of interesting things:

Children who skipped breakfast performed worse. Also, what children had for breakfast made a big difference.

Children who got the best results had cereal, toast/bread, milk and fruit juice.

Children who got the worst results had unhealthy foods like sweets, crisps, chocolate, fizzy drinks and tea/coffee.

But children that had eggs also got worse results. But eggs are a healthy food - so why did they make children perform badly?

We are not sure why children who ate eggs performed worse. It might be because eggs take longer to break down into energy. If you have eggs you should have them with toast or fruit juice. Toast and fruit juice release energy in your body quickly so your brain can start to work well. Then, later in the day, your body will release the energy from the eggs keeping you going for longer.

So:

• children who don't eat breakfast find it harder to learn
• it's important to eat a healthy breakfast - ask mum and dad to make sure you get a healthy breakfast before school
• it's important to get a good sleep and exercise regularly to stay healthy too

This study was done as part of National Science and Engineering Week.