A majority of teachers have had to step in to help hard-up pupils buy uniforms or get enough to eat in school, a major survey has found.
Some 78% of teachers said their school was helping to provide clothes for needy kids, while 58% were handing out snacks to hungry children during the day.
More than half (55%) were providing free breakfasts, while 31% gave out toiletries and 68% doled out period products to pupils.
The troubling survey of more than 17,800 members of the National Education Union (NEU) laid bare the extent to which schools are being forced to intervene to help families buckling under cost of living pressures.
It found 94% of teachers and 97% of support staff believe that poverty or low income affects learning, with pupils showing signs of tiredness, illness or inability to concentrate in class.
Teachers described kids falling asleep in lessons because they are hungry or they can't get a good night's sleep because of their living conditions.
Some were turning up at school in sub zero temperatures without a coat or wearing shoes with holes in on rainy days, the survey found.
NEU Joint General Secretary Kevin Courtney said: “Millions of children are going hungry, and their number is growing. It should concentrate minds in Whitehall that this is having such a profound impact on learning.
"The cost-of-living crisis will only serve to intensify the challenge ahead, and at such a rate that means-testing cannot possibly hope to keep pace.
“The Government clearly needs to do more and must stop depending on schools and individual staff to keep picking up the pieces. Schools are already working at the limits of what they can afford."
The union urged the Government to offer free school meals for all primary pupils, provide food vouchers during the holidays for needy kids and to overhaul uniform rules to bring costs down.
Liberal Democrat education spokeswoman Munira Wilson said: "The cost-of-living crisis is causing serious harm to our children’s learning.
"The Conservatives are letting down our young people whilst teachers and support staff are left to pick up the pieces.
"Parents make enormous sacrifices for their children, but with bills and food prices soaring, many are struggling just to find the money to stop them going hungry."
She urged ministers to back expansion to free school meals provision to prove they aren't out of touch.
The Mirror and the NEU have been campaigning for Free School Meals for All to ensure no children go hungry.
A Government spokesperson said: “We recognise that the rising cost of living is having an effect on pupils which is why we are already providing free school meals to over a third of pupils in England, compared with one in six in 2010.
"We have made a further investment in the National School Breakfast Programme to extend the programme for another year, backed by up to £30 million, and are supporting families with the cost of uniform due to our legally-binding guidance that requires schools to make uniform affordable for all.
“More widely, we have provided record levels of financial support for the most vulnerable - £1,200 last year and a further £1,350 in 2023/24 and we’ve made an unprecedented increase to the National Living Wage.
"This is on top of an increase in benefits of 10.1% next week, a continuation of the Energy Price Guarantee, and the Household Support Fund, which is helping with essential food and energy costs."
