Over the last decade, there has been a growing trend towards shortening school lunch and break times. In this post, we’ll look at the reasons why this is happening and explain why such changes are not always in the best interests of pupils or schools.
Why lunch and break times are getting shorter
There are a number of reasons that schools are resorting to cutting lunch and break times. One of the main reasons is to end the school day earlier. School leaders want more time to offer extracurricular activities and have more opportunities for staff meetings and CPD sessions after the school day finishes. As a result, rather than giving the entire school an hour’s lunch break, lessons continue right through the day with individual year groups taking staggered half-hour turns to eat lunch. Break times are also being trimmed to around 15 minutes.
The benefit for school leaders is that by shortening the school day, the hours after school can still count as directed time. In this way, staff can be assigned extracurricular activities whereas, in the past, they were voluntary. This situation, in part, is due to the increased workload on teachers reducing the number who do volunteer to run enrichment.
Some schools also shorten break times because they believe it will cut incidents of poor behaviour in the playground and with lessons finishing earlier, reduce the poor concentration levels that are a common problem during the last lesson of the day. Additionally, schools can reduce the cost of supervision as fewer dinner staff are needed if fewer pupils take lunch at the same time.
Reasons not to have shorter break times
While the reasons above make it easy to understand why many schools are opting for shorter break times, there are also some convincing arguments against it. Here we look at what they are.
- Impact on mental health
The latest survey from the NHS (2022) indicates that 18% of 7 to 16-year-olds have a probable mental disorder. That figure has continued to rise every time these surveys take place and now equates to around 5 pupils in every class.
Break times are essential for looking after children’s mental health. They give pupils respite from demanding lessons, enabling them to cope better with the work that is to follow; they provide unstructured downtime in which children can choose their own activities and socialise with friends, and they give them opportunities to play.
When lunch breaks are reduced to staggered half-hour slots, there is little time to rest, socialise or play. Much of the half-hour will be taken up travelling to and from the canteen, queueing, eating, packing away and then, if needed, going to the toilet. What free time is left, if any, will have a negligible impact on improving mental wellbeing.
- Impact on learning
Historically, the last lesson of the day has always been the hardest. Many schools with longer hours believe that, by shortening the school day, they can keep concentration levels up and maintain good learning until the final bell. Experience from schools with shorter hours, however, shows that the last lesson of the day can continue to be trying even when it finishes earlier. Children are still winding down as they anticipate going home, and they will still be studying for the same number of hours.
The counterargument is that focus and behaviour can be improved throughout the day by extending break and lunch times, not shortening them. Concentration times vary, but typically, children can stay focused for around two or three minutes for each year of their age. After a couple of hours of lessons, therefore, a reasonably long break would be needed to clear the mind and prepare them for the lessons that followed. Without this, learning, achievement and attainment can all be impaired.
- Impact on physical health
Children need one hour of moderate physical activity every day to stay healthy. In the UK, however, few have regular opportunities to take part. The average child is not allowed out to play unsupervised until they are ten years old and busy parents haven’t got the time to take them to places they can exercise every day. As a result, many children fail to get the physical activity they need and some rarely leave the home.
For many children, the school playground has become the only place where they can engage in daily physical activity. Indeed, many schools have now invested in playground equipment that is designed to encourage greater participation, such as climbing frames, trim trails obstacle courses, football, basketball and netball markings, daily mile courses and so forth.
Shortening breaks and lunchtimes further limits the opportunities for physical activity, and in doing so prevents children from staying healthy, increases the risk of obesity and limits the good impact that physical activity can have on mental health.
Conclusion
While it’s possible to understand the reasons why some schools choose to have shorter breaks, the desired results are not guaranteed. Indeed, when it comes to improving mental wellbeing, physical health and concentration and learning, longer breaks in well-equipped playgrounds are more likely to be beneficial and offer better outcomes for pupils.
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