Death of the Lunch Hour

All contributors to this petition, as well as many hundreds of thousands of people nationwide, are aware that we have a silent crisis at play which I will refer to as ‘The death of the school lunch hour’ This appears to have coincided with with revised teachers' contracts in 2003, which say schools cannot use staff as lunchtime supervisors unless they are part of the senior management team. Instead, they must use support staff, or employ part-time supervisors.
But the most common reason given for the change is the reduction of unruly behaviour. "Essentially, it's saying that we can't do anything about the behaviour at breaks, so we'll shorten them instead," says Margaret Morrissey, spokeswoman for the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations.

We feel cross, anxious and worried that this has happened with no consultation and, seemingly, with the sanction of government. When the government is forever trumpeting the health of the nation and promoting healthy food, it seems bizarre to reduce lunchtimes so children do not have the time to eat

Several factors must be taken into account when determining the actual time students have to eat. This time is defined as the time from when a student gets their meal to the end of the lunch period. After taking into account the amount of time that it takes students to use the bathroom, get to the café/school, wait in the lunch line, only 5 to 10 minutes remain for students to actually eat their meal.

We would like the school to consider extending the lunch time to an hour and resuming afternoon lessons after this.

We would all be far happier for our children to finish school later in the knowledge that they have had time for a proper healthy lunch and have had sufficient time to actually eat their lunch.

To have children living off snacks as this is all they have time for is unacceptable and is creating problems with weight and health which is something that no-one wants.

Some students rely on school lunch to provide energy and quality foods. Whether or not students will choose to eat healthy foods during school lunch depends on the amount of time they are given to sit down and eat, our 35 allocated minutes deprives many children of such a choice. Students with longer lunch times eat more nutrients than students with a shorter lunch times, this is a known fact.

When students are given enough time to eat lunch, they have a better nutritional status. Nutrition status directly affects academic achievement, conduct, and overall school performance. Students who are undernourished tend to become sick more often and miss school.

We hope you see that by creating this petition and having it signed by many parents that this is not an isolated problem and is something the school NEEDS to resolve urgently.

Recommendations

Lengthen our lunch to the hour!

Let’s talk about …….

• ● Placing greater emphasis on the importance of lunch in the school day.

• ● Increasing the dialogue and the collaboration between school administrators and kitchen staff.

• ● Educating stakeholders (i.e., principals, teachers, kitchen staff, parents, and students) on the importance and length of school lunch.

To maximize lunch periods:
• ● Create break prior to lunch – let’s work up an appetite and allow socialisation. ( Studies have shown students consume 67% more food, including fruits and vegetables, when break is scheduled before lunch, compared to students with break after lunch. Also that higher student academic performance occurs when break is scheduled before lunch, meaning students are able to burn off energy and have an opportunity to socialize, better preparing them to eat during lunch)

• ● Emphasize the importance of giving students adequate time to get to the café/school hall.

We would also like to suggest that suitable, CRB checked parents are able to volunteer for lunchtime supervisory positions in order to enable the extension of the lunch hour.

Another possibility would be to fund raise in order to pay for the additional staffing requirements.

We look forward to your response detailing next steps and hopefully arranging a meeting to discuss further.