school lunchTiMes
Investigating the Impact of Playtime on Learning and Development
come out to Play!
Evidence shows that breaktimes are being cut as schools struggle to meet
the demands of the curriculum. But is ‘playtime’ an unnecessary and archaic
tradition that schools can simply dispense with, or a vital and undervalued
ingredient in a child’s healthy development?
W
hilst adults today might have feature of modern working life, many Statistics show that the number of
fond memories of kicking schools up and down the country are schools cutting their breaktimes has
footballs on the school field, dispensing with a 60 minute lunch increased dramatically over the last
playing hopscotch in the school yard break altogether and opting for shorter, decade and that, on average, the lunch
or even sharing their first kiss behind staggered midday breaks instead. break is getting shorter.
the bike shed, many modern pupils will The change means that many pupils Research conducted by Prof. Peter
have less enduring memories of their now barely have time to eat their Blatchford on behalf of Play England
school lunch breaks. dinner before they’re expected back shows that the number of schools with
For despite the ‘lunch hour’ being in the classroom and the traditional long lunchbreaks (over 65 minutes) has
a lasting tradition in the British opportunities for playtime have become substantially reduced in the decade
educational system and indeed a central a thing of the past. from 1995-2006, from 60% to 44% at
F
ACILITIES MANAGEMENT
42 • School Management Today
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