School Food Trust Study

This report was published in Daily Telegraph 07/07/09 claiming that a new study shows pupils benefit from improvements to dining rooms including the purchase of new furniture. For a selection of our dining hall furniture click here

Eating healthy school lunches in modern dining rooms can improve pupils' concentration by almost 20%, research has found.

A School Food Trust (SFT) study found that improving food and dining facilities had a positive effect on pupils' behaviour and meant they were better at working on their own.

Researchers made improvements such as introducing new healthy menus, holding taster sessions, redecorating the dining room and buying new furniture in seven secondary schools across England.

A further four schools were used as control schools, with no improvements made. They then assessed the results to see if the changes had an impact on learning and behaviour in the classroom after lunch.

Observers recorded pupil behaviour at the beginning of the study and then again 15 weeks later.

The study found that pupils at the schools where improvements had been made were 18% more likely to be "on task" (concentrating and engaged with learning) compared with those in the control schools.

Pupils in the schools which had seen improvements were also 14% less likely to be off-task than those in the control schools, it found.

The study said: "These findings have important implications for classroom teaching in secondary schools.

"If pupils are likely to be more on-task and less off-task for up to one third of the time, teaching is likely to run more smoothly with fewer disruptions.

"The net effect of these improvements in behaviour is likely to mean that more time is spent on achieving the objectives of the lesson and less time on activities or discipline needed to retain the pupils focus."