The current allocated time of 30 minutes for students at Chorlton High School to queue to get their lunch, go to the toilet, eat and have some downtime with their peers is too short. Numerous children have for sometime been complaining about how challenging they find this situation, which is especially problematic for year 7 children. Some children skip lunch altogether and others are upset with the lack of play time.

As concerned parents, we wonder whether the school has given enough consideration to the impact that this measure has had on the wellbeing of the students. It is widely known that children benefit from regular and long enough breaks throughout the day, as well as free play time, to ensure they are able to focus their attention, adequately learn, and form friendships (Immordino-Yang et al., 2012; Murray et al., 2013; Baines et al., 2023; Haidt, 2024).

The school informed us that this situation has been in place for at least 14 years, due to a lack of space to accommodate the large number of children at the school as well as to limit the chance of children engaging in ‘silly behaviour’. Hence, it seems the children’s well-being is being jeopardised to suit the school’s limited facilities and resources, as opposed to the school providing the adequate space to ensure the children’s needs are met. Other schools around Chorlton have longer breaks too. For example, Stretford Grammar has 50 mins and Trinity High School and Loreto High School both have 55 mins.

We would therefore like to request that the school revise this policy and extend the students’ lunchtime break as a matter of urgency. This would not only ensure that the students can continue to learn as much as possible, but also help improve their physical activity and their peer relations.

For more information on this subject, please see the Guardian article below: https://amp.theguardian.com/education/2019/may/10/shrinking-break-times-in-english-schools-impacting-social-skills