More than one in ten schools give children less than 30 minutes for lunch, an increase on six years ago, new polling suggests.
A Teacher Tapp survey, released this morning, also found the food dished up by primaries and secondaries was “poorly received” by teachers and pupils alike.
Up to a quarter of children also revealed they do their only exercise for the week at school.
June Stevenson, of Teacher Tapp, said: “Pupils clearly care a lot about their lunchtimes, but too many of them struggle for sufficient time to eat, socialise and enjoy activities.
“Teachers tell us how much they care too, and 60 per cent tell us they experience lunchtime issues impacting on afternoon learning time”
The study, based partially on polling of teachers and partially on school surveys of pupils and parents, suggested lunches lasted under 30 minutes in 11 per cent of schools. In secondaries, the figure stood at 14 per cent.
In comparison, UCL-Nuffield research from 2019 suggested the figure stood at 8 per cent.
Just 11 per cent of secondary teachers reported having lunchtimes of an hour or longer, according to the Teacher Tapp study, compared to 30 per cent of primaries.
Only half found food ‘tasty’
When asked if they’d have a longer break in the middle of the day if it meant finishing later, 37 per cent of pupils aged 11 and above answered yes. But 45 per cent said no.
Despite this, the majority said they usually had enough time to eat.
Teacher Tapp added “food seems to be poorly received”, with only half of youngsters describing lunch as “tasty” and a quarter saying they were given enough to eat.
Over a fifth of teachers said the food wasn’t “good enough for them to give to a child they care about”.
It comes as funding for free school meals has not kept pace with food, staffing and energy cost rises, and leaders face increasing pressures from the rising cost of external suppliers.
Meanwhile, 41 per cent of teachers reported they had “pupils in their class regularly too hungry to learn because they have not had enough food”.
This rose to 68 per cent for those working in schools “in the top quartile for numbers of pupils eligible for free school meals”.
Almost 25 per cent of primary pupils also told the pollsters that “they do their only physical playing or exercise for the week at school”. This fell to 18 per cent in secondaries.
Most schools lacked the resources to offer “structured activities involving all or most pupils”, Teacher Tapp noted.
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