The BBC has an interesting story on the relationship between food and learning. Some campaigners are calling for improved food quality, particularly more fresh foods and fewer processed ones, in school cafeterias, suggesting that they will result in students being better able to learn.
The piece reports on a primary school in London which, in the past, had served food like Chicken nuggets, instant mashed potato, chips - everything most children love to gobble up. And then they sit in the classroom getting grumpy and sleepy, unwilling or unable to learn from the exasperated teacher... Now a typical school dinner could be lamb casserole, always a salad -" not those big lettuce leaves, but chopped finely" - and new potatoes with butter.
"Before the children were quite lively, they were quite a trial," explains one school official. After the switch to better food, "Then suddenly they are getting on in the afternoon and incidents of fighting have gone down."
To see if there was any link between healthy schools and a rise in standards, the change in the total proportion of primary school children who achieved level 4 or higher in English, Maths and Science was assessed. Of the 2,314 schools who were part of the Healthy Schools programme, there was an increase from 2003 to 2004 of 3.6 percentage points and from 2002 to 2004 of 3.8. This was above the average improvement in the 1,200 schools who did not participate, according to figures from the British Department of Education and Skills.
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