Children’s perceptions of school meals and eating in Hull

Nigel Wright

Children’s perceptions of school meals and eating in Hull

• Our data set• Key findings• Underlying design• What the pupils said….• About eating… and….• Key messages

Children’s perceptions of school meals and eating in Hull

• Our data set– Collected by questionnaire over three years– Each year (in June and in 2007 before charges were

reintroduced) questionnaires completed by pupils in years 4,5 and 6

– Data gathered from almost every primary school in the city– 61 items common to each year– Data set is large, total 17,776 pupils – Near equal responses from boys and girls.

Children’s perceptions of school meals and eating in Hull

Yearly responses

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2005 2006 2007

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Children’s perceptions of school meals and eating in Hull

Year group reponses

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2005 2006 2007

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Children’s perceptions of school meals and eating in Hull

•Key findings–When comparing pupil data from 2007 for those who are ‘eligible’ for a free school dinner with those who are not indicates that the ‘disadvantage gap’ does not exist in terms of how pupils report on their eating habits and responses to the free school meals project. –A comparison across 44 items relating to food and eating indicated that there are no statistically significant differences on 40 of these measures between these two groups

Children’s perceptions of school meals and eating in Hull

The non existence of this ‘disadvantage gap’ might be represented graphically…

20042007

non eligible

eligible

Children’s perceptions of school meals and eating in Hull

• Key findings contd.,– Data indicate that the project has built up a positive

impact on pupils’ eating habits– Prolonged exposure improves impact– ‘Less good’ habits e.g. no breakfast, eating on way to

school are declining– Reasons for not taking school dinners, e.g. ‘don’t like

it’, or ‘prefer packed lunch’ have declined during the project

Children’s perceptions of school meals and eating in Hull

• Key findings contd.,– More boys than girls report hunger

• When they get to school, would like more to eat, go to bed hungry and often feel hungry

– And it’s worse with younger pupils• Over the three years more year 4 pupils have

consistently reported – Arriving at school hungry

– Often feeling hungry

Children’s perceptions of school meals and eating in Hull

–Key findings contd.,•More girls than boys report trying to eat healthily

–Consistently more girls than boys report eating the free healthy meals –More girls than boys report liking the meals–Girls report eating more fruit & veg per day

Children’s perceptions of school meals and eating in Hull

• Key findings contd.,– Fruit consumption showed an increase 2005 to

2006 but has in 2007 dropped to levels lower than 2005. This is evident in all year groups. Reported fruit consumption declines with age

• Reported consumption of 5 or more pieces per day has not been claimed by more than 33.0% of pupils at any time in the study

– Just over half of pupils report drinking 3 or more cups of water per day

• Boys report drinking more water than girls

Children’s perceptions of school meals and eating in Hull

• Underlying design:

a matrixYr 6 Key

group

Yr 5 Key group

Yr 4 Key group

2005 2006 2007

Children’s perceptions of school meals and eating in Hull

• What the pupils said:

– Have you had the free school dinner?

Yr 6 83.9% 84.5% 94.8%

Yr 5 83.9% 85.2% 94.5%

Yr 4 86.5% 83.5% 93.1%

2005 2006 2007

Children’s perceptions of school meals and eating in Hull

• What the pupils said:

– Did you like it?

Yr 6 75.0% 74.6% 85.0%

Yr 5 80.7% 78.4% 87.1%

Yr 4 81.4% 81.9% 85.6%

2005 2006 2007

Children’s perceptions of school meals and eating in Hull

• What the pupils said:

– Reasons given by those who didn’t have the free school dinner

Don’t like it

Prefer Packed lunch

2007 6.3% 12.7%

2006 7.7% 15.3%

2005 7.9% 17.0%

Children’s perceptions of school meals and eating in Hull

• Breakfast– In each year more boys than girls had

breakfast at home– With the ‘key group’ consumption of breakfast

at home varied slightly each year but overall showed an increase

– 2005 68.3%– 2006 66.4%– 2007 69.3%

Children’s perceptions of school meals in Hull

• Breakfast– Take up at breakfast clubs

shows an increase

– ‘Key’ group: • 2005 9.3%• 2006 10.8%• 2007 11.6%

Children’s perceptions of school meals in Hull

• Breakfast– Eating on the way to school shows a decline

• 2005 6.4%, 2007 4.7%

– Those having no breakfast declined• Among the ‘key’ group

– 2005 7.9%– 2006 4.1%– 2007 3.0%

– Consumption of fizz for breakfast has declined (9.0% >7.6%) but this still means that over 500 pupils drink fizz for breakfast, 2/3rds of whom are boys.

Children’s perceptions of school meals and eating in Hull

• Evening meals:– Eating hot meals (‘key’ group)

increased:• 2005 42.7%• 2006 44.8%• 2007 58.0%

Children’s perceptions of school meals and eating in Hull

• Evening meals– Those going to bed hungry declined

• 2005 8.0% 2007 2.4%

– Those not having anything to eat in the evening also declined

• 2005 8.5% 2007 3.6%

Children’s perceptions of school meals and eating in Hull

• Do you try to eat healthily?– Trend is upward, 2005 30.9%, 2007 36.3%– More girls than boys report trying to eat

healthily• Overall trend 2005-07 is upwards but down in 06

– In terms of year groups• Higher percentages of year 4s (than other year

groups) report trying to eat healthily and this has increased 2005 -07 from 34.2% to 40.3%

Children’s perceptions of school meals and eating in Hull

•Do you think you are healthy?–More girls report thinking they are healthy than boys

•Overall trend 2005-07 is upwards but down in 06

–More girls than boys thought their school taught healthy eating

Children’s perceptions of school meals and eating in Hull

• Hunger– We asked 5 key questions about hunger

• Are you hungry when you get to school?• Would you like more for dinner?• Are you often hungry?• Are you hungry before dinner?• Are you hungry before going home?

– For the first four, the trend is downwards.

Children’s perceptions of school meals and eating in Hull

• Hunger– In 2005 we identified that boys

in year 4 were reporting hunger.

– Tracking these through to 2007

the results are:

boys reporting hunger

05

101520253035

2005 2006 2007

year

perce

ntage boys

Children’s perceptions of school meals and eating in Hull

• Dental Issues:– Pupil reported frequency of teeth cleaning has

remained largely consistent over the 3 years• Twice or more per day was reported by over 4/5ths• Less than one fifth reported cleaning only once or not at

all.

Children’s perceptions of school meals and eating in Hull

• Dental Issues:– Pupil reported visits to the dentist have changed:

• Those reporting not going have more than doubled, 10.7% in 2005 to 23.4% in 2007

• Those going once have increased from 16.9% - 25.5%

• Those reporting going twice have reduced from 24.3% to 17.8% with similar reduction for those reporting going 3 times down from 21.4% to 13.2%

– Pupil reported treatments • Largely the same except extractions which are down from

14.9% in 2005 to 11.6% in 2007

Children’s perceptions of school meals and eating in Hull

• Conclusions:– Clear signs of success– ‘disadvantage gap’ not evident in how pupils report

about eating and free school dinners– Prolonged exposure produces results– Declining evidence of ‘bad habits’– Evidence of gender differences

• (good male role models needed?)

– Curricular message needs to be maintained and reinforced.

Children’s perceptions of school meals and eating in Hull

• Thank you!