{"id":512701,"date":"2026-03-01T23:01:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T23:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/512701\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T23:01:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T23:01:16","slug":"playing-before-eating-helps-central-coast-public-school-students-perform-better-in-the-classroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/512701\/","title":{"rendered":"Playing before eating helps Central Coast public school students perform better in the classroom"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the bell rings for lunch at The Entrance Public School, on the NSW Central Coast, students leave their lunch boxes behind and head outside.<\/p>\n

Thirty minutes of structured playtime comes before eating.<\/p>\n

Teachers engage with the students in activities like soccer, dance, handball and climbing.<\/p>\n

As a result, students are able to get their energy out before they’re expected to sit still and eat.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Students spend 30 minutes participating in supervised, structured play before eating lunch. (ABC Central Coast: Sarah Forster)<\/p>\n

Principal Dave Stitt said the small routine change had made a big difference.<\/p>\n

“Coming off the playground you had all this angst and it was coming into the classroom,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s become a significantly calmer place.<\/p>\n

“It’s really changed the culture of what happens in the playground.”<\/p>\n

Classroom incidents plummet<\/p>\n

The results speak for themselves.<\/p>\n

Between 2019 (before the change was introduced) and 2024, there was a 71 per cent reduction in behavioural incidents in the playground.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Dave Stitt says improved student behaviour was noticed almost instantly, after the change was introduced. (ABC Central Coast: Sarah Forster)<\/p>\n

The school is below average on the index of community socio-educational advantage, which is something Mr Stitt considered when changing things up.<\/p>\n

“Schools in communities experiencing higher levels of disadvantage benefit from highly structured, proactive approaches to play and social interaction,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Giving students structured physical activity before eating reduces playground conflict, strengthens social skills and improves engagement in the classroom.”<\/p>\n

NAPLAN scores from last year show year three and year five students performed either above or well above when compared to students with a similar background.<\/p>\n

\"Five<\/p>\n

Building Lego is a popular choice for structured play. (ABC Central Coast: Sarah Forster)<\/p>\n

Reducing waste while helping regulate<\/p>\n

Tarah Hau is a mother of four, with two children attending The Entrance Public School.<\/p>\n

She said playing first meant her children wasted less food.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Teachers say eating after playing means students take the time to eat what is in their lunchbox. (ABC Central Coast: Sarah Forster)<\/p>\n

“I know that they’re eating after they play so they’re not rushing to eat,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I don’t get a full lunch box come home anymore, or just one bite out of the sandwich.<\/p>\n

“Especially in this day and age, trying to save pennies wherever possible \u2026 I don’t like to waste food.”<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Students say eating after playing helps them calm down before they need to focus again in the classroom. (ABC Central Coast: Sarah Forster)<\/p>\n

No one size fits all approach<\/p>\n

Danielle Gallegos, a professor of nutrition and dietetics at QUT, said it was positive to see schools thinking outside the box on how to approach the lunch break.<\/p>\n

“There’s some evidence to say that by flipping it, children’s appetites are a little bit keener, so they may be more likely to eat their lunch and they may be less likely to rush through eating because they’re not desperate to go and have a play.”<\/p>\n

She said eating together as a class could encourage positive conversations around food.<\/p>\n

“You talk about what everybody’s eating, why are they eating that, what do they like about that \u2026 it may encourage children to try things they’ve not eaten before.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Danielle Gallegos says students may be less likely to rush eating lunch if they have already played. (ABC News: Marton Dobras)<\/p>\n

Addie Dempsey, whose daughter is in year three at The Entrance Public School, agreed.<\/p>\n

“We had a bit of an issue when it comes to nutrition; she was refusing to expand her palette,” Ms Dempsey said.<\/p>\n

“Sitting down after play time and eating together gave her little ideas \u2026 ‘My friend had baby cucumbers, can I try some?'” she said.<\/p>\n

“They know when it’s time to eat and they allocate that time properly.”<\/p>\n

Professor Gallegos said schools needed to take a co-design approach to lunchtimes, considering the needs of students, teachers and parents.<\/p>\n

“If we do it that way, not say here’s one size fits everybody, then I think what we’re going to see is schools having some agency over how school meals and how food is consumed in their context.<\/p>\n

“Every school’s different \u2026 for some schools, flipping play with lunch may work.<\/p>\n

“In a really big school you might not have the opportunity to do that because children need use the playground at different times and the may be limited with how they can do that.”<\/p>\n

A number of schools across the Central Coast and greater Sydney have approached Mr Stitt about implementing a similar approach to lunch time.<\/p>\n

\"Students<\/p>\n

Teachers play a hands-on role to encourage fair play. (ABC Central Coast: Sarah Forster)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the bell rings for lunch at The Entrance Public School, on the NSW Central Coast, students leave…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":512702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,74120,256676,256677,242061,44,256678,256675],"class_list":{"0":"post-512701","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-dietitian","11":"tag-eating-lunch","12":"tag-kids-lunch","13":"tag-lunchbox","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-play-first-eat-later","16":"tag-school-lunch"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/512702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}