School lunches: children's services or children's spaces?

Abstract

In recent years the UK government has taken a number of steps to promote ‘healthy eating’ within schools. This policy initiative has, in line with the now well established and pervasive theme of children's participation, drawn upon input from school pupils themselves. Yet despite this, we argue that there is evidence of a mismatch between the agenda of children and that of adults when it comes to school lunchtime. Using data from an evaluation of changes to school meals in three primary schools in a London local authority, we argue that current policy is in danger of underestimating the social significance of lunchtimes as ‘children's spaces’ within the adult controlled school day.