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 鈥減oorly received鈥� 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 , said: 鈥淧upils clearly care a lot about their lunchtimes, but too many of them struggle for sufficient time to eat, socialise and enjoy activities. 鈥淭eachers 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鈥檇 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 鈥渇ood seems to be poorly received鈥�, with only half of youngsters describing lunch as 鈥渢asty鈥� and a quarter saying they were given enough to eat. Over a fifth of teachers said the food wasn鈥檛 鈥済ood enough for them to give to a child they care about鈥�. 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 鈥減upils in their class regularly too hungry to learn because they have not had enough food鈥�. This rose to 68 per cent for those working in schools 鈥渋n the top quartile for numbers of pupils eligible for free school meals鈥�. Almost 25 per cent of primary pupils also told the pollsters that 鈥渢hey do their only physical playing or exercise for the week at school鈥�. This fell to 18 per cent in secondaries. Most schools lacked the resources to offer 鈥渟tructured activities involving all or most pupils鈥�, Teacher Tapp noted.