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Research on

Break and lunch times

in schools


About this web site

These web pages report on our ongoing research into children's social life in and outside of school and in particular in relation to break and lunch times (recess) in primary and secondary schools in the UK.

The researchers are based in the Department of Psychology and Human Development at the UCL Institute of Education in London and carry out research to inform educational debate, practice and policy.


The BaSiS Project

Our current research project, the "Breaktime and Social life in Schools" (BaSiS) project, is an independent national survey of the nature, length and organisation of break and lunchtimes in primary and secondary schools in England. This project provides a much needed follow up to our previous surveys of break times in school undertaken in 1995 and 2006.

Read more about BaSiS

Our other research studies

The web site also provides information about our previous research work in this area as well as other related projects. These include information about our previous breaktime surveys undertaken in 1995 and 2006, a study of the 'Social Implications of School Meal Times' and a study of 'Playground games: their social context in elementary/junior school'.

More on other projects...

Latest News: Surveys of Primary, Secondary and Independent schools were completed in 2017 and a separate survey of pupils in Years 5, 8 and 10 completed in late 2017-18. We aimed to find out what all schools are doing regardless of whether they have breaktimes, playgrounds or not. The surveys provide a snapshot of everyday life in schools across the country as well as views on arrangements, pupil behaviour and plans for the future. A Full Report | Executive Summary | Research Briefing | and Blog on the research and findings are available.