North Vancouver School District
the natural place to learn©
Dec 17
Switching to Play First
By Kelly La Roue, Principal, Queensbury Elementary

The school district Litterless Lunch campaign that took place between November 15-30, 2018 was a great opportunity to re-evaluate lunch time at Queensbury Elementary School. We encouraged all students to take part in litterless lunch and to really consider waste generation from food products. We also took the opportunity to try a new format for our lunch hours - Play first.

The "play first" model was already in place at 13 of elementary schools in the North Vancouver School District with great success. Many parents had enquired if Queensbury could switch to a model where students play first at lunch and then come inside to eat. Conversations began with the PAC executive, teachers and students. Our school's PAC executive, including our hot lunch coordinators, were fully supportive of the change and anticipated no issues with organizing and distributing hot lunches at 12:30 p.m. instead of 12:00 p.m. Play first lunch was a change to the traditional scheduling-order of 'eating time' and 'play time' at our school. Students will go out to play first (12:00 p.m.) and then come in to eat (12:30 p.m.). 

There are many benefits of play first lunch, including:

  • Improved student behaviour on the playground and classroom.
  • Fewer accidents and incidents during the lunch break.
  • Increased food and drink consumption; less food waste. 
  • Student issues that occur on the playground can be and will be solved during the "eating time" instead of taking class time.
  • Better communication between supervisors on the playground and classroom teachers.
  • Students are quieter and calmer during their eating time rather than racing through lunch in order to get outside to play.
  • After eating, students are more settled to begin the afternoon classes and are more engaged after having a greater opportunity to finish their lunch.
So far, play first lunch has been very well received by students, parents and staff.
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