A healthy school lunch and extra PE boosts kids' maths scores

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2026-06-25 04:00

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Dutch scientists say an intervention called The Healthy Primary School of the Future (HPSF) - which provides healthy school lunches and extra physical activity (PA) sessions - boosts kids' maths scores, but has little impact on their reading ability in the longer term. Previous research found HPSF was good for kids' physical health, so the researchers decided to see if it also gave them an academic boost. To investigate, they compared two full HPSF schools (both PA and healthy lunches), two partial HPSF schools (PA only), and four schools that did not implement HPSF, all in the same region. They saw marked improvements in maths scores in the schools with full HPSF, and more modest improvements in those with partial HPSF, compared with non-HPSF schools. In full HSPF schools, some improvements in reading were seen in the first year after the intervention, but this difference had vanished by four years.

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Mathematics – estimated intervention effect

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Journal/
conference: PLOS One

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Maastricht University, The Netherlands

Funder: De OnderwijsMonitor Limburg was funded by Kennisas project Educatieve Agenda Limburg, Provincial Government of Limburg, Maastricht University, and primary and secondary schools in the province of Limburg. The HPSF project was funded by the Limburg provincial authorities, Project Number 200130003, by Friesland Campina, Project Number LLMV00, and by Maastricht University, Project Number 200130003.

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