10% of students go to school unfed

Girls are more likely than boys to keep phones under their pillows at night and nearly two-thirds of second- level students are out of bed between 7am and 8am on schooldays.

These are some of the findings of a questionnaire filled out by 7,150 students in the CensusAtSchool 2012 conducted by the Central Statistics Office.

The youngsters at 216 schools revealed that just over half have cereal for their breakfast, more than one in six had toast, and 6% had a cooked breakfast. But while nearly 10% eat when they get to school or on their way there, one in 10 had no breakfast on the day of the survey.

Girls were much more likely to go without breakfast, particularly fourth and fifth years, where 15% to 20% of female students reported doing so. The average amount of fruit eaten by students was just under four pieces a day, with boys eating slightly more.

Nearly 90% of all teenagers reported keeping their mobile phones in their bedrooms at night, but 35% of girls and almost a quarter of boys said the devices are kept safely under their pillows.

When they do awaken from their slumbers, the majority said they get up between 7.30am and 8am (one third get out of bed in that time slot) or from 7am to 7.30am, when almost 30% rise.

More than 10% had been up since before 7am on the day of the survey but a similar proportion reported being in bed until at least 8.30am, including around 3% who said they did not get up until after 10am.

At least two thirds of students take part in sports activities, although out-of-school sports were more common. The biggest numbers do an hour to four hours a week of exercise.

Soccer, Gaelic football and basketball were the three sports listed as the favourite sport by one third of all students between them.

They were followed by hurling, dance, rugby, and swimming, each chosen by around 6% of students, and camogie, hockey, and athletics came close behind in the popularity stakes.

There was a big gender difference when it comes to playing motion-controlled games, with around 1,600 girls but fewer than half that number of boys saying they had done so in the previous week.

But, as well as being keen on computer game screens, Irish teenagers also appear to be well clued-in to TV sports.

They were asked in the =survey, which took place across a year up to August, to name a famous Olympian and state the event he or she had competed in.

Jamaica’s Olympic sprint legend Usain Bolt swept the boards and was chosen by more than one third of the teenagers. Cork athlete Sonia O’Sullivan, a silver medallist at the Sydney games in 2000, was named by 15%, and US swimmer Michael Phelps, who became history’s most medalled Olympian this summer, followed in third.

Ireland’s golden girl, boxer Katie Taylor, followed next but was just chosen by 5% of students. If a new survey was taken in schools this week, however, she might fairly expect to zoom past even Usain Bolt.

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