Teacher lunch hour!

Well said. Teachers seem to think they have it the worst.

You’re entitled to 30 mins lunch break. Teachers quite often get a free lunch if they are on duty though. You can also have a 15 min break at the end of the school day before meetings and planning.

My children's teachers ALWAYS ate in the classroom!

Porridge in the morning, sandwiches and snacks throughout the day.

Absolutely horrific!

So you agree that there is a problem.

What would you change? If no additional money was on the table but otherwise you’d have free reign?

That's about the kids formal education time not adult terms and conditions of employment for adults.

Children not in education due to a later starting age would still need to be in a childcare setting, they're not so going to be stopping home with mummy, this is not the society we live in. So early years education which is more play based will still need facilitating by professionals (as is the case in Wales).

It does seem like there are problems in education, but from my understanding this is behavioural (kids and parents?!) and changing teachers hours won't tackle that.

When I was teacher training my mentor told me that I couldn’t go to the toilet between school starting and lunchtime because I needed to be overseeing the class at all times. It was one of the things that was the nail in the coffin for me, because I do need a cup of tea in the morning- actually ended up with cystitis. In reality the TA was fine with me nipping to the toilet for 2 minutes while she supervised them at morning break. Being told when I could go to the toilet was a low bar.

Surely, if you are to be considered proper professionals, you as a profession need to make it clear to policy makers that you can no longer afford to meet what’s expected?

Do less but do it better with happier results.

Why are you, as an SLT member in particular, continuing to perpetuate a system where everyone is unhappy across almost metrics, of which the stratospheric rise of home schooled children is the most terrifying one?

This is a genuine question, if starkly put.

I'm SLT so I have a 30 minute lunch duty then I eat my lunch at my desk whilst replying to emails, often with a child sat in my office if they've been brought to me by a Teacher or midday supervisor because of a behaviour issue on the playground.

Those saying "children should be supervised by midday supervisors" aren't wrong but it's not that simple. We cannot afford the number of MDS we would actually need to ensure safe supervision of all our children. We also have an increasing number of children we need a 1:1 at break and lunchtimes due to SEND or safeguarding reasons. Even if we did have the budget for more MDS Teachers would still end up dealing with behaviour/Pastoral issues, safeguarding, making urgent calls to parents etc during lunchtime because it's often the only time they can do it. Afterschool we have department meetings, meetings with parents, CPD etc as well as admin tasks that need doing.Teachers also (voluntarily) run a range of clubs over lunchtimes which are hugely beneficial to our children, particularly those who struggle with friendships.

I think teachers think that everyone working in other sectors out in offices always get their lunchbreak 😂
I have been working for twenty years in a variety of sectors and its incredibly rare for me to manage to take my lunchbreak! So often its a hastily eaten sandwich from home, in front of the computer, responding to emails. Or a call runs over and poof there goes lunchbreak because ive another call that cant be rescheduled.

These issues are not unique to teaching.

And yes i regularly work late and have to do work at home in the evenings and weekends. Dont get 12 weeks off a year though thats for sure!

So explain where all those hours are accounted for throughout the year, throughout your career.

I understand that nqt are probably racking up the hours, but most newly qualified professionals will be putting in many additional too, this is the norm.

We are not talking about small differences. 3.25 hours a day, assuming no work put in over the holidays or 2.25 hours a day everyday plus 5 full 9-5 weeks through the various school holidays.

Obviously there might be the need for a wider conversation about working hours and practices throughout the UK as compared to Scandinavian countries, but right now i don't consider teachers to be hard done by in relative terms.

So when teachers report high levels of job dissatisfaction and stress, we should just overlook that because in your opinion they’re just a bunch of cosseted pansies?

What I’m trying to say is that the education system is in crisis. Everyone is unhappy! (Except perhaps for the academy chain fat cats?) Surely it would be a good idea to look at that?

The UK school day is massively long, children start at a very early age, they are pushed very hard, there are very few breaks (compared to what cognitive science tells us is conducive to learning), everything is a rush and a stress, the resources are poor from buildings to books, the food is appalling and the teachers very modestly trained.

Time for a rethink I reckon!

Tell me you’ve never been a teacher without telling me.

If only it was that easy.

Surely if it was then you’d want to train to be a teacher yourself?

I gave up the school holidays and ‘short’ working days as you claim and I have never looked back - I have so much more free time now that I do not teach in a school.

You don't have a clue do you.

We wonder why so many people are burnt out and why people are so unhealthy in this country.

I can’t imagine places like France or Italy working through their lunch breaks.

You are kidding right.

The school day is already only 845-3, most people work 9-5 with a 30 minutes break so they already have 2.25 hours a day to prep and do additional duties before they reach a normal working day and most people get 5-8 weeks leave a year not 13, so that's another 37.5 x 8 (187.5) hours of prep time & additional duties time accounted for.

That doesn’t seem fair your being made to work on your unpaid break. I work in policing and we are paid for our breaks as there is an expectation we might not get them and can be directed to a job and have to eat something on the go. No issue with this as it’s the nature of the job I signed up for and we are paid for it. I can see why teachers are unhappy with this set up.

I was a teacher. Escaped years ago. My friend has just retired from teaching after 40 years . She had had enough . The behaviour of the children had deteriorated to such an extent that the dinner ladies wouldn't do lunchtime supervision without a member of staff present in each playground at all times. The children (.Reception/ Yr 1/ Yr 2) are feral. The school had to keep the dinner ladies happy because they knew they couldn't replace them if they left.

Leave a child in crisis?
Leave a class unsupervised?
Walk out of a meeting?
How do we 'just' take our lunch.

Yes, I worked in an office prior to teaching and often worked through my lunch break but it's very different sitting at a desk eating while you work or finding 10 minutes later during the day to eat during a brief lull than it is not having any kind of break at all, being on your feet, teaching, managing behaviour and educational, social and emotional needs without the chance to even go to the loo for a whole day unless you can grab a passing member of office or kitchen staff to stand in your room for 2 mins.

It's being 'on' constantly that is exhausting. Children at my school are allowed to just walk into the staff room to look for us - the door is always open (literally) so we don't have actual down time even when we're in there.

This is exactly the kind of miserabilism I’m talking about!

A race to the bottom!

How very dare teachers expect to have what they are contractually entitled to!

@everychildmatters this actually really matters.

And if teachers don't want to cover lunchtime supervision by default, they need to act together and act now. Otherwise it will just become the way things are done. And impossible to challenge, particularly in the UK where rocking the boat is tantamount to murder.

You should look at doctors for an example of what can happen. I don’t know a single doctor who takes a lunch break. Ever. So ridiculous and so bad for you.

But it’s not really about the lunches, I don’t think. It's systemic. There’s so much you could do to make the primary school system better for kids and teachers alike. Shorten the days by two hours, sit down with the kids for lunch together so you can chat and socialise, kids go off to play, supervised by play workers and you crack on with lesson prep. Everyone would be happier. But this (or other reforms like this) will never happen here because there's a strange commitment in this country to everyone being exhausted and miserable and everything being just being quite rubbish.

Every single industry is stretched, employees are expected to give more & more but not compensated for it by employer. Teaching is no different. Why is teaching the only profession where those in it constantly moan about every element of their job - pay/hours/breaks/workload - its endless. It isn't a bad offer compared to many - I'd love 12 weeks a year off.

It's not ideal to not have a lunch break & shouldn't be expected, in any industry. I can't remember the last time I took one and I'm self employed