Teacher lunch hour!

Yup, it’s knackering.

I work in AP now, and teach one-to-one, but I’m still knackered at the end of the day because of the ‘on-ness’.

It’s the only negative part of the mainstream job that’s followed me out of mainstream.

I think lots of jobs have expectations about meetings etc that mean people have to work over their unpaid lunch break. It is unfair, unhealthy and annoying. I sometimes try and push back to retain 30 mins away from my screen- and get responses like ‘it’s the only time others can make’ or everyone else is ok with it’!!

I know non-teachers get annoyed with teachers claiming they ‘have it bad’, but as an ex-teacher who left for a job in civvy street, I urge them to try to understand!

Yes, many jobs are stressful, of course. But it’s the nature of teaching- it’s akin to a theatrical performance. You have to he ‘on’ all the time and working in that intense way with youngsters is very full- on. I needed my break far more in teaching than I did in an office job. It’s the same for anyone who works with the public: doctors, retail staff etc. And being able to go to the loo when you need to without having to plan it.

These people need time to depressurise and touch base with colleagues. I don’t see how they’ll ever get it, though.🫩

That’s always been the same.

That’s exactly how it is although the directed hours should be spread over the year and include parents evenings etc. if you get an hour lunch break as part of your directed hours, it’s up to you how you choose to use it. If you are directed to do something in your non directed time (eg. Lunch cover), you should be in agreement with this and get the time back. Really, it should be in your directed hours calendar at the beginning of the year but that’s not always possible. Lunch duties that are not part of directed hours should be covered by anyone on the leadership scale as they don’t have directed hours.

Teachers don't do lunchtime supervision in the school I work at. They do prep for the next session and some teachers run clubs. They all make it to the staffroom to eat. Actually, SLT do deal time (20 minutes lunchtime detention) on rota too.

All TAs have an MDSA contract so we get a 15 minute break before hitting the dinner hall or playground. It's ok, unless you're a HLTA covering a class for the day- in which case people will shuffle to try to give you a longer break (to prep for the next session mostly).

Employing dinner ladies is tricky. People won't go for a job that's 1.5hrs a day in the middle of the day, so it is offered to TAs, and does top up the wages a little.

Schools that follow the Burgundy Book have to follow the directed hours maximum of 1265 hours.

All teachers know and accept we will work almost double that but work that they tell you must be done has to be accounted for in the direct hours calendar. But, as a pp said, I've never been provided with a directed hours calculator in 20 years and don't know anyone who has.

In terms of planning or marking during lunch, that doesn't count because it's a choice to do it then rather than at another time but you can't be directed to do so.

A lot of teachers don't actually know or understand the terms and conditions and not all.schools (academies) follow the Burgundy Book.

A combination of good will, fear and lack of knowledge is exploited.

Just take your lunch break. "I don't work over lunch, I need a break"
Teachers need to stand up for themselves or they'll be taken advantage of.

This.

Yes, but someone has to be present who is 'in charge'.

It's not fair (or safe) for people who are largely untrained and have zero behaviour management training to have responsibility for so many children without suppprt.

I have never had an hour lunch break. When I was in mainstream I would always go to the staffroom for 30 mins or so for lunch then end up back in my room working and getting things ready for the afternoon. In some schools I've done a lunch duty.

I'm in a different role now in education and still don't get an hour!

I've always thought it's part of that catch all - 6.5 hours of directed time and a non specified amount of non directed time. That's what my contract says even now.

What does your contract say? I don't think you're entitled to an hour unless it's specifically in your contract.

I kind of sympathise - especially if there's no kind of rota system and you're expected to be on the playground every single day? You should definitely be getting time to eat your lunch,

But I also think it's not at all limited to teachers. I have a job where my lunch break also very rarely happens and I work through it 90% of the time - and the 'contact time' with my clients is a lot longer than 9-3:30. We are not allowed to leave site at all during our working hours.

So it's just part of the job sometimes. Maybe it could have been managed better at your particular school, I don't know. As you have discovered, that's not true for every job, you have to pick your priorities I guess.

At my school, teachers are asked to volunteer to supervise a lunch a week and are given free lunch (all week) if they do. There's no pressure. Generally enough will do it for free lunch. Seems a reasonable solution. Although does make me worry if free school lunch is an incentive!

Teachers should be able to have a break. Secondary school lunch breaks are 30 mins for children. The staff have time for a wee and inhaling a sandwich before getting ready for the next class.
It's one of the many reasons that there is a shortage of teachers.

Don’t dinner ladies exist anymore? DS mentioned something Miss X had said to him during lunch the other day and I assumed he was mixed up because she wouldn’t have been with them at lunch time but maybe that’s just normal now?!

Can’t remember primary but for high school I recall it being senior staff members that were teaching less. So DT’s and area managers. It was a long time ago. You need the teachers there to keep an eye kids too from a safe guarding point. It can be done on a rota and ideally you should be remunerated for it.

I worked in a secondary. New management in the last year I was there was very keen for everyone(apart from office and maintenance staff) to be "boots on the ground", either supervision or running lunch clubs.I was cover manager and had a half hour lunch. I lost that 2 days, then three days and finally five days a week. I generally didn't have any "free" lessons and my lunch usually went on sorting cover and my other tasks.
People were running around demented, barely getting time for toilet breaks nevermind a coffee or lunch. But it benefited the calm running of the school, so that's ok.

Yes.

Now ask the same question of ambulance drivers, social workers, police officers, carers, a whole host of professions

All people who of course are entitled to a lunch break but are unlikely to take it if they're with a client in an ongoing situation, stuck in traffic on their way to their next job/client, etc etc

All number of scenarios where the technical entitlement doesnt really exist. I couldnt tell you when I last took a proper lunch break. Meetings run over into the next one, a court hearing goes on longer than expected, the 'lunch' is actually spent with the barrister sourcing more information or documents, a child is in need of emergency action, the list is endless

In many jobs you cant just stop at a certain time and say Im not working now. Front line work is like that.

In my years as a teacher I never once had a lunch hour. I just gobbled down my sandwich and had to either run clubs, prep the afternoon lesson or do other admin. Little interaction with colleagues since they were all at it too!

Breaks were also spent supervising the playground or walking round school if wet with a coffee in hand if I was able. (This may now be illegal for H & S reasons).

When I left teaching I experienced the following phenomena for the first time with wide-eyed wonder:

• having time to eat a leisurely lunch - maybe even with colleagues!
• coffee breaks just to myself
• being able to go to the loo whenever I wanted!

If you are a ‘burgundy book’ school, the length of your lunch break would depend on how the 1265 hours of directed time a year are allocated at your school. You should have a reasonable length break in the middle of the day during which you cannot be directed to work. This is not just teacher rules, it’s every job rules. The lunch break for teachers was hard fought for in the 1980s when teachers stopped doing lunch duty and mid day supervisors were employed to look after the children while the teachers have a break. The issue now is that the army of mums who didn’t have a job and could afford to work for a few hours in the middle of the day on minimum wage have gone as those mums need to work longer hours and for better pay in order to provide an adequate standard of living for their families. This has led to some schools asking teachers to supervise lunch breaks as there is nobody else to do it. It should be SLT who take on this role as they have no directed hours restrictions.
Teachers should ask for a directed hours calendar for the year, we should be given one in September but I’ve never met a single teacher who has had one and most haven’t heard of them. It should set out how the 1265 hours of directed time are spread through the year and should contain parents evenings, lunch duties etc as part of this. For context, I work on a teacher contract in a non school setting, my directed hours are 9-4 every day with half hour lunch breaks. I don’t do anything like parents evenings out of those hours and that covers my 1265 hours. It’s also worth remembering that there’s a sentence about working above those hours for preparation etc but that these hours above the 1264 can’t be directed, they are for you to choose to fit in as you can. We are a profession who are walked all over in terms of how we are expected to work beyond our directed time but we are also a profession who, on the whole, are disempowered because we don’t take the initiative to find out the nuts and bolts of our contracts and stand up for the restrictions of them. You may find lunch cover is part of your 1265 hours, you may find it’s not.

lunch is unpaid in most jobs and usually 30mins. Depends on the school, we had to cover one break a week and an occasional lunch if we were short staffed. Clubs were before/after school. My lunchtimes were spent marking.

Primary school teachers have been very lucky in that most schools have lunchtime supervisors. High schools haven't for quite some time and all staff have to do lunch a break duty on a rota. They do get a free school meal when on duty but that's it and yes I do think this is unfair but I'm assuming it's again a cost cutting exercise so they don't have to employ more staff.

I'm SLT, if i get five minutes, it's a good day.
All staff where I work are entitled to 30 minutes but it gets eaten into with behavioral and pastoral issues.
Working 8-6 with no lunch is no fun and one of the many reasons we have retention crisis in education.

Doesn’t happen in Scotland. Teachers are never asked/expected to supervise before school, at break time or at lunchtime. Support staff do it.

I do a 35 minute lunch duty a week as a secondary teacher. 25 minutes is the legal entitlement for lunch.

Edit: it is calculated into directed hours. The 25 min lunch is unpaid/not directed.