Teacher lunch hour!

You should also have one. My DD is a nurse and frequently doesn't get to eat her lunch until late afternoon, so you have my sympathy.

I'll add that unqualified teachers haven't been allowed in Scotland for around 50 years.

We aren't talking about emergencies though - that's different. We are talking about being routinely expected to work during time when you are not paid and not even required to be on the premises.

What should happen is that there are lunch-time supervisors who are in charge of supervising the children at lunch time. They can send for a teacher if there's an emergency.

I'm a secondary school teacher. I usually choose to work through half of my lunch hour (and it is a full hour). On two days out of 5 I run a lunchtime activity. But if I chose to, I could spend the full hour every day off site. We each do a 20 min morning break duty a week, but lunch times are covered by lunch-time supervisors.

This was secondary school but I’ve heard that in primary schools you need to do more as they’re generally smaller with less staff.

Saying that secondary schools tend not to have TAs or dinner ladies that do duties either like primary schools used to have.

I quite often give my classroom a quick clean (normally as I've spilled my coffee getting overexcited about fiscal policy) but I'd be unimpressed if I was told I had to.

You might be legally allowed an uninterrupted 20 min break but is there anywhere to take it?

Nobody wants to be a lunchtime supervisor in England! The lunch "hours" are often only 30 mins (to reduce time misbehaving). Who'd do min wage work for an hour a day if they could work in Aldi?!

A lot of them do actually. Lessons generally finish for about an hour during which time teachers are legally allowed an uninterrupted unpaid 20 min break (if you work 6 hours). That was certainly the case in the schools I've worked at

Do you have support staff in the UK? Ours is supervised by education assistants (I believe TAs in the UK?), non-enrolling staff who’ve had their break earlier or later (youth worker, counselor, inclusion teacher etc) and paid lunch time supervisors. Teachers don’t supervise break times at all and it’s strictly enforced.

At my school (LA, not academy) all teachers get an hour break every day. SLT, TAs and MTSs supervise the children then. Helps to work for a decent boss! Of course most spend some of the time prepping for lessons but that's their choice. As an SLT member I don't speak to them about work matters during their lunch break other than very briefly if necessary or unless they come to talk to me.

I guess it depends on the school ninknow in my kids school the class TAs supervise the lunch then take their lunch after when the teacher has the kids in class without any further support.

also class teachers in our primary get an afternoon off classroom teaching to lesson plan and do other admin. In this afternoon the kids do language, PE and Art with those teachers. I guess it depends how the schools are managed and I don’t think you can generalise.

Surely teachers should be entitled to a lunch break. But also.. someone has to supervise..isn't that what dinner ladies are for though?

Oh god this poster again, I remember your thread from some months ago. Not engaging further

That is shocking!! And you're doing primary school marking every day, planning and teaching full days? Horrendous

No- the U.K.

DH believes that his budget should be spent on teaching and learning, rather than ancillary staff.

There is no reason why teachers can’t give their classroom a quick clean or heat up lunch rather than having to employ expensive staff for these tasks.

My teacher friend has never had longer than 10-15 minutes for her lunch break.

If it's your intention to support teachers then please stop denigrating us and repeating the myth that qualifications are no longer required. You don't need qualifications to work as an unqualified teacher. UQTs are not covered by STPCD and they are not paid on the same scale. Qualified teachers are highly educated professionals. Please don't conflate the two.

I don’t disagree with anything you are saying,
although we might add that there are plenty of nurses over 40 whose highest qualification is a L5 diploma.

I’m pointing out that if you wish to draw a direct comparison between two sectors, as you have repeatedly done, there should broadly be comparable levels of academic or professional qualifications. Theoretically, a teacher can achieve QTS via a bachelor’s degree. This is rare at primary. It is unheard of and, in practical terms not an option, at secondary.

Um yeah? Not really sure what part of this you’re arguing with. Like I said many contacts just say you get a reasonable break and don’t specify the time.

But that's presumably because they didn't do a undergraduate teaching degree which is an option. A similar option is increasingly available for aspiring hcps who already have an undergraduate degree to do a masters in physio, paramedic science etc. This just compresses there study time down from 3 years to 2 (i think) it doesn't mean they come in at any higher a level on qualification and they still need to complete a two year nqp portfolio, and they would still need to do an additional masters in advanced clinical practice to become an advanced practitioner.
It's great that the option is there for teaching and healthcare, but it doesn't mean you're 'more than' once you start in your profession.

Why do you keep saying this, OP? It is untrue.

You need QTS to teach. Most teachers achieve QTS via a PGCE, which is a level 7 qualification.

To be clear, I have the greatest of respect for the HCPs in NHS bands 5 and 6, but you seem awfully pleased with this comparison that you’ve mentioned several times and I think it’s a false equivalence.

Teachers are the only "profession" that constantly claim to be paid hourly.