No lockers and no lunch rooms - is this the norm?

But learnt more about right and wrong and morals and taking care of ourselves and living well from simple day to day interactions with our teachers - and RE lessons - that could have been learnt in a formal lesson about it. I will never forget when we were 15 our headmistress telling us about her missionary days in China and the girl who didn't put her rags on the line that month (eew I know - but we sat up and listened didn't think she knew it could be done between two people) and how said it had been and how the girl had struggled and lost all the opportunities that were open to her. I wasn't suggested it was just a lunch but high standards and expectations threaded into the ethos of a school does more than delivering a lesson the teacher might not agree with.

at the suggestion that a civilised lunch would remove the need for PSHE in the curriculum.

Eviltwins dare I say that no employee should expect a shorter day and a longer lunch hour. Our teachers spent 20 minutes on that stage eating at the same time as us and the same food. Lunch was one hour, school was 8.45 - 3.45 - there were no clubs or after school activities in those days. Surely if such arrangements take away the need for PSHE and support a more valued and more civilised school community to develop it would be worth giving those 20 minutes to the young people.

Pickled - one of the problems with your dream of having civilised lunches in state schools (and I do know what you're talking about- I went to a comp but was involved with music/drama at a public school in the same town so ate in their dining room a number of times) is that state school days tend to be shorter than independent school days and therefore lunches tend to be too. As a teacher, lunchtime is usually spent sorting stuff out for afternoon lessons, catching up with admin, sometimes seeing students or, very occasionally, sitting having lunch with colleagues and catching up. If I was compelled to have lunch in the dining room with students every day, something else would have to give- that time would have to come from somewhere else. Also, teachers in state schools cannot be compelled to do things at lunchtimes- the battle to be allowed a lunchtime was fought and won in the 80s.

Extraordinary isn't it how it's compulsory for them to teach PSHE - Personal, Social and Health Education but can't provide a civilised space in which they can eat.

I went to a small girls grammar school in the 70's. We didn't have a dedicated dining room or on-site catering - the food was brought in. There were two sittings for lunch and we kept them for the next seven years. Tables were allocated in the first year (10 girls to each) and as 6th formers left, new girl(s) joined. School lunchers and packed lunchers sat together at the tables. The most senior lunchers collected the hot food and the most junior cleared the tables. Grace was said before eating by either the head or deputy who rotated sittings, always, and the teaching staff had lunch on the "stage".

It was polite, well mannered, well organised and looking back fundemantally excellent and supported x year relationships. I got to know, as a friend, every girl I shared that table with. It taught more about PSHE issues than any formal lesson could begin to do. It was a state school.

Just asked DS about the walky talkies at his school - he isn't sure about lunch staff but the LS staff and the bus monitors have them. However there is very, very limited mobile reception, DCS have difficulty contacting me during the day if they need to.

pickledsiblings and talkingpeace I work at an independent school with a very large site no 2 way radios all have mobile phones.

Erm - I'll ask DD! I know that for a little while after Easter, they ate in their form rooms - maybe that was when the older dc were taking exams?

HuntyCat - what happens during exam season? Surely those spaces are needed?

I'll clarify - Y7 hall is a sports hall next to the main hall that Y8 and Y9 share. Y10 are in the drama hall, and the Y11 hall and common room are the other side of the main hall that Y8 and Y9 share.

Didn't think this was that unusual? They have cleaners go in while the dc are in afternoon registration to clean the halls, plus lunch monitors that help on a rota basis, and anyone caught leaving rubbish around gets put on 'hall litter duty' the next day.

Works really well...

DD's state comprehensive - 1,800+ pupils, locker for EVERYONE in the 'locker pod'. Used to be a paved square/atrium between buildings, but locker pod was fitted just before DD started, before then there were only lockers for the upper school. (DD now in Y9). They have 50 minutes for lunch, and separate halls for lunches for different year groups. Y7 have a small-ish hall, Y8 and Y9 share the large hall, Y10 have a different small hall, and Y11 have their own tiddly hall AND common room. (No 6th form).

Whilst I hope there are not that many schools with such poor lunchtime facilities I am sure you cannot spot the OPs school from her posts.

Pickledsiblings are you talking about a school on the south coast?

because unless you are dealing with support staff, caretakers, techs etc
you may never spot the systems used to keep schools running smoothly on the surface
and the extensive use of im etc will make the levels of communication between staff nigh on invisible

DCs state comprehensive school has cleaners after break and lunchtime to clean the common rooms. Obviously the students are expected to exercise reasonable care, and there are consquences if their facilities aren't treated with respect. I don't think they realise how lucky they are to have this space.

These rooms are used for other things during the day also, but there are comfy seats and carpeted floor.

I LOVE the assumption that fee paying schools do not use 2 way radios - without a SHRED of evidence !!!

My DCs are at a 1600 comp. The canteen can cope with about 800 but the packed lunch kids eat in their tutor rooms in winter and spread around the grounds in summer.
Lockers are only any use if you are back near them at lunch time - but in a big campus style school they are just a waste of money and space.

pickled - I'm sure there are teachers at the school you're talking about who do the same. I also allow students to use the other drama room for dance practice at lunch times, and they eat in there too. I know I'm not the only teacher who does it. Believe it or not (and from a sensible grown up perspective, it seems ridiculous, I admit), some kids prefer to not wear coats and to eat their lunch in the stairwell. They just do.

When my DDs were at high school there were some lockers bur not enough for all students. So most of them carried their coats and bags round with them. Packed lunches were eaten in the canteen although they could get permission to eat them in their form room. DD3 is now at college and students eat packed lunches in the canteen or sometimes in the students common room.

I do the same as molly - I teach performing arts and let a group of students use my room to have lunch and play instruments most days. I give them the key, and trust them to be responsible. Still, there are 8 of them at most, and it's my choice. State schools are not allowed to compel teachers to do lunch duties.

It does also rely on teachers giving up their lunch time to supervise students in their room. I can only do this one or two days a week as I am normally in my office. However I don't mind doing this when I am free. There is a difference though between me choosing to supervise students at lunch and being expected to do so.