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

When my children were at an independent, we paid a great deal of money for lunch which was extra, so they were given space to eat it! They had lockers but I think we had to buy a new lock after my daughter lost her key on the first day and the caretaker had to break it open.

wel i would definitely complain about having nowhere to eat. that;s awful :-(

That's crazy. I noticed at my child's primary school they used those fold up tables and chairs in the assembly hall, why can't they use those in another hall or space. Also at my secondary school they had an area with tables and chairs outside the main dining hall for packed lunch kids. It is discrimination pure and simple, my vegetarian children have packed lunch because they have nut allergies and also because the school food they can have is revolting - pea pasta etc! They shouldn't be forced to stand up or sit on the floor.

Write to the governors - they should be able to eat in comfort, would the leadership team expect their own kids to be treated like that?

My DDs school (private) does have lockers now, but it did not when I went (many, many years ago). The girls with packed lunches eat them in the classroom or the cloakroom I believe.

They also do not have showers for after games lessons.

We have (1,200 students) lockers although not for everyone (pay a refundable deposit to rent one) and packed lunches have their own dinner hall which they share with those who buy light snacks rather than a sit-down meal. The hall always smells (enclosed space, no open windows) so when I was a student, rather than staff, I would eat outside - a lot of people did that. There are now a few picnic benches, but when I was there (ten years ago) we were expected to sit on the ground. A lot of people sat on the stairs/tried to find an empty classroom instead.

I think it would be difficult in a modern school to have enough space for lockers - if ours is anything to go by it wasn't build for the number of students it has and space is at a premium, which is one reason why lockers are a very new addition - the PTA fought hard for them and had to wait for a change of HT.

One of my children attends a school with effectively no lockers- but the school is in the process of a total rebuild and they will be getting them afterwards. The students are also told they can leave outdoor coats in their head of house's rooms. It is a massive comp. There is space in the dining room but DC and friends prefer to eat in the playground or sitting on the stairs inside due to "chavvy" behaviour of other kids and a bullying incident.

I would speak to a head of year/deputy head etc first as they might be unaware of the problems and a solution may be found, before writing to the the governors.

our school didn't have lockers either. we did have coat pegs so we could hang our coats up, but couldn't really leave bags there,

can the packed lunch kids not sit at tables with those having school dinners? have they been told they are not allowed?

the school DS is in has no lockers or coatpegs, and no specific packed lunch area, they just eat in the dining room mixed in with the children who are having a hot lunch

This was in the 90s by the way.

When I was at school, nobody had lockers or cloakrooms. There were rows and rows of those benches with coat hooks overhead, but nobody was supposed to use them. Everyone walked around school with bags, mostly sports bags such as 'Head'. This as far as I know is still the norm. Packed lunches were eaten in a classroom. In lower school it was in the dining room. Y11 to sixth form had an upper school seating area arranged into squares (like a hospital waiting area).

We have no lockers. Packed lunches are eaten in the dining room with everyone else.