Private school teachers eating lunch with pupils

[Catifly]

I often read on MN about teachers sitting with children to eat lunch in private schools. If you're a teacher in such a school, would you mind explaining how it works? I work in state and am so curious! By the time I've ushered the last children from my classroom and set up for the afternoon. I've perhaps got 35 minutes left. I often use most of that time for marking, especially if there's a meeting after school. Do you get a break from the children during the day? Do you get time to sit with other adults? Or is that time considered 'teaching time' and you get some time to yourself after the children's lunch hour?

I teach in a state primary. We can have a free school meal everyday if we wish but we must sit with the children to eat.

I do it once a week, one of my colleagues does it a couple of times a week and our phase leader does it everyday.

We're not required nor expected to intervene in any situation as its our lunchtime and the lunchtime supervisors role, but we obviously support where appropriate.

It's supposed to be a social time for us to chat with the children.

I always wondered how these looong teachers's days (and weeks) worked. That explains so much! Wow.

Yes, I remember signing something that waived my rights to reasonable working hours a few years ago too. It was compulsory not optional.

I work in a state comp. Staff get free lunch in return for sitting and eating in the dining hall but we have staff tables. It does improve behaviour. We only get 30 mins so no chance of doing any work!

Same at my DC’s school.

Lunch break is 90 minutes long. There's an enormous variety of food, there's 2 main hot choices, a separate panini station and another that will do jacket potatos and wraps etc, or soup, and a salad bar, so there's plenty of choice and it's all high quality (cost of lunch is all-inclusive with the fees). Staff don't have a special table and there isn't a rigid seating plan for students they just find a seat wherever, so staff are stitting on the same tables as pupils but more likely to be chatting with fellow staff members than with kids. But it has a community feel to it, with teachers and pupild just being all part of the crowd rather than an "us and them" feel. I would hope that generally behaviour levels are good enough that teachers are enjoying their lunch time rather than feeling that they are on duty.

Just want to point out that lunches were clearly itemised. At £3.5 each meal, it wasn’t more expensive than lunch at our state secondary. But yes much better quality.

Doesn’t happen at my children’s private school except for Christmas lunch.

At least one state school in my city does this. It's a Michaela-influenced school. I think it's a really good idea, and encourages good dining habits, which not all children might have modelled to them at home. They call it "family dining" or something.

In theory, I love the idea, but it must be exhausting for the teachers.

Thanks for all the responses, it's very interesting. On the whole, it sounds like lunches in private are much longer. To be clear, I think it's a lovely idea but if it's 30 minutes then it adds 2.5 hours to a teacher's week if they're not using that time for marking etc. I've got young children and already work in the evenings and at the weekend, so that's quite a big additional amount of time to find to fit work in. Some of the lunches sound amazing. Staff dinners (LA provided catering) where I am are over £4 now and really not great.

I'm a SENCO in mainstream and eat lunch with the children most days. It's a lot out of my time but for me it pays in other ways so is worth it.

Lots of specialist teachers means you’re not with your class all day. And an hour lunch means time to eat as well as sit in the staff room before/afterwards while they play or attend a club.

This happened at a school I worked in - and a secondary at that! It was actually quite nice. Free lunch and you sat with the pupils. It meant that canteen staff did not need to be employed to manage behaviour, and the kids behaved better for us. Lunchtime was an hour and 10 mins so plenty of time to do other things afterwards. This was 2008/9. I think the free lunches stopped with a change of government.

Back in my day in school in the 70s, rough area primary school. School dinners were served "family style" each table had a mix of ages of children (pre allocated) and 2 P7 pupils (age 11-12) would be "mother and father". They would collect the lunch in large dishes and then portion it out to everyone on the table.

I can't remember it not working and they were usually pretty fair. My friend was on the same table as me and loved cabbage so always got a huge portion much to the relief of the rest of us 😂

I once had an interview in a very posh private all-girls school.
I was given an excellent lunch and told that if I got the job it would be free if I would sit at a table of girls to eat.
This was to encourage suitably nice manners and appropriate conversation and to model healthy eating habits while looking out for 'disordered' eating.
My DIL worked a very posh mixed private school where the pupils would lob crockery and cutlery into waste bins rather than clearing tables, a job they thought beneath them.

Honestly this used to happen in state schools! I remember it.

But it's a good idea, helps with manners etc, and how to have a conversation at table. That is more important than you think.

My DS is in nursery at Pre-Prep and will move to reception next year, nursery - year 2 have a 1 hour lunch. He sits in the same seat each day and the teachers and TAs sit at the table with the children. They have lunch and a desert and the food always sounds incredible! They have said it improves table manners, the teachers encourage conversation and also help with cutting food up etc. The dining hall staff also serve the reception and younger ones at the table (pre ordered) and once they go to year 1 they go up and choose.

Used to do it when I was on lunch duty in a Scottish state secondary school. Would see to the dinner queue and then get my lunch sitting next to some of the kids.

Didn't leave me time to do anything else, however - we only had 45 minutes.

Was a ta in a state, we all had half hour breaks.

About 1/3 staff (teaching or support) ate with the children - no additional lunch staff needed, good chance to just talk with them. Those staff went on break when the others returned and took the children out. Lunching with children included a free meal.

At my son's school the years have slots (not strictly adhered to - more like guidelines), and the kids tend to eat as soon as they can. The teachers sit at their own table (I don't know if by habit or rule), and usually eat towards the end of the lunch 90 minutes.

I know this because I suggested DS one do something first and then go to lunch one day, and he looked at me like I was mad 'it would just be me and the teachers in there, it would be weird'

Our state school does this. There isn't a staff room. Lunch is only 30 minutes, the restaurant (as it's called) is for everyone, everyone is expected to queue in the same place (lunch is staggered though, they don't all go at the same time), and teachers sit with the pupils (although in reality they tend to go to the same tables). They get lunch paid for as it's seen as being on duty.

Absolutely. If it's important though, we should be paying staff to do it.

Ah yes, lots of changes happened with that change of government!

I quite enjoyed eating with the kids and it was a reasonable payoff for the lunch! Our lunchtime has been cut by half an hour since I started teaching (was an hour and 15 and now 45 minutes) and the workload increased hugely so I wouldn’t be spending the 45 minutes I do get eating with the children now unless it was free food!

It’s funny-they cut the lunchtime length due to bad behaviour, but the behaviour actually used to be so much better before with the longer lunchtime and a rolling intake of teachers eating in the hall!

At my primary school (where I'd say the vast majority of kids were free school meals), lunch was AMAZING when I look back on it. Proper home cooking style food, served at tables of eight. You had an assigned lunch table (mixed year group) and some of the tables included teachers. However, regardless of whether you had a teacher or not, the two year 6s at the table were in charge. They supervised table setting, collected the table's food and dished it up to everyone. They were in charge of whether you could refuse vegetables, and whether the custard skin got stirred in, given to someone who wanted it, or spooned out and left. At the end, everyone cleared away together.

Although I was one of the few middle class children at school, I didn't get properly cooked and served food at home so I learnt a lot from school dinners. It was probably one of the most valuable bits of the day, for a number of reasons.

I worked in an Independent school before I retired and each teacher had to sit on the tables with the students even the Head teacher. We had long benches like in Harry Potter and teachers just found an empty seat to sit at. There were no teachers tables. We got free lunches so no one complained. I think it helped the students see teachers as people and not just teachers.

It used to be a duty in the send school I worked in, alternating weeks. We got a free lunch as a part of it but that was some time ago and teachers now don't do lunch duty or are allowed free lunches.

I resented it at first as felt I had no time but it was a good way to engage with our pupils and manage behaviour. I also had more tas to support me than in mainstream so I got better at utilising that on those days.

This was a state send school.

We had to do a duty as it was hard to get lunch staff who were able to manage the children.