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?

When I was in school in the 1960s, the teachers ate at separate tables in the dining room. The female pupils over 13, were in a rota to serve the teachers their dinners. Their food came on a trolley and the pupils had to wheel the trolley to their table and serve them. Our lunchtime was from 12 to 1:30 and we left school at 4.

When I first became a TA , lunch was 1 and a quarter hours, and we used to go and sit with the kids if buying lunch. Nowadays we get half an hour (if we are lucky), so we just eat as quick as we can in the staff room .