Does your child skip lunch due to queues?

[Schoolcanteen]

DC’s school has 1,600 pupils. Lunch is at 1.20 -2.20 for all of them, so many are ravenous already. There is one period after lunch, so I understand why many might just wait until they get home or get something on
the way home, due to the queues and late lunchtime. The canteen opens at 8.10, but the playground line up to go to class finishes by 8.20, so it’s a bit pointless trying to get something for later. How hungry is your child and have you made the reluctant switch to packed lunches? Is our school an outlier in trying to cater for this many kids in such a short window or is this just how things are? There are also a few food vans dotted around, but the queues are very long too.

Many do not get to eat at all nor get a drink all day. And no lunchtimes are not peaceful. They have to deal with detentions, kids who want advice, ringing parents, emailing parents, filling in forms for things like EHCPs, replying to emails from other staff members, preparing for the lessons, marking, data analysis, cleaning up...to name but a few.

I've worked in schools where the kids have something to eat at break instead. The canteen is often offering the same food except it's 11am instead. Mine did this and then had something to eat when they got back from school.

Have been to look around a 1900 person secondary today with a 45 minute break for lunch and this thread has really given me pause

Sounds like teachers should complain en masse that their legal right to breaks are being broken

They have been complaining for decades....it is well known. They just get sacked now. Look at the film, swallows.

Omg yes! DD has just started Y7 and they start lunch latest, and is coming home starving hungry every day after spending her ENTIRE lunchtimes in the queue, only for there to be either nothing but cookies or cake left or in the case of today, the bell rang before she even got served! 50 fucking minutes stood in a queue watching everyone eat whilst she’s starving then has to go back to class! She said she practically runs to the lunch hall but people let their friends push in, in front! Nice.

I’ve already had to have a meeting with the head of year about something else so I don’t want to be seen as ‘that’ parent so I can’t really approach the school about it. So unfair as DD wants to eat school dinners but can’t!

Ds wasn't drinking all day because he had to choose between queuing for the loo or queuing for lunch. He now has packed lunches but he still avoids drinking.

Most teachers aren't doing that at lunch. They're eating their lunch in the staff room or their own class room. Not all schools even have or allow lessons or teaching at lunch.

It doesn't happen. As I said, they might make a call while they sit at their desk while they eat a sandwich.

You see the thing is, schools have to follow emplyment law and give teachers their breaks and a proper lunch time. They don't have to do that for children

What a sausage roll and a packet of lentil crisps?

Many sit in the classrooms with a lovely drink all day. Then they enoy a quiet lunch marking some books. The kids are outside, starving because there isnt any point in eating. I bet they wouldnt mind leafing through a book while they enjoyed a proper meal.

Just a thought, if schools are serving food at morning break maybe they should make some meals available then. Not hot food but a baguette, some crisps a drink so the queue is only or mainly for hot food.

DD had the option to buy a sandwich during break between period 2 and 3 to eat later. But she also took a packed lunch most days and I ensured there was sufficient decent food at home so she ate at 4pm and we had dinner at 7.30pm.

My DS14 rarely eats lunch at school because of this. He gets free school meals but lunch break is only 40 minutes. That's a short amount of time to leave one class, use the toilet if needed, get food, eat, be social with friends, and get to the next class. Add to that the massive queues. Many parents have brought this up with the school but they seemingly can't find a solution. He finds it easier to get something at first break, often a pizza panini, and that has to last him all day.
I find it unacceptable but the school won't/can't do anything about it.

Schools are just way too big and lunch breaks too short.

Our school is notorious for running out of food. They do have two canteens but the student numbers are massive, and I think the school use the excuse ‘well go to the other canteen then’ if one has run out of food, except when they’ve already spend 25 mins of their 30 min break queuing for one (and god forbid they need the toilet) there’s no time to queue for the other, and sometimes the other canteen has no food either! And our schools food is so diabolical a lot of the students can’t stomach what is available sometimes. For eg the schools macaroni cheese tastes like vomit (confirmed by all 3 of my dc and their friends), and everytime they serve rice they put more coriander than rice in it, and to be quite frank coriander tastes like arse and my dc won’t eat it. There’s been days when my dc went to one canteen which is a sandwich station and literally all that was left were wraps and plain salad as filling, so they went to the other canteen and all that was left was jelly. My school has a high Muslim population and the only time anyone’s had an apology over the situation, are on days when they’ve run out of all food except something like pepperoni pizza which of course they can’t eat

My eldest child’s school is huge they only have a 25min staggered lunch, so one year at a time with two canteens open. He takes packed lunch unless he wins a front of the queue pass. Will your child not take a sandwich?

Perhaps it's to prepare them for when they go on a cruise ship when they are older?

Ours is 14 form intake. The newsletter for my DD’s year group lists 14 forms. Apparently the year below her possibly has more.

Because schools have to have a specific amount of hours classed as teaching time, which has meant break and lunchtimes have had to reduce.
When I started teaching lunch was 1 hr 15 mins, with a 15 min break both morning and afternoon. Now it's 1 morning break, with 1 hr lunch. Ridiculous, not what children need and not more productive.

Staffing is a big problem. The other issue is that parents just accept it and complaints from the kids are ignored by the school.

The high school near us has two canteen spaces (one huge kitchen), kids can take lunch to their dorm classes and all the kids get lunch in their 1h 15min lunch time. The next nearest has 45 mins for lunch, one small space, and it’s notorious for kids not getting fed.

The biggest difference is a very vocal parent group that got involved a few years ago. They put a lot of pressure on the trust to sort lunches (at one point about 300 kids had letters from parents saying their child was to finish lunch before returning to class).

It forced the trust to employ midday staff (they had to pay decent wages to get them) and rejig how they did things.

It was quite amusing for staff at the time because we couldn’t say anything, but it was impressive to see the parents force the trust to allow changes staff had been asking for for ages!

We do- we strike. Then people complain about us striking and fighing for our rights. 🤷🏾‍♀️

No... At my kid's school it was things like paninis, baguettes and pasta pots. Maybe jacket potatoes and sandwiches. I've worked in schools where they serve the main meal options at break as well as lunch however. But some schools only offer the former food choices at lunch anyway.

Why is the behaviour of children so bad that schools are cutting lunch breaks to the bone?

Hard to answer because it's the supervision that's the issue so proving a negative.