To not want my child to have to eat outside in November?

[Verycold]

Found out today that at my ds's junior school the children have repeatedly been made to eat their packed lunch outside, even after half term. They have a system where they only eat in classrooms if it's wet, otherwise they supposedly all eat in the hall and get called in bit by bit when there is room - or so we thought until it we found out otherwise today! Would this bother you? Not very comfortable to eat outside in the cold surely?

[GhostShip]

teddbare erm.. what is your point? I'm well aware that they're not children. But if they wouldn't like eating outside then why on earth would they expect the children to? Whats good for the goose is good for the gander and all that.
Oh here we go logic and leglisation, I'm well aware of the leglisation so please do sod off being patronising. But what on earth has that got to do with anything? Respect the proffession? Seriously, I'm laughing here. How am I not 'respecting the profession'?

Seriously if you're going to make a point, spit it out.

All I AM saying is that if an adult would find doing something distasteful, I find it rather ironic that they'd force the children to do said thing.

[NigellasGuest]

[BoneyBackJefferson]

and yet you still call the staff lazy.

[NigellasGuest]

actually I do have a clue.
Have worked in various schools, including at lunchtimes.
Indoors and out.
Just saying.

[RooneyMara]

Oh it usually happens when I post something, BBJ

[BoneyBackJefferson]

RooneyMara

Don't you just love the net:) A million ways to take something and you can guarantee that the wrong one is the one that is taken.

Got it now

[cashmere]

At my inland school the playing field was covered in scavenging seagulls. I've got a mental image of gulls swooping down to swipe at sandwiches ala 'The Birds'!
I only think it would be okay if they had an undercover area and appropriate seating. Maybe hot chocolate too!
It does seem a bit much though. Can you seriously imagine having to eat everyday with the wind blowing your hair in your mouth, nose running, eyes weeping, struggling to open packets with numb or gloved fingers, and I'm not sure it would be great for digestion if your body was focusing on staying warm.
Running around playing is absolutely fine though!

[TeddyBare]

ghostship this has already been dealt with, but you do realise that teachers are not children, right?! The school is not legally obliged to supervise them at all times, they can manage to eat without making a huge amount of mess, breaking things, injuring themselves / each other and it's their lunch break from work so their employer has less authority to dictate where they can go. So it doesn't really matter where they eat, inside or outside. You can probably guess why they might choose to be somewhere away from the children though.
If you want decent teachers you need to respect the profession . It's ridiculous to suggest that adults in a work place are the same as children in a school - that's not how legislation or logic work.

[RooneyMara]

Nigella said

'sounds like staff are being lazy - easier to clear up after children who have been eating outside '

You said 'spoken like someone who hasn't got a clue'

I said, it (the mess) was cited as a reason for them eating outside, which it was, by TeddyBare.

Hope that is clearer

[AlienRefluxLooksLikeSnow]

No, I wouldn't like my boy eating outside in this weather, especially packed lunch taht are cold. What if they have just had PE outdoors? then have to sit there, freezing, having not warmed up, I wouldn't be happy either.

[BoneyBackJefferson]

RooneyMara you said
"It was one of the possible reasons given in someone's post BBJ."
As I posted about someones comment about staff being lazy, and you referenced me I took that as being what you ment.

I have not posted about children making a mess.

[RooneyMara]

'I can only find two rferences to staff being lazy, one is nigella's post the second is my quote of nigella's post. '

But that's not what I said...I said that the children making a mess was cited as a possible reason for keeping them outside.

'If there is nowhere big enough for all of the children to be inside and they make too much mess or can't be supervised in classrooms then they have to go outside because they have to be somewhere.'

[ByTheWay1]

Kalisi thank you....

we could have it easier if the packed lunches ate outside - less tables to put up and down since only 20% have hot dinners at our school, less cleaning and more time to do it etc, but it is so cold outside right now they would be miserable, so we have to work around the lack of space and get on with it.....

[BoneyBackJefferson]

RooneyMara
"It was one of the possible reasons given in someone's post BBJ."

I can only find two rferences to staff being lazy, one is nigella's post the second is my quote of nigella's post.

AndiMac
"Oh, and you do?"

I understand that the "lazy staff" are outside as well. I also understand the logistics of allowing children to choose whether they want to be inside or outside, which incidently would double the budget for lunchtime supervision as some children will want to be inside and some will want to be outside.

[AThingInYourLife]

[Kalisi]

bytheway I salute you!

[ByTheWay1]

At our school we have hall seating for 200 kids, and 450 kids to get through lunch....

We run a rolling lunchbreak - mixed hot dinners/packed lunches so the kids can sit with their friends -

all of KS1 come into the hall at start of lunch, then when there are around 30 spare places, we call in the next class from the playground - we get through them all in the hour - with ruthless efficiency

slow eaters (mainly reception - the others have learned to eat quicker or bring less) sit on the row we clean up last - since the hour also has to include cleaning the hall and putting away 24 tables , 40 benches and the mobile hot food serving unit ready for afternoon assembly or PE.

We midday supervisors feel like we have earned our £6.75 by the end of it! since we are also cleaning up as we go, watching for choking, clearing up various bodily fluids, doing first aid, chopping up hot dinners, opening 20 stick yoghurts, 12 babybels,

arghhhhh innocent smoothies - don't get me started on those....

2 mandarins from the bottom of the fruit bowl, 3 lunchboxes that the child can't open, finding a teaspoon for the teeny petit filous, watching kids in playground if it is our turn to go out, doing even more first aid, watching to see no one is being excluded, dealing with petty - but important to the kids - squabbles, making sure everyone has their coat on - doing up 26 zips, putting on 30 pairs of gloves (and in reverse when the cold air means they all need to go to the loo urgently) chasing the older ones out of the toilets - what is the fascination with chatting in the stinkiest room of the school, and getting them to line up after playtime.

[FivesAndNorks]

I'd rather my children ate inside. Eating a sandwich with gloves on is not fun and if I don't have gloves on I lose circulation in the tips of my fingers. Or do we all need to buy special sandwich eating gloves for our children.

Oh and I eat my lunch at my desk. Salad sandwiches don't actually smell.

[Kalisi]

I'd much rather be sitting in a warm,cosy school hall filled with the chattering of excitable children and smelling of roast potatoes and gravy facing my friends rather than freezing my ass off on a cold soggy bench trying to eat sandwiches without getting marmite all over my gloves occasionally having to duck to avoid a football
See how effective over exaggerated emotive language can be?

[SetPhasersTaeMalkie]

DS also looked at me like I'd lost my mind. We are the indoor eating types here. You know, like most people are.

[GhostShip]

Seeker - for you maybe, not for some of us.

If you think most children would agree, why aren't they given the option then. Because surely if most children would agree they'd all go outside which is what the school seemingly wants.

Personally I prefer not freezing my ass off on a cold bench, with nowhere to put my things. And eating with gloves on is just bleurgh. I'm not precious, I'd do it a few time if I had to, but after working hard all day I do like to enjoy my breaktimes in warmth and comfort :o

Plus you're giving shitty situations. My school hall was lovely, comfortable and warm.

[AThingInYourLife]

All last winter this choice faced me every day.

I would eat either at my desk or at the table in the office with my colleagues.

Then I would go out for a walk.

Or if I was feeling too pregnant for more walking after my 2 mile morning walk, I would sit and read the newspaper.

[SetPhasersTaeMalkie]

Have just asked DS. He said no very definitely. I asked him why and he said ' because it's Baltic'.

[seeker]

So. You have a packed lunch.

You can eat it at your desk, in the room you spend the rest of the day at. Leaving the room smelling of marmite sandwiches and the various soups mumsnetters insist that their children love, and covered in crumbs and yoghurt smears.

Or you can eat it in a crowded, noisy, jangly dining hall smelling of school cabbage, sitting opposite a child who insists on eating with his mouth open.

Or you can eat it outside on a bench. It's a bit chilly, but you're off and playing the minute you've finished.


I'm saying that outside is the most pleasant option! And I bet most children would agree. As would most adults, faced with those choices.

[SetPhasersTaeMalkie]

I just think it's weird. Why would you sit outside every day in winter and eat lunch?

I totally get the odd picnic and packed lunch when you are going for a walk but every day? Just bizarre.

The people who are saying it's not that cold and fine - do you do this at the weekend?

It's bloody freezing here today. I'm in the north of Scotland and DS has plenty of appropriate clothing. I would no more put him out into the cold to eat his lunch at the weekend than fly to the moon. It doesn't mean he doesn't play outside. He walks to and from school and plays sport in the cold every week.