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?

[NamingOfParts]

YANBU

Woolly hat, woolly gloves, a woolly scarf and a yogurt - what could possibly go wrong?

Eat your lunch outside sat on a cold bench. Fine if you want to but horrid otherwise. Running around outside in the cold is fine, making children eat outside for the convenience of the adults sounds pretty dreadful.

[diddl]

Cold day, cold food-won´t hurt them, but sounds pretty miserable-especially if everyday & they don´t really want to!

[ICouldBeYou]

My 3yo spends 3 hours outside including snack time and story time, unless they are at risk of blowing away in a gale The nursery is an outdoor provision in a very exposed climate and he absolutely loves it! I would have absolutely no problem with my children eating outside as I know they wouldn't linger over their food and would be underway playing in no time.

[AndiMac]

But ICouldBeYou, you obviously also dress your 3yo for outdoor play in the weather of the day. I don't send my kids to school wearing long thermals under their school uniform.

[seeker]

"They are not dressed for sitting outside for 30 minutes or longer." Since when has it taken 30 minutes to eat a packed lunch?

[Kalisi]

YADNBU, hell no! It's far too cold to be forced to sit still and eat outside. You should check that is absolutely true that is happening though, it sounds likely that some children may have just been bored of waiting for a space in the hall and then just chose to eat outside.

[TeddyBare]

diddl - I don't really understand how the teachers also being outside would make the dc not "suffer". Also they're only going to suffer from the cold if they're not appropriately dressed.

[diddl]

"Also they're only going to suffer from the cold if they're not appropriately dressed."

But properly dressed or not-why should they have to eat outside if they don´t want to?

If it was cold enough for gloves & I had to take them off to eat-that´ll be me cold & miserable anyway-even if I still had coat, scarf & hat on.

[RooneyMara]

I don't want to be outside at all in this weather and I think it is a really rubbish thing to make small children do.

[RooneyMara]

Seeker it takes my 5yo easily that long.

[TeddyBare]

In a school, or in fact any other setting with lots of people, it is not always possible to accommodate what every individual wants to do. 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. It sounds a lot like the school are only doing this because they don't have much choice and have to make the most of a difficult situation. If the dc are dressed in appropriate clothing and have tables and chairs then they will be warm, dry and comfortable so there is no problem. If the parent's are not sending their dc in with appropriate clothing or food then that would be a problem but it wouldn't be the school's fault. The outside is not going to harm anyone no matter how precious they are and in fact it will probably do them some good to get some fresh air and spend a bit out time outside.

[diddl]

"I don't really understand how the teachers also being outside would make the dc not "suffer"."

It wouldn´t-that´s the point-they get to choose where they eat!

[AThingInYourLife]

It's too cold at the moment to be sitting down outdoors for the time it takes to eat a meal.

Do they even have tables to eat at?

[RooneyMara]

Maybe no actual harm - but I find if I am outside in really cold weather, it makes my nose run, and my skin cold and my breathing more uncomfortable.

I would rather eat indoors in this weather, and I'm sure my little ones would too.

Putting them outside because they 'make too much mess' sounds like a bit of a crap reason to me, sorry.

[Almostfifty]

Has no-one ever gone for a walk in the winter and had a picnic?

If they're wrapped up properly, then they'll be fine.

[AThingInYourLife]

Has anyone been forced to go for a picnic every day in winter?

As a one off, it's fun.

To be turfed outdoors every day in the cold with your lunch, not fun at all.

[TeddyBare]

Of course teachers get to decide where they eat! They're adults who the school is not legally obliged to supervise.
There would be uproar and a major breach of legislation, not to mention probably quite a lot of bullying and damage to classroom materials, if classes were left unsupervised in their classrooms over lunch. Providing enough dinner ladies to oversee everyone would be too expensive. If a whole class ate in their classroom then it would need to be cleaned before they could have classes in that would waste at least 10-15 minutes of teaching time per day which is needed to cover all of the curriculum and would probably get bad ofsted feedback. If the school hall isn't big enough for everyone and they don't have another room then they don't have another option.
Athinginyourlife it isn't too cold if you're dressed properly. I quite often spend most or all of my lunch break outside eating or reading, as do most of my colleagues. Our building is stuffy and there isn't a communal area inside so people go outside. I live near the coast so we don't get the coldest weather in the UK but it is windy here. You just have to dress appropriately.

[TeddyBare]

Out of interest, people who think it's now too cold to go outside, what do you wear when you're outside?

[honeytea]

Does anyone have a DC who has complained about eathing outside?

[RooneyMara]

What an odd question. Normal clothes, plus coats, hats, gloves, scarf...but I still feel that it's cold and I still find it less comfortable than being indoors.

[colditz]

If it takes a child 30 minutes to eat a packed lunch, he or she needs to hurry up and stop dawdling over it.



We are human beings, not tropical birds. outside is fine, sitting down for ten minutes to eat outside is fine, and faffing should be discouraged, not pandered to.

[diddl]

OP-where do the kids who have school dinners eat?

Why can´t the kids with packed lunches eat there?

Why the differentiation?

[TeddyBare]

It seems like a fairly obvious question seeing as you're too cold to go outside in the UK but much colder parts of the world manage to spend much more time outside. Do you wear a winter coat rather than a thin jacket? Is it waterproof and windproof? Suitable shoes? If it's very cold then snow trousers are also useful as are waterproof gloves and thermal layers under your normal clothes. The more layers you wear the warmer you'll be so if you think you're especially vulnerable to the cold you might find it helpful to wear a few more layers.

[RooneyMara]

Oh right. I'll make sure to tell the teachers to stand over him constantly during lunch then. They'll really appreciate that especially when all the other 5yos take exactly as long as he does.

[colditz]

I guarantee you it does not take the majority of five year olds half an hour to eat a sandwich and a banana.