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?

[RooneyMara]

Oh but we're not allowed to choose what they eat. And it isn't the difficulty of the food anyway.
It's the fact they talk and mess about and don't concentrate.

[seeker]

Well, if they are talking and messing about they aren't descending into hypothermia then, are they?

[RooneyMara]

Well no, but they eat inside so that's unlikely..

[WileyRoadRunner]

I wouldn't want my child eating outside in November on a daily basis.

I would expect the school to have the correct facilities to accommodate the number of pupils.

Our school has a policy of no talking for 10mins which gets the food eaten and then plenty of time for talking/messing around

[Kalisi]

Hmm the sale of picnic baskets appears to have dropped in the last few months. I do wonder why that is?
School does not always have to be an endurance lesson. Children should definately be encouraged to play outside unless it's raining. But to actually have to eat their lunch outside every day? I certainly wouldn't be happy with that.

[AThingInYourLife]

:o

The MN battle against the human development of shelter is great.

Bring your baby to an unheated house when the weather is freezing!
Force toddlers to stand outdoors playing indoor games in November!
Eat a picnic lunch every day in winter if you are a child!

Our misguided ancestors may have sought refuge from the elements, but we will carry on the same behaviour all year around because it is the path of righteousness.

:o

[colditz]

It's ten minutes eating a sandwich, not Night On A Bare Mountain.

[GhostShip]

I don't think they should have to eat outside. Would the teachers eat outside?

[AThingInYourLife]

Yes, pointless discomfort is all our children deserve.

The spoilt, incorrectly programmed brats :o

Eat your sangwidges in the cold. It's all you deserve if your parents can't afford a hot dinner and you're not poor enough for free school meals.

[GhostShip]

I actually agree with athing

Not sure why the people who can afford school dinners get the privilege of sitting down inside in the warmth.

Surely the kids should have a choice. If being outside for lunch is so great and all, they'd choose it wouldn't they, given the choice?

A lot of adults wouldn't do it! I wouldn't eat my lunch outside, it's freezing, it's icy, and I like eating without having to wear gloves

[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.

[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]

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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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?

[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.

[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.

[Kalisi]

bytheway I salute you!

[AThingInYourLife]

[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.

[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.....

[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.'

[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.