DS having school lunch sat on the floor, AIBU?

[Honeybadgerdontgiveashit]

Long story short, building work as DS school has over run massively during summer holidays. Class rooms and hall remain unfinished.
Fair enough, no surprise, but these things happen.

School dinner pupils are eating in the halls, packed lunch pupils are eating packed lunch sat on the classroom floor.
This could go on until christmas.

His teacher was unable to offer an explanation as to why they could not sit at tables and chairs in the classroom. I suspect just so it saves them wiping them afterwards.

AIBU in thinking this is a bit off? He is in year 1, I'm not usually a germ freak, but this doesn't seem right to me. When I asked his teacher if she would eat her lunch sat on the floor everyday she said Yes! Of course I would and looked at me like I was mad!

Please tell me if I am being unreasonable, as I have PMT, and I am really not sure.

Thanks

I'd have been uhappy about y DC being expected to do what is a reasonable expectation of a dinner lady.

WTAF?

Your kids would hate my classroom. They have to wipe their own desks at the end of the day or after a messy activity, they have to help clean up the classroom, they even take out the trash bins and empty them. Ten minutes at the end of the day, some funky music which we all sing along to as we work, and the classroom is clean. I'm not having precious little petals in my classroom. They make the mess, they are the ones that clean it up.

Year 6ers also take turns working in the tuckshop, making food, packing food, cleaning up, serving other students. No "dinner ladies" here, it's staffed by volunteer parents and the 6ers. It teaches some good life skills, like no one is too precious to do any form of work, in addition to useful skills like food hygiene, handling money and customer service.

Seriously??your dc to good to clean up the mess they made?

No, I don't think my children are too precious to clean up after themselves but the dc eating in the dining room at proper tables won't be wiping dow and sweeping and I don't see why the packed lunch children should be treated differently. We are talking here about 4/5/6 year olds eating on the floor because the building contractors have breaached their contract. I would expect a head worth their salt and their 60-70k salary to be taking that up with the LA and negotiating the resource to ensure all children having lunch n the school were treated equally and with the same level of respect. If that means the packed lunch children eating at tables for four or six in a classroom then I expect adequate supervision and yes I would expect a member of staff to wipe down those tables because I don't think 4/5 year olds can do it properly when unsupervised and it wouldn't be fair for little johnny who had a hot meal to sit in spilt yoghurt or get his sleeves covered with juice. Finally my DC didn't eat on the floor at home and I wouldnot have expected them to at school. If people who work in schools expect that I think that's a sad indictment of standards and eexpectattions in the teaching profession.

marriedinwhite
Absolutely 100% agree with that last post.

Do people realise that a lot of schools are now getting rid of dinner ladies (costs are too high)and only having serving staff, asking parents to volunteer to supervise etc..... and that because children can go home for lunch, there are NO minimum staffing levels at lunchtime (unlike at breaktime etc).

Our school for example.... you have ONE dinner lady to supervise 2 reception classes eating on the floor - you HAVE to put them in one classroom..... 40-60 kids, one floor, sweep after... as the kids go out, you have ONE dinner lady to supervise them outside, until the one inside has finished watching the slow eaters and cleaning up.

The infants fare a little worse.... 6 classes x probably 20 who don't take hot dinners for ONE inside and ONE outside - that way you always have TWO in and TWO out - the 2 who are inside then get to go and clean up the hall where the hot dinners have been supervised by the serving staff + one other dinner lady....

(hence the cleaning needs to be quick - BUT sufficient to protect those who suffer from allergies - would you really trust kids to do this to a high enough standard when all they want to do is get out to play)

This staffing level always supposes there is no illness.....

There is NO money to pay for more staff. Parents could always volunteer to help if they were unhappy about the staffing levels, but that didn't happen... just lots of whinging that so-and-so had to bring his orange home because the dinner lady "wouldn't" (?!) peel it for him.

(40 kids X 1 orange/yoghurt/baybel x 1 dinner lady = longer than lunchbreak!)

The staffing situation is obviously a problem.
Do you really think it's a good idea for a parent to leave their job to help at school lunchtime?
Absolute nonsense. Of course peope are complaining. Don't take it so personally.

If the school dinner kids get to eat at tables. The packed lunch kids should be doing so too. There would be a LOT of complaints if children eating school dinners had to do so on the floor.

Because balancing a plate of hot dinner on your lap is a bit different from eating from your lunch box. Obvs.

Agree with Married too.

There is also the issue re standards of table manners,quality etc.

If you want kids to eat properly and parents to send a quality meal give eating lunch some respect.

Making kids sit on a dirty,smelly carpet(have never had a classroom where they don't) sends out a don't give a shit attitude aside from the poor hygiene.

Most children sit on the carpet quite a lot in foundation and ks1. Surprised people don't know that.

Tray of school dinner food is put down on floor and eaten from, just as easily as it's put down on a table. Obvs.

I've spent enough time working in primary schools (and a lot of reception age children) to know this is perfectly possible.

In an ideal world there would be a dedicated lunch hall, with sufficient staffing to meet all needs, there would be fluffy unicorns and rainbows and sunshine all around too...

It costs money that most would rather was spent on teaching. And yes, sorry, sometimes it is an either/or situation - so ancillary staff get cut during a recession...

If you think sitting in a tiny school hall at rows of crammed in tables instils table manners with those staffing levels, you are also mistaken.

I joined 6 years ago because I was a SAHM and saw the situation, and wanted better for my kids at lunchtime.... I loved working with the children, they really didn't give a monkey's about where they ate (apart from a handful who hated eating outside in the summer) my kids have now moved up, so it is someone else's "turn" - I no longer take it personally since as of this year I no longer do it.

Vesta, no one said its not possible but its still not as easy as having a packed lunch on

"Tray of school dinner food is put down on floor and eaten from, just as easily as it's put down on a table. Obvs."

But everybody is aware of the quaint English habit of "having picnics", aren't they? Eating cold "finger food" from a plate (or in this case, a lunch box) on your lap? I don't think I have ever seen a picnic consisting of stew and dumplings eaten with a knife and fork..........

In an ideal world there would be clean tables for children to eat at.
Fluffy unicorns are neither real, nor required.

If the ideal cannot be attained that is a shame.
Not neccessarily the end of the world, but I think our schools should strive for a bit more than the lowest common denominator.
Parents who wish their children to usually sit at a table to eat are not precious or difficult or akin to demanding that their children receive silver service, as has been suggested by some in this thread.
They are just expressing reasonable expectations.

Schools have rules about clothing, behaviour, the content of lunch boxes.
They should endeavour to achieve good standards as well as set them.

Yes Therealamandaclarke.

My children are 18 and 15 now. I went back to work when my dd was settled in reception. If my DC's primary school had suggested packed lunch children eat in their classrooms, I am certain it would have been eating at tables with supervision and the sort of paper cloths you tear off a roll which are readily available from cash and carrys. Anything else would have been unacceptable and the head, a very good one, would not have expected less.

If this sort of thing is now common place in schools then the entire system needs a kick up the backside. Day to day school lunch, indoors is not a picnic. Neither are the eating habits in the majority of british homes the same as those in India.

This thread and some of its sentiments beggars belief and I am genuinely shocked at the opinions, beliefs and values of some of those who claim to work in schools. I'm very glad my children's primary operated a little further from rock bottom, lowest common denominator. I'd have no hesitation in reprting some of the low expectations and lack of respect for infant children for whom schools are in loco parentis to the LEA. We hear often that education is about more than SATs and exams - yes it is, it's also about the basics such as respect, good manners, kindness and acceptable conduct. There has sadly been too little of that evident from those who work in schools on this thread. Be very pleased that my DC are too old now to be pupils at your schools. Time I became a governor at my local primary I think.

marriedinwhiteisback

What exactly would you report? Kids having lunch on the mat?

"I'd have no hesiitation in reporting some of the low expectations and lack of respect for infant children ...."

Pretty clear I thought.
No?

Disrespectful to have lunch on the carpet?

Do you really think it's a good idea for a parent to leave their job to help at school lunchtime?

We don't have hot lunches and dining halls, just a tuckshop open three days a week. It's staffed by parent volunteers and year 6 students. We always have more applications for help from parents than there are places. It's actually seen as very exciting to do tuckshop duty, a bit of a social event for those mothers chosen.

I'm very glad my children's primary operated a little further from rock bottom, lowest common denominator.

Our school is a private school in a high socio-economic area. And amazingly, none of the parents have ever complained about their children sitting on a floor. Or maybe aussie kids just aren't as precious (or their parents aren't) as your children are? Amazingly, despite being able to sit on the floor to eat their lunch, we regularly take students on excursions to theatre performances (where they even mix with the general public), overseas trips where they manage not to offend the local population, even cultural style restaurants (recently took 30 students to a French restaurant where they were required to eat escargot and weren't allowed to speak any English for the evening. Not one "ewwww" or food fight, and they even managed to use cutlery appropriately). Amazing how they manage to understand how to behave in different environments, despite the horrors of the occasional floor picnic.

Why are ppl obsessed with the status of those who clean up?
What's wrong with a dinner lady (or whatever the current term is)'wiping a table? I don't get it.

Ok. When childn are old enough they should be involved in cleaning up. But to suggest that the belief that it might be someone's job to clean a lunch table is considering one's own children to be "too precious" is ridiculous.

The same thing is happening in hospitals. Care is becoming sunstandard because of two factors; diminished staffing numbers and some nurses considering themselves to be "above" giving a sick person a wash.
My mother was a registered nurse. Very well qualified and with no shame in helping someone with their ablutions. It seems there is an epidemic of feeling offended at carrying out simple, essential tasks.
Fuck knows how anyone copes with cleaning a loo. Should we have the children do that too?

Crikey, I can't say I would be exactly thrilled at the prospect of any of the DCs sitting on a carpet for 4 months to eat lunch, but "time I became a governor" is OTT

valium if you be believe that is what was being said you either haven't read the thread or are being deliberately obtuse.

Now. I'm off to clean the bathrooms. (see? No shame in it.)