School chores?

[LyricalBoudicca]

At my daughter's school the y6 children have various jobs allocated to them on a rota. One of the jobs involves scraping all of the half-finished lunch plates of all the younger children into the bin. She is now looking for excuses not to go in on the day on which this job is allocated as it makes her feel sick. Pondering on this and assessing if she was being 'precious' I seem to remember picking up litter/tidying up the library as jobs I used to at primary school do but nothing as yukky as what her class is being made to do. Apparently, she is not the only child disgusted by this but she wouldn't want to be the only one to complain. Part of me thinks a few chores is a good training for life but there are yuk limits at that age. Is this fairly standard in schools or is her school asking a bit too much?

I think it is fine to ask a 10/11 year old to clear plates. I'd encourage her to just get on with it.

@Anonymous48

On the face of it it doesn't seem like an unreasonable chore for a child that age. It would seem to make more sense for each child to do their own though, surely?

On another point, if they're scraping leftovers into the bin, does that mean they use real plates rather than disposable ones?

disposable plates in a school is inexcusable

The younger children may well have smeared ketchup/gravy/sauce round the rim of the plate or on the cutlery, meaning it’s going to go on the scraper’s hands.

Oh no! It's food, not toxic waste. Surely you handle food when you cook? I mean, you put food in your mouth, so why is touching it so abhorrent? Honestly, so many MNers are so unbelievably squeamish about the most bizarre things!

This has been a perfectly standard chore for generations

If this job is too disgusting for your child , what are you teaching them? The lunch-time supervisors have to do it- how do they manage it, if it is so grim? It's food! It's not disgusting!

Our head-teacher has even stepped in to scrape plates on occasion when school has been short-staffed.

Teach your kids that jobs need doing, even if you find them disgusting, and use it as a lesson that if they don't want that to be their job when they are older they should work hard at school to get a better one. But even more, teach them that no job is beneath them because one day they night be grateful of any job they can get.

Teach them respect for the people that do this on a daily basis!

My ds when 10 years old picked up his dogs poo when out, so scraping food plates would be no problem for him and as long as they get the opportunity to wash their hands after I would encourage her to do it. It is a chore to contribute to the school, she is being a bit precious.

Look at how the Japanese kids do lunch. They learn so much from doing it. Here, parents moan about anything and want their kids to avoid any hard work or chores. It doesn't go in via osmosis.

Having skimmed through this she has requested that you visualise ‘jelly squished onto carrots, chicken and potatoes smeared with gravy topped with the smell of orange peel’…. The only ‘fun’ thing is apparently to send little children back to their table telling them to try and finish their lunch! After they have presumably seen what’s inside the bin…(!!)

Supervising the younger ones scaling their own plates - fine.

Standing over big bins full of accumulating food waste as you scrap circa 150 plates of food into it - grim as fuck.

I don't think it's necessarily unreasonable to ask children to help but I don't understand why the younger ones aren't clearing their own plates.

I do lunch duty at my school and the new Reception children are taught how to do this from the very first time that they have school dinners.

It would make slightly more sense to have someone supervising the little ones until they get the hang of it but just doing it for them isn't really doing them any favours in the long run. They need to learn.

While at university, I worked as a dishwasher. So scraped a lot of dirty plates. It’s not just gross, it is a hygiene hazard. I caught Hepatitis by doing that job and it was scraping the dirty plates where I caught it from.

So my child would not be doing it in a million years.

What on earth is grim and gross about scraping leftovers from a plate into the bin? It’s food that has been served up, so not rancid and crawling with maggots.

Can't see a problem but I think all the children should be doing their own plates. The children at the nursery I used to work at did it themselves from 3 so I'm sure a child of 4+ could manage.

@DeepaBeesKit

Why are cleaning jobs "disgusting"?

These are normal parts of every day life. Thousands of cleaners and service workers and parents and waitresses clear up and clean up waste food every day. You do the job then you wash your hands and they are clean again. This is normal life.

I'm now realising all you lot are probably the tossers who dont pitch in washing the tea mugs at the office and dont tidy their own food trays into the bin in fast food restaurants "because its disgusting" but ok for someone else to do it as long as it's not you.

That’s unfair. I think everyone should scrape their own plate, clean up own food waste. It’s the most hygienic because you’re not causing another person to share the germs of 150 others. As for work, insisted on installing dishwashers in office kitchens...again hygiene.

@sammylady37

What on earth is grim and gross about scraping leftovers from a plate into the bin? It’s food that has been served up, so not rancid and crawling with maggots.

Because it's not just one plate of food. Its hundreds.

@DeepaBeesKit

Why are cleaning jobs "disgusting"?

These are normal parts of every day life. Thousands of cleaners and service workers and parents and waitresses clear up and clean up waste food every day. You do the job then you wash your hands and they are clean again. This is normal life.

I'm now realising all you lot are probably the tossers who dont pitch in washing the tea mugs at the office and dont tidy their own food trays into the bin in fast food restaurants "because its disgusting" but ok for someone else to do it as long as it's not you.

Driving is a normal part of life, but we don't ask primary schoolchildren to drive when they should be learning or playing.

@sammylady37

What on earth is grim and gross about scraping leftovers from a plate into the bin? It’s food that has been served up, so not rancid and crawling with maggots.

Well for one it could be part chewed. For two it could be covid-infested. For three OPs kid could be a vegan and she find meat as disgusting as I do.

@Orangejuicemarathoner it wasn't my choice for them to use disposable plates. It's just the norm here.

Definitely being precious. It's just leftover food.

It's not rancid and I assume the bin is fresh everyday, so the bin isn't rancid either.

So long as all children are on the rota - fire ahead. Get on with it.

I wouldn't mind dc mucking in at say girl guide camp but you just know this is a chore in school due to budget cuts and not paying dinner ladies. I'd object to using the kids to do a paid adult job.

@Seemssounfair

My ds when 10 years old picked up his dogs poo when out, so scraping food plates would be no problem for him and as long as they get the opportunity to wash their hands after I would encourage her to do it. It is a chore to contribute to the school, she is being a bit precious.

No, it's either a chore because the school is underfunded and under-staffed, or it's being done for the benefit of the kid. I fail to see it as a particular benefit.

The fact that we need to teach kids that some people have to do menial, unpleasant and lowly paid jobs, and those jobs are as valuable if not more so than most office jobs, is an entirely separate matter.

We used to have to do this in the 80s- we called it ‘being on slops’! It’s not a nice job and I would tell the school my child isn’t doing it.

Aged 10 my grandmother was sent to the yard to select a chicken - strangle it and then pluck it.

She’d laugh at scraping plates.

I caught Hepatitis by doing that job
How on earth did you catch hepatitis from washing dishes?

Children shouldn't be missing their playtimes to do the job of MDSAs. Children can and should be taught from 4 that they scrape their own leftovers into the bin before they go out. I have no issue with children doing 'jobs' but not when they're doing the job of someone the school should be paying to do it. The headteacher should be helping at lunchtimes if they're that short staffed. My head does lunchtimes every day.