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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be fed up of having 5 minutes of my lunch lost every day?

250 replies

Chickenavocadobacon · 04/02/2022 17:23

This isn’t a massive big deal or anything but I’m wondering if others think it’s worth raising.

I’m a teacher in a secondary school. We have 30 minutes for lunch.

The duty staff start rounding the kids up quite early and sending them in - so those of us who teach on the ground floor have kids coming in early. I had kids at my door today at 1:52 (lesson starts at 2.)

I know I could make them wait outside but that is noisy and disruptive and they just keep asking when they can come in so not exactly relaxing.

AIBU to be a bit fed up? We have hardly any time for lunch as it is.

OP posts:
Pythonesque · 04/02/2022 19:34

I recall having a double bell before school and at the end of lunchtime - the second bell was 5 minutes after the first bell and that was when you were expected to be in your seats ready for the lesson. Schools "rounding up" students so far in advance of start time seems both unhelpful and unnecessary - surely a 5 minute warning bell should serve for the majority and hopefully a smaller proportion need to be more actively chased when they aren't responding to the first bell?

Admittedly, my school was on quite a small site so as long as you were quick on stairs you couldn't be that far from your next classroom...

5foot5 · 04/02/2022 19:35

@ShallWeTalkAboutBruno
Private school?

Absolutely not. Local comprehensive. In fact ex-secondary modern still shaking off its secondary modern ways during my time there. But I don't think my experience was unusual, I am pretty sure most schools I knew kept those hours in the 1979s

watchingrnfire · 04/02/2022 19:39

Can't you go elsewhere for your lunch. At school we would wait outside the class until it was class time

OhFuckBloodyHell · 04/02/2022 19:40

We had a double bell too. One for leaving where we were, one for arriving where we needed to be there was no one rounding anyone up. And it wasn't that long ago, I'm only mid 30s!

There were no staff supervising our breaks either in secondary school, except for staff serving food and one small tarmac sports pitch type area that was restricted to year 7s only. We went to a canteen, or a hall, or our tutor rooms, or under some stairs, or outside wherever we wanted. There were no 'out of bounds' areas except possibly science labs.

ShallWeTalkAboutBruno · 04/02/2022 19:41

[quote 5foot5]@ShallWeTalkAboutBruno
Private school?

Absolutely not. Local comprehensive. In fact ex-secondary modern still shaking off its secondary modern ways during my time there. But I don't think my experience was unusual, I am pretty sure most schools I knew kept those hours in the 1979s[/quote]
I went to school in the 70’s and we finished at 3.15pm.

OhFuckBloodyHell · 04/02/2022 19:41

We also had 50mins for lunch. Bog standard secondary school.

ChoiceMummy · 04/02/2022 19:41

Legally, I believe that you have to be ready 10 minutes before the session don't you?

I would say that they shouldn't be in the building unsupervised so I'd raise this as an issue to be addressed with the duty staff.

I'd also say go to the staffroom at lunch!

saleorbouy · 04/02/2022 19:43

Surely this is something to raise at a staff meeting, you are entitled to a break to relax, free from interruptions.

Morello339 · 04/02/2022 19:43

I can relate to this completely. Our children go to lunch at 12, we drop them into the hall. The lunchtime assistants don't arrive until 12.10...so we just have to wait and supervise. I am primary.

We have voiced concerns, they're spoken but nothing changes. Over a week we lose almost an hour.

It's like people think "just get on with it", but no other year group have this, as we are the first in the hall.

JMKid · 04/02/2022 19:45

Don't sit in your room for lunch, go to the staffroom. Turn up a few mins before your lesson.

OldChinaJug · 04/02/2022 19:48

I go and sit in my car at lunchtime for this reason. I get so little breaktime as it is, esp as we are expected to allocate part of our lunchtime to keeping children in to complete unfinished work.

s3tut0y3r · 04/02/2022 19:49

YANBU. Typical behaviour in a school though. Teachers are expected to be superhuman and everyone is expected to see the teaching assistants and lunchtime staff as angelic, because "they don't get paid much for all they do". Same attitude in my school. Teachers are expected to club together to get TAs Christmas presents. Never the other way around! They should be expected to be as professional as you are expected to be. Why don't you and the other staff go out for lunch even if it's just to Costa? It makes the point. I am also a teacher btw.

Sherrystrull · 04/02/2022 19:51

@KimmyKimdoo

I’m SLT in a secondary school and I don’t get a single lunch time, I’m on duty every day through the entire lunch hour. Losing 5 minutes a day is hardly a big deal? That said, we don’t send ours in until the bell - maybe raise it with SLT and see what they say? I wouldn’t want to upset any member of staff over that.
Do you have free periods throughout the day or are you teaching all day as well?
Sherrystrull · 04/02/2022 19:52

[quote Sideswiped]@KimmyKimdoo, it's not right that you apparently don't have a lunch break - anyone should.
Can you not see that an 'ordinary' teacher (for want if a better expression) is paid far less than you and has far more teaching hours (and therefore more preparation to do), is pissed off that they can't enjoy the few precious minutes that they have in peace?[/quote]
Completely agree with this. It worries me that SLT are so far removed from the classroom that they can't see the difference.

Pumperthepumper · 04/02/2022 19:54

I don’t see anything wrong with what @KimmyKimdoo has said. They’ve said if you’re not happy, either put up with it or speak to SMT about it. Nobody is going to do it for you.

Original poster
Chickenavocadobacon · 04/02/2022 19:56

That doesn’t mean anything will change @Pumperthepumper

I swear on school threads I know which posters will turn up and chat shit, as my Y9 would say.

OP posts:
christinarossetti19 · 04/02/2022 19:57

It's not a race to the bottom, is it?

SLT might not have a slot in the day they call a 'lunch break' but the whole of the rest of their day isn't taken up with pretty intense interactions with 30 pupils at a time.

I agree with the 'go to the loo' suggestions. Or for a walk down the corridor. Just because 9R is standing outside your classroom doesn't mean that you have to be there to listen to them.

Malbecfan · 04/02/2022 19:57

This is a union matter. Add up all those extra 5 - 8 minutes, multiply them by 5 to get the weekly amount then 38 to get the extra hours. Are you still within 1265? If not, put in an overtime claim. I did exactly the same when "told" by the Business Manager to come in for an INSET on a day I didn't normally work. The finance person asked me if I was there as a cover supervisor. I said sorry, cover supervisors weren't there, I was asked to go as an experienced classroom teacher. I want my full rate please. I got it.

To the SLT poster, what a martyr you are! You get paid a lot more than mere classroom teachers, even those on UPS3. I couldn't give a toss that you don't get a lunchtime. Nobody holds a gun to your head to become SLT. Most SLTs do naff all anyway. As a classroom teacher of nearly 30 years' experience, I run lunchtime clubs on 2 of my 3 working days and have a duty on the other. If anyone, SLT or otherwise told me to do more, I'd walk. Is 30 minutes (or 20 or whatever) even legal?

Pumperthepumper · 04/02/2022 19:57

@Chickenavocadobacon

That doesn’t mean anything will change *@Pumperthepumper*

I swear on school threads I know which posters will turn up and chat shit, as my Y9 would say.

Have you tried?
s3tut0y3r · 04/02/2022 19:59

Just because @KimmyKimdoo doesn't get a lunch, this doesn't mean it is right. A bad thing happening to one person, is surely not justification for it happening to another? @KimmyKimdoo is in a position to change the culture of their school, as a member of SLT. I am shocked they don't see this...

ginforall · 04/02/2022 20:00

I completely understand your frustration. Warning bell goes 5 mins before end of lunch here so that's when students start moving. To get from the staffroom to my classroom I have to go down the 'up' stairs (or a very long way around the whole school following the one way system) so have to move before the warning bell. We've shortened lunch twice in the last few years, it is rubbish to not get a decent length break and time to switch off for a bit in the middle of the day.

5foot5 · 04/02/2022 20:00

I went to school in the 70’s and we finished at 3.15pm.

Must have from differed from area to area then. We were in a very rural area where many people relied on school transport and could have up to an hours journey home. I soppose that meant it was harder to stay for after school activities so perhaps why they fitted what they could in within the school day

Ridiculeisnothingtobescaredof · 04/02/2022 20:00

Totally agree, 30 minutes lunch for kids is ridiculous, I've seen kids queuing up for 20 minutes, then being sent out of the canteen 5 minutes before the bell goes so they don't even get to finish their lunch.

This needs to be raised as you aren't getting your full lunch break. Given that teachers are also expected to use this lunch break to prep for the next lesson, tidy' etc.
Definitely raise the issue

Pumperthepumper · 04/02/2022 20:01

@s3tut0y3r

Just because **@KimmyKimdoo* doesn't get a lunch, this doesn't mean it is right. A bad thing happening to one person, is surely not justification for it happening to another? *@KimmyKimdoo** is in a position to change the culture of their school, as a member of SLT. I am shocked they don't see this...
All *@KimmyKimdoo* said was ‘speak to any’. Let’s wait and see if the OP has done that.
Pumperthepumper · 04/02/2022 20:01

*SMT