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

[Chickenavocadobacon]

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.

Another teacher here.. we get together as a department for lunch and sit in one classroom. This does not deter pupils from popping their heads in throughout lunchtime - yesterday we were both taking phone calls and two pupils actually stepped into the room and started talking at us, even after we told them we were on the phone. There really is no such thing as a lunch break anymore for us, our favourite line is “if I worked in Tesco then I’d be entitled to a break without seeing customers, so please leave”
On Tuesday it got too much and we just had to get out - popped to the Chippy and ate in the car park did wonders for our mood and got us out of the building for 20 mins!

@s3tut0y3r

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.

Well, no, of course TAs aren't expected to buy teachers presents.

It would be insulting to ask somebody paid fuck all minus 20% for TTO, minus 20% for school hours only and a purely optional cost of living increase that's usually at least half of that awarded to teachers to buy a present for somebody on a minimum of £27-41,000 pa.

Like others have said, I'd use the first 22 minutes to eat lunch and have a sit down & then at 1.52pm I'd take a slow stroll to the toilets or another communal area you have access to, and leave the classroom door locked. If the kids get rowdy in the corridor that might make other people take notice & ask questions about why the are lining up so early.

I feel your pain. Lunch is now a twenty min break, if that. By the time I get back to the office and have been for a wee (if the toilet isn't occupied, if not, then have to hang on til the end of the day, even if you haven't been for a wee since 7.30am!!!), it's already 7 mins into my half an hour, then expected to be back in the classroom at least five mins before break is due to be finished, as kids hanging around in the corridor, sent back from lunch by slt.

@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.

It’s definitely not going to change if you don’t raise it though, is it?

It’s bullshit. I’m a head of department and got ‘told off’ because my team were getting to the classroom on time and not being there to greet the kids 5 /6/7 minutes early at the door. All the talk of ‘take a walk until bang on the bell’ is unrealistic - your card would soon be marked. It’s all part of the declining respect and value of the teacher. We have poorly paid non-teaching support workers sent to get us to our doors as if we’re the naughty children. At the end of the day the real losers are the kids. 25 minutes to eat, play, flirt, be a kid is a travesty. No wonder mental health issues have sky rocketed. We’ve all been sold the absolute bibble that ‘no time can be lost’. The learning done at social times is just as important and has been totally eroded. My husband works in a private school, they teach until 4 but have a full hour for lunch, kids sit down for a 2 course meal and then sit on benches chatting or go off to play sport or music. Lunch time is now for the privileged. Let’s teach them young they are nothing but economic units eh?

@Woodchiponthewall

It’s bullshit. I’m a head of department and got ‘told off’ because my team were getting to the classroom on time and not being there to greet the kids 5 /6/7 minutes early at the door. All the talk of ‘take a walk until bang on the bell’ is unrealistic - your card would soon be marked. It’s all part of the declining respect and value of the teacher. We have poorly paid non-teaching support workers sent to get us to our doors as if we’re the naughty children. At the end of the day the real losers are the kids. 25 minutes to eat, play, flirt, be a kid is a travesty. No wonder mental health issues have sky rocketed. We’ve all been sold the absolute bibble that ‘no time can be lost’. The learning done at social times is just as important and has been totally eroded. My husband works in a private school, they teach until 4 but have a full hour for lunch, kids sit down for a 2 course meal and then sit on benches chatting or go off to play sport or music. Lunch time is now for the privileged. Let’s teach them young they are nothing but economic units eh?

But what happens if you’re ‘told off’ or ‘your card is marked’?

Do the DC get less than half an hour for their lunch at secondary school these days?

YANBU to want your full lunch break, I can only imagine how much you need it!

But I think the best solution is you eat your lunch elsewhere. Whether that's in the staff room, or in your car (if allowed to be off premises).

I can see why duty give themselves 10 minutes to gather all the kids, and if you start at 12.50, there will inevitably have some at the classroom doors within minutes. I can't see a way to avoid it if they're to have all students in classrooms by 1.

@Woodchiponthewall it also doesn’t take account of how difficult it is to try to go anywhere in a school with a surge of hundreds of pupils trying to get the other way

[quote Chickenavocadobacon]@Woodchiponthewall it also doesn’t take account of how difficult it is to try to go anywhere in a school with a surge of hundreds of pupils trying to get the other way [/quote]
But have you spoke to senior management?

Address it or have lunch somewhere else.

I’m considering raising it, @Pumperthepumper, but I’m fairly certain that I will just be told to make them wait outside.

@Chickenavocadobacon

I’m considering raising it, *@Pumperthepumper*, but I’m fairly certain that I will just be told to make them wait outside.

Why are you only considering raising it if it’s affecting your work life?

Because @Pumperthepumper you have to pick your battles.

I’m 99.9% sure nothing will happen even if I do raise it so it’s largely pointless.

How do you mean?

The Vice Principal told me that any complaints staff had about the behaviour on the corridor when kids are sent in early for lunch (as is school policy, not an accident) were our own fault, and we needed to be there early to get them off the corridor. End of discussion.
‘having your card marked’ - not considered a team player/bright young thing, cold shoulder from SLT, no chance of progression etc etc. I’m certain most of the teachers on here will relate.

As SLT, Kimmykindoo's contract is not the same as the ordinary teacher and it specifically affects their lunch breaks.

The OP is not paid for her lunch break so it is even more of an issue. Raise it in school first, and if no joy, bring in a regional rep of the union.

I understand worries about getting your card marked but can tell you all the goodwill in the world means nothing if SLT want to do some things their way. They won't remember, Ah, Chickenavocadobacon never took her full lunch time. They take it utterly for granted.

On the other hand, for myself, I've never found sticking up for myself ever got in the way of a promotion.

I hear ya!

@Chickenavocadobacon

Because *@Pumperthepumper* you have to pick your battles.

I’m 99.9% sure nothing will happen even if I do raise it so it’s largely pointless.

But why? What else do you want to raise with them?

@Woodchiponthewall

How do you mean?

The Vice Principal told me that any complaints staff had about the behaviour on the corridor when kids are sent in early for lunch (as is school policy, not an accident) were our own fault, and we needed to be there early to get them off the corridor. End of discussion.
‘having your card marked’ - not considered a team player/bright young thing, cold shoulder from SLT, no chance of progression etc etc. I’m certain most of the teachers on here will relate.

I am a teacher. I think that’s what the OP meant about the school threads.

Why would you get the cold shoulder from management about raising something that affects your job? You don’t have to fake happiness with every decision made, speak to them.

Tbf, it doesn’t just impact me. It affects everybody but staff closest to the playground / fields disproportionately because the kids come in first.

Let’s not turn it into the Pumper Show.

@Chickenavocadobacon

Let’s not turn it into the Pumper Show.

Excuse me?

@Chickenavocadobacon

Tbf, it doesn’t just impact me. It affects everybody but staff closest to the playground / fields disproportionately because the kids come in first.

More reason to speak to them then.

@Chickenavocadobacon

Because *@Pumperthepumper* you have to pick your battles.

I’m 99.9% sure nothing will happen even if I do raise it so it’s largely pointless.

In the end you do, but this is an important one, and will affect every other teacher. Remember you have law on your side: you're not being paid.They haven't a leg to stand on.

Will they like you? No, but they don't like you now, in the sense of respecting you. Nothing to lose. I'm speaking from experience and know the heart-sinking feeling, but sod it. 👍