Secondary school not allowing kids to eat lunch inside in cold weather

[Bananabrain99]

Secondary school not allowing kids to eat their lunch indoors in this cold weather AIBU to feel cross with this as it is detrimental to pupils' health and wellbeing? My child was upset going into school today due to this and less than half the kids are in her class at the moment due to illness. Reasons cited by the school not to open up the hall is building works and needing the hall for flu vaccinations. Obviously I do expect my DC to have fresh air at breaks, but I don't think many adults would like a freezing cold picnic. Don't think there is anything I can do now (and school say will open a hall in January) but just feel upset about it and not sure if AIBU - I had presumed DC had somewhere warm to eat at least (12yrs old)

Utterly shocked by this thread. I had no idea so many schools have no proper provision for children to sit and eat their lunch. What is the point if campaigning for free school meals or Jamie Oliver's war in turkey twizzlers if the children are just thrown outside to eat their food standing up. Someone upthread mentioned their child having a roast dinner but not having gravy incase she spilt it!

What do they do when it's raining?

Lunch is a very important part of the day for children both for nutrition and socially.

Our school has 3 lunch sittings, long tables and the form teacher sits with their form on a table. 20 minutes for lunch then kids go outside,

Is how it should be though 20 mins is tight for slow eaters.

Agree with @Palacepicker and @SpicyFoodRocks

It's 30 mins total but they have form monitors, one puts out cups and pours water while rest of dorm start. Second monitor clears cups and wipes table at the end. The slow eaters usually take the full 30! It's also good that staff can watch what's being eaten. There are a few girls competitive under eating atm and it can be discretely monitored. I think it's especially important for teenage kids, fewer swop lunch and most eat something as it's a set time and place whereas they wouldn't bother if milling around a play ground.

Is this a private school as that's what used to happen at my private school but under 12? My DD is at a state comprehensive were i think there is some competitive under eating happening. I've noticed she'll buy a small thing and a drink as they have flavoured water. She is in year 7 and I noticed her enjoyment of the food has gone down hill as thee months have gone on as its not practical to have a roast outside and too cold to sit on the floor outside to have it. I would go as far to say the lack of social side of eating is contributing to a dysfunctional approach to food- it is becoming quite damaging.

It was exactly how it was in the last school I taught at. And yes, it had horrendous behavioural problems. I don't think pupil behaviour in general has improved since I left teaching.

More fool them.

As I have said before I have worked in schools and only primary has ever had supervisors at lunchtime. Not one secondary school I have worked at or the one my child attends have lunchtime supervisors they are supervised by teachers. School budgets are tight tespecially secondary schools.

The headteacher/heads of years/deputy’s are the ones who make the rules. So if they think it’s fine for the children to eat out side when it’s currently -7 here, then the should also be eating outside and not in warm offices/classrooms.

As I said, more fool those teachers for supervising during their lunch break. Do you think it's fine for people to work without pay @Prettyinpink22 ?

And while I don't think it's at all desirable for pupils to eat outside, it's utterly ludicrous to suggest that as a general rule senior staff should be subject to the same rules and expectations as pupils are.

Teachers are adults that are suppose to set a example to those they teach. You really think it’s fine to say to 11-16 year olds ‘that you have to eat in the cold but I don’t cause I’m a adult and I make the rules’. That’s ludicrous.

@Palacepicker obviously in circumstances where children are sent to school without the appropriate clothing for this weather, the pastoral team would step in. If neglect is apparent, then SS would get involved. No one in their right mind (teacher or not) would force a child to stay out in the cold under those circumstances.

To address some other points on the thread, even if a school can accommodate students staying indoors during this weather, supervision is necessary. I have worked in inner city schools where behaviour is absolutely appalling.

One morning I was on my way to my form classroom. I spotted two students that I teach getting into an argument. Initially it seemed like it was just some bickering, so I stepped in, asked them to hurry to their forms thinking that would be it. All of a sudden, one student threw a punch at the other and somehow I ended up right between them. Lots of other pupils clamoured round trying to see what was happening. These two students were tall, strong lads. Little 5ft3 me was stuck in the middle of them and I badly damaged my shoulder trying to split these boys up. If another teacher hadn't physically torn them apart, the damage would have been much worse.

I can give worse stories, but it would be outing.

Supervision is necessary to safeguard both students and staff.

I wouldn't have sent my kids in to school if they were expected to stand and eat lunch outside in sub zero temperatures. Barbaric.

It all comes back to money. Schools should have bigger dining areas, longer lunch breaks, supervised indoor areas, more staff available to supervise. Just more points on the list that they could do if they had more money but can’t because budgets and capital investment have been stripped to the bones

That's not what I said, as you'll realise if you read more carefully.

But that then requires a member of staff to sit in each room supervising the pupils. If there are 8 forms in each year, that's 40 rooms need supervising.

It was the same when I was in high school back in the 80’s too.

This makes me so angry. I remember this from High School and I would have hoped things would have changed since then. It is perishing outside. I would contact the headteacher.

I always got to sit down for lunch at school but there were only 700 pupils. My old school is now double the size at 1400 so harder to fit everyone in

YANBU. I would rather not eat than eat outside in this weather, it's so cold. I think the adults making these rules should consider whether they would want to do what they're making the kids do!

Not one secondary school I have worked at or the one my child attends have lunchtime supervisors they are supervised by teachers. School budgets are tight tespecially secondary schools.

Teachers cannot be required to supervise at lunchtime because it is unpaid and not directed time.

Teachers may choose to do a lunch duty in return for extra payment or for a free school meal.

This doesn’t apply to SLT.

Employers can't do that. The welfare regs exist to stop it.

YANBU, one of my most enduring, miserable memories from secondary school is having to stand outside in the freezing cold at lunch time, every lunch time.

There was a small library but we had to be silent and the librarian was discouraging.

That’s awful. I was at High School in the seventies and it didn’t even happen back then in my school, at a time when corporal punishment was unfortunately still the norm. I’m really shocked.

Our school allowed pupils to sit in the wider open spaces in the extension, in cloakrooms, in the gym halls, assembly hall etc. the only supervision we had was from the Prefects or an occasional shout from the Rector or one of the Deputes HTs if the noise beneath his office got too loud (there was a balcony outside his offices overlooking a hall outside the main hall where some of the pupils sat around).

It’s about time children were treated more humanely.

Wow. That's absolutely appalling. Is there anything going for the UK school system? No wonder the mental health and morale of this country's young people's is shot.

I remember eating outside at secondary school. Sitting on a bench in the rain under umbrellas huddled together. It was horrible. We'd have 30 minutes at there freezing. Poor kids. At least open classrooms for them.

Are the pupils supervised when they are turfed outside

I think it is appalling and I have worked in secondary with lunchtime supervisors,or staff doing a duty for canteen vouchers