Page 11 | Teacher lunch hour!

Original poster

everychildmatters · 10/10/2025 18:18

@BeachLife2 I'd love to know what you do for a living?!!! 😆

OP posts:

Parker231 · 10/10/2025 18:24

BeachLife2 · 10/10/2025 18:16

Every teacher’s contract will state that they must perform any reasonable duty as directed by the headteacher.

Staff at academies and free schools are also often on contracts which allow them to be used in an efficient, agile and innovative way.

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Your information is incorrect.

Muchtoomuchtodo · 10/10/2025 18:30

MagicLoop · 10/10/2025 17:39

In schools, cleaning staff should clean all areas. Teachers don't do cleaning.

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And neither should nurses and therapists be doing cleaning.

But here we are. We have a rota in my team to keep our offices and kitchen at a reasonable standard. So once a month, a new patient slot in my diary is blocked out to do this.

MagicLoop · 10/10/2025 18:31

BeachLife2 · 10/10/2025 18:16

Every teacher’s contract will state that they must perform any reasonable duty as directed by the headteacher.

Staff at academies and free schools are also often on contracts which allow them to be used in an efficient, agile and innovative way.

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Even if that were true (which I'm pretty sure it isn't), any teachers' union would be all over a headteacher for making his teachers do the cleaning, as it is obviously not a reasonable use of teaching staff. * *

HerNeighbourTotoro · 10/10/2025 18:33

BeachLife2 · 10/10/2025 18:13

Reducing ancillary staff frees up money to employ more teachers, which directly benefits teaching and learning.

It also allows the senior management team to be appropriately rewarded and incentivised- commensurate to the skills and experience they bring to the school. That means a much higher standard of leadership and strategic vision.

Some schools spend hundreds of thousands a year on office and cleaning staff, which is not a good use of resources.

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Maybe your husband should hover the whole school daily, as he is clearly being useless at being the headteacher... "Higher standard of leadership " 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂I bet all the leaders tell themselves that daily in their SLT meetings.

HerNeighbourTotoro · 10/10/2025 18:35

everychildmatters · 10/10/2025 18:18

@BeachLife2 I'd love to know what you do for a living?!!! 😆

Answering phones, "It's the ... residence, lady of the house speaking".

MagicLoop · 10/10/2025 18:36

Muchtoomuchtodo · 10/10/2025 18:30

And neither should nurses and therapists be doing cleaning.

But here we are. We have a rota in my team to keep our offices and kitchen at a reasonable standard. So once a month, a new patient slot in my diary is blocked out to do this.

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I'm sorry that's the case for you. Neither teachers, nurses nor therapists should be doing the cleaning. It's not a race to the bottom. We shouldn't be saying 'Workers in X job are unreasonably expected to do X task which isn't in their contract/ job description, so nobody in other jobs should complain about being asked to do thingd that aren't their job either'.

ThanksItHasPockets · 10/10/2025 18:38

Please stop feeding the troll.

Needlenardlenoo · 10/10/2025 18:39

BeachLife2 · 10/10/2025 18:13

Reducing ancillary staff frees up money to employ more teachers, which directly benefits teaching and learning.

It also allows the senior management team to be appropriately rewarded and incentivised- commensurate to the skills and experience they bring to the school. That means a much higher standard of leadership and strategic vision.

Some schools spend hundreds of thousands a year on office and cleaning staff, which is not a good use of resources.

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Reasoning like that leads to dirty, broken buildings and school trips not happening because teachers can't do the admin on their own. We don't insure the minibus, pay the invoices, arrange our own cover...

TicklishMintDuck · 10/10/2025 19:09

everychildmatters · 10/10/2025 00:10

First off, I am glad I left primary teaching last year after 20 years in; things are only getting worse. I feel for the colleagues I left behind.
It is now becoming a common expectation that, for many different reasons, teachers are now being expected to supervise children over the lunch hour.
I used to avoid this by taking the time to which I was entitled but in order to do this I had to physically leave the building - go for a walk etc. In reality of course this was only for about half an hour or so as I wanted to be back in time to prepare my afternoon lessons.
AIBU to think teachers should be entitled to a lunch break?!!

I try to get my lunch break every day - I need it to decompress! Last year everyone had to do a lunch duty and then you end up eating lunch in a PPA if you have one. I’ve also worked at schools in the past where we had 25-30 mins and the line manager wanted to have a meeting. I refused. There is a legal entitlement to a break.

WonderingWanda · 10/10/2025 19:10

Lots of schools have moved to 30 mins. Ours still has 1 hr but half is paid so we can be directed for 30 mins.

TicklishMintDuck · 10/10/2025 19:14

MigGirl · 10/10/2025 07:23

Primary school teachers have been very lucky in that most schools have lunchtime supervisors. High schools haven't for quite some time and all staff have to do lunch a break duty on a rota. They do get a free school meal when on duty but that's it and yes I do think this is unfair but I'm assuming it's again a cost cutting exercise so they don't have to employ more staff.

They don’t have to at all. Lunch time is unpaid, undirected time and you are free to leave the site if you wish. However some schools (academies) are starting to go down the route of forcing lunch duty on teachers.

ClawsandEffect · 10/10/2025 19:16

BeachLife2 · 10/10/2025 18:13

Reducing ancillary staff frees up money to employ more teachers, which directly benefits teaching and learning.

It also allows the senior management team to be appropriately rewarded and incentivised- commensurate to the skills and experience they bring to the school. That means a much higher standard of leadership and strategic vision.

Some schools spend hundreds of thousands a year on office and cleaning staff, which is not a good use of resources.

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There is a finite number of hours anyone can work. Most UK teachers already work in excess of 60 hours a week. If you want them to clean and take on other tasks it won't be in addition to the 60ish hours. It will replace some of them. Quality of teaching will reduce.

All heads are judged on their students results. If I'm cleaning tables, I won't be giving each student an independent target, in personalised feedback. I won't be differentiating lesson plans to get the best out of each student.

Your priorities are wrong.

Not to mention, head teachers and executive heads already earn massive salaries. They should reduce their salary a bit in order to be able to afford custodial staff to perform custodial duties.

No wonder teachers go on strike. Leave the profession. Go overseas where a 16 hour teaching week is standard, without extra duties.

TicklishMintDuck · 10/10/2025 19:16

TeacherTales · 10/10/2025 07:36

Yes, but someone has to be present who is 'in charge'.

It's not fair (or safe) for people who are largely untrained and have zero behaviour management training to have responsibility for so many children without suppprt.

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SLT

Doodlingsquares · 10/10/2025 19:18

Inertia · 10/10/2025 13:25

Teachers are only paid for the statutory amount of holiday - the rest of the time is unpaid.

Of my 28 days of summer holiday, 7 of them were spent working 10 hours per day in school setting up a new classroom and other resource provision. That’s 70 hours of my unpaid holiday. It doesn’t account for time spent working at home during the holidays on lesson planning/SEND documentation/ data analysis.

I’m on this thread as it’s my unpaid day off. I’ve worked 5 hours so far today, having completed 4 days in work 8-6.30, and still have about 2 hours worth to complete. Children may go home at 3.30 but that’s not the end of the day. We have meetings, parent meetings, after school clubs before we even start on our own work.

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But in which case, teachers pay is nowhere near as bad as is made out, because they are working 6-7 weeks less than full time due to that unpaid leave. If i took 6 weeks unpaid leave in my job it would knock thousands off my salary.

JaneEyre40 · 10/10/2025 19:21

everychildmatters · 10/10/2025 00:10

First off, I am glad I left primary teaching last year after 20 years in; things are only getting worse. I feel for the colleagues I left behind.
It is now becoming a common expectation that, for many different reasons, teachers are now being expected to supervise children over the lunch hour.
I used to avoid this by taking the time to which I was entitled but in order to do this I had to physically leave the building - go for a walk etc. In reality of course this was only for about half an hour or so as I wanted to be back in time to prepare my afternoon lessons.
AIBU to think teachers should be entitled to a lunch break?!!

When I read this title I laughed. Never had a lunch hour in my whole 15 years. You are right, the expectation not to is ridiculous.

But yet the general public will tell us we should be grateful we finish at 3 and have amazing holidays 😂🙄

FletchFan · 10/10/2025 19:26

Muchtoomuchtodo · 10/10/2025 18:30

And neither should nurses and therapists be doing cleaning.

But here we are. We have a rota in my team to keep our offices and kitchen at a reasonable standard. So once a month, a new patient slot in my diary is blocked out to do this.

Show quote history

Teachers don't get a lesson covered so they can clean though. It's just extra piled on top.

tiredandunhappy · 10/10/2025 19:28

@everychildmatterswe only get 45 mins now so end up with about 15 mins to eat lunch and have a wee 🙄.
do you mind me asking how you tutor in the day time?

JaneEyre40 · 10/10/2025 19:29

Doodlingsquares · 10/10/2025 19:18

But in which case, teachers pay is nowhere near as bad as is made out, because they are working 6-7 weeks less than full time due to that unpaid leave. If i took 6 weeks unpaid leave in my job it would knock thousands off my salary.

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Nowhere near as bad as what they are factually getting paid? 🙄 It's not 'made out', you can simply Google..... teacher's pay. It's pretty shit for what they do and the crazy hours they work.

Original poster

everychildmatters · 10/10/2025 19:36

@tiredandunhappy I'm an EOTAS Tutor (Education Other Than At School) ❤️

OP posts:

FletchFan · 10/10/2025 19:39

JaneEyre40 · 10/10/2025 19:29

Nowhere near as bad as what they are factually getting paid? 🙄 It's not 'made out', you can simply Google..... teacher's pay. It's pretty shit for what they do and the crazy hours they work.

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Not to mention the shocking behaviour we have to deal with nowadays.

You couldn't pay me enough to go back.

Cherrysoup · 10/10/2025 19:42

Lunchtime=time to get on with something without children needing to be taught, except for the 2 days I run clubs, the ‘detention every day’ thing, kids wanting me to check if they’ve finished their online homework (even though they can check their own) or to talk to me about something. There’s a paid lunch duty available, which I quite like, easy money. Break is similar, time to do tasks without children needing to be taught.

I’ve had to create new resources (the main PowerPoints, plus extra resources and associated games) for a new GCSE specification recently.

I’m not whinging, I quite like cracking on with essential work (4 hours of online training recently) and I’m aware that some jobs simply don’t allow for lunch breaks. My DH hadn’t eaten since 5.30am yesterday and he got home about 5pm. It’s just the nature of his job. I had to heat up soup and take it into class one day this week. I’d have keeled over if I didn’t eat.

I like being busy and having the dynamic of a class to work with. Free lessons, especially protected ones, are my only guaranteed ‘me’ time, although I might get thrown out of my room, or I leave for 5 minutes and suddenly someone’s in there having a meeting or some sixth formers have been cheeky and decided to use my room and wiped all my painstakingly written preparation off the board.

BeachLife2 · 10/10/2025 19:52

ClawsandEffect · 10/10/2025 19:16

There is a finite number of hours anyone can work. Most UK teachers already work in excess of 60 hours a week. If you want them to clean and take on other tasks it won't be in addition to the 60ish hours. It will replace some of them. Quality of teaching will reduce.

All heads are judged on their students results. If I'm cleaning tables, I won't be giving each student an independent target, in personalised feedback. I won't be differentiating lesson plans to get the best out of each student.

Your priorities are wrong.

Not to mention, head teachers and executive heads already earn massive salaries. They should reduce their salary a bit in order to be able to afford custodial staff to perform custodial duties.

No wonder teachers go on strike. Leave the profession. Go overseas where a 16 hour teaching week is standard, without extra duties.

Edited

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Headteachers and senior management are well paid to attract and retain high quality leaders. This sets the overall for a school and ensures that there is strong management.

tiredandunhappy · 10/10/2025 20:15

@everychildmattersah thank you! I’ve never heard of it before.

Muchtoomuchtodo · 10/10/2025 20:24

MagicLoop · 10/10/2025 18:36

I'm sorry that's the case for you. Neither teachers, nurses nor therapists should be doing the cleaning. It's not a race to the bottom. We shouldn't be saying 'Workers in X job are unreasonably expected to do X task which isn't in their contract/ job description, so nobody in other jobs should complain about being asked to do thingd that aren't their job either'.

Show quote history

I’m absolutely not making this a race to the bottom, nor justifying the situation.

The only ‘advantage’ that the team I work in has over teachers is that we’re community based so don’t have patients sat in front of us in the way that teachers have a class full
of kids . We’re able to block out time to try to keep our workspace clean and hygienic. Still definitely a waste of clinical time.

I always think that the nhs (and every workplace) would be more effective if we all only did jobs that only we can do. So teachers teach, nurses nurse, administrators do admin and cleaners clean.