Children eating packed lunch outside?

[OldMaaa]

Is it just me or is this a bit bonkers?

My children are at Primary school.

I found out recently (from my child not via school communication) that the children who bring in packed lunches are allowed to take them outside to eat in the playground.

This first came up as my children sometimes take in soup in a thermos cup. Recently eldest child reported that their soup was kicked over before they had consumed any, so essentially missing the main portion of their lunch. After a bit of (quite confused) discussion I discovered soup was on the floor outside, which led to a conversation about why?! This is normal apparently.

I'm thinking about it again today, as I noticed child had brought home most of their sandwiches and when I asked if there was something wrong with them they said no. "They were lovely but I got distracted".

Am I mad/out of touch to be thinking that children should be sat down at tables while they're eating their lunch regardless of whether they're packed lunch or school dinners. Or is this common in other schools?

I never want to be the kind of parent who bothers the school unnecessarily, but I am considering asking them about this as I don't understand it.

But I would appreciate some other perspectives as maybe my perspective is wrong?

Some people are being really weird about soup. It’s a grand lunch. 🤣🤣🤣

I love soup. And it does fill me. BUT I have to eat a large bowl to get the satiety I need and for that to last

I'd have to have a bread roll or 1-2 slices of bread as well as the soup to feel full.

I'm pretty sure we always ate outside on fine days when I was at school (many years ago!). Somehow we coped.

How many sandwiches are you sending to school with your child??

In my country kids eat outside. A lot of the time kids skip eating so they can play. I send my child with plenty of snacks so they will at least eat something.

Soup is a pretty common school dinner at my kids schools, served with bread and salad. That's enough to fill them up so long as its a soup with proper food in it not just a tomato soup or similar.

Never heard of this, and it’s madness.
All children have always eaten lunch inside in our schools .
They could eat in corridors on tables or another classroom for packed lunches if necessary.

They will definitely have been told to all finish eating before playing, but kids don’t listen to teachers and they definitely don’t listen to Midday supervisors.

Honestly, has everyone just forgotten how to be parents these days?

If you are concerned about it then you tell your own children to eat inside and to eat everything before they go out to play.

Eating outside is normal and lovely when it's warm enough.
Such a non issue!

People are so odd about soup!

A good lesson in resilience and consequence 😆

This is exactly what happened at DD’s school. Whole year group furious as 2 delicate dc and their pfb mums were horrified at the idea of eating outside. Due to the layout of the school at the time they all had to stay indoors til everyone had finished too

I honestly think a lot of people have forgotten what it’s like to be a kid. Complaining because their children were allowed to sit outside and have a picnic lunch is just ridiculous behaviour.

I always loved packed lunch outside in the summer. Probably just don't send soup in the summer term I reckon.

If they are in classrooms there would be more staff needed to ensure they are safe when eating.

Teachers will also be unable to prepare their classrooms for the afternoon or be forced to work through their lunch break to supervise.

They could easily stagger it. EYFS and KS1 12:00 - 12:30 while KS2 play out. Then KS2 12:30 - 1:00 while EYFS and KS1 play out.

Teachers will also be unable to prepare their classrooms for the afternoon or be forced to work through their lunch break to supervise.

And who is going to clear up the inevitable mess in time for afternoon school?

Another advantage of eating outside is that food dropped on the ground can be left to the birds to deal with.

Wouldn't lunchtime supervisors (not teachers) supervise the kids?...so that teachers can prepare their classrooms?

Wouldn't lunchtime supervisors (not teachers) supervise the kids?...so that teachers can prepare their classrooms?

How can teachers prepare their classrooms if they are full of children? They might want to rearrange tables or set out materials.

They might also want to do confidential admin or have conversations which would be inappropriate with children in the room.

I think it’s nice to get outside!

Don't the kids eats their food in the school canteen? I never ate food in the classroom....

The absolute preciousness of parents is wild. WILD.

This is usually because there isn't enough room or seating in the canteen for the entire school to eat.

In poor weather, there isn't much choice other than to stagger lunches and/ or have children queuing, thereby missing a significant amount of playtime. Or, some children will have to eat in classrooms if no other seating space available.

When the weather is fair a large proportion of children can simply eat outside and all can enjoy more playtime.

People seem to be very blasé about choking - perhaps I am unfairly skewed the opposite way because I unfortunately lost a family member to choking.

I don’t care whether my children eat indoors or outdoors, but I would be very unimpressed if it wasn’t ensured they were seated to eat their food.

I never had my lunch outside in primary school and AFAIK at my child’s school they always eat indoors. So I am surprised by how many say it’s normal.

As I say, many people are incredibly blasé about choking. I once had a friend who’s 3yo choked on a grape as she didn’t cut them. Luckily he survived. A week or so after, she told me this story a her house whilst her son was sat on the sofa next to us… eating uncut grapes. She said “clearly he’s not very good at eating them, and so he has to learn”. The mind boggles!

So .. they're just wandering round eating?

Surely they are sitting somewhere

I have a weirdly vivid memory of eating a tuna paté sandwich and a Babybel outside in the sun-drenched playground/field area when I was in primary school in the early 90s. Sitting on a wall thing. Happy times.

I used to find lunch times really stressful at school. Being worried about seating arrangements and dinner ladies shouting and forcing you to finish. It was an awful environment.