to think a school should provide somewhere warm and dry to eat lunch?

[DoNotPressTheRedButton]

Picked ds1 up from school for a rare lunch time treat, its drizzly and blustery today so was surprised to see all the sandwich kids sat outside (nowhere near enough tables, so mostly on the ground) eating lunch.

Very few had coats on (I watched dd doing the same thing without a coat so I know he has one with him).

The new Headmaster has brought this in as a method of reducng the pressure on the canteen as Ofsted did describe it (years ago, due a review this year) as too small, with no heating and woefully inadequate. Apparently there is actually heating but due to size constraints they have to leave all the doors open.

Which was bad enough but- how can this be a solution?

Also noticed there is no additional staffing (one supervisor and one staff member) on view, which correlates with dd's complaints about having had parts of her lunch taken most days- although am hoping that has beena ddressed now after a chat last week, quite inevitable in a junior if unsupervised IMO.

Will be sending ds school dinners* (dd already has them)from next week if this persists, but clearly not an option for everyone due to canteen size....

Not sure if I am being precious or not?

• sent them different methods deliberately so as to separate them as ds1 has SN and school were leaving ds2 to care for him: separate issue entirely, but thought worth explaining why LOL

There are far more classes than lunchtime staff, that I know for sure

Am going to sit down with DH and discuss what he thinks when he gets back.

YANBU - I worked as a 'Lunchtime Organiser' (not dinner lady lol) until recently. The children used the hall or, when the weather was really nice, sat outside as a treat on the grass or on benches. If for some reason the hall was unavailable they ate in the classrooms with an LO in each one to supervise until they were ready to go out. You must make your feelings clear to the Head and/or Governors - and surely you won't be the only one to do so once the children tell their parents where they have been eating?

Sounds appauling!

DS1 can choose to eat his packed lunch out side on warmer days, and I think it's lovely to be allowed that choice, especially in the summer (although my wierd boy will probably be eating out in the cold by himself all winter, LOL!)

YANBU or precious!

I can see why the new head thought it might be a good idea, but it doesn't sound well managed.

Our small halled village school do cooked meals in the hall and pack lunches 2 classes to 1 classroom ( IIRC) with a supervisor.

The 'more classes than lunchtime staff' issue can be solved by using Year 6 pupils to monitor other junior classes.

At the junior school I work at eating packed lunches outside in the courtyard used to be a year 6 privilege & they would often still be doggedly eating out there in November or even later.

Now all years are allowed (rather than forced) to eat outside and they all still seem to prefer it, even if the weather's not ideal - some of them were begging to be allowed to eat outside in the snow in February, on a day when half the pupils hadn't managed to get in at all....

Y6 children monitoring junior classes?

Why am I so about that?

YANBU. The sxhool should provide somewhere indoors gor the children t eat thier sandwhiches. When my 3 DDs were at high school they could either eat sandwhiches in the canteen or havea lunch pass to another room if the canteen was full.

YANBU at all, this is terrible!

WTF is going on when there are so many schools (from comments on this thread) without sufficient 'proper' dining facilities for pupils? Eating in classrooms should surely only be an emergency/short term measure......what would happen at all such schools if all pupils opted for school dinners?

Rusty That's fine because they have a choice.

YANBU at all. It might help you to get some other parents on-side and make a collective complaint in writing to the Head, cc-ing to the Governors (and tell as many other parents as possible). That way the school will be unable to fob you off, using the excuse that you are the only one concerned. There is always strength in numbers.

Remember too that if you have concerns about bullying (join the club, hun), the last thing you need is to be branded a worrier/troublesome parent. You know you're not, I don't think you are for a second, but schools can be very self-protective and its amazingly easy to find doors slammed in your face because you have brought up an issue which they would rather not be spoken of. If you have the support of other parents and approach the school as a united assembly of parents they won't be able to accuse you of being over-concerned or unreasonable.