Lunchtime Supervision - what is normal?

[debs227]

My DD, year 2 eats her packed lunch with rest of her class in her classroom. The year 3 classroom is next door and the year 4 classroom is opposite year 3 classroom. DD tells me that whilst they eat their lunch, there is one lunchtime assistant in charge of all 3 classrooms and if they need help they have to go and find her.
approx 30 children in each class, although a handful go off to hall for hot lunches.

Do you think these are adequate staffing ratios? especially as some are KS1?
We have had lunchtime issues where DD has been physically pushed by another child etc.

What is normal in your schools?

That doesnt sound like enough to me. I would have said one member of staff per class

No, that is not good. But it doesn't surprise me both as a primary teacher (who has walked into the classroom in the past to find Y5 girls supervising my reception class as there weren't enough dinner supervisors) and as a parent who has found every time my reception child comes home with injuries they happened at lunchtime .
I would try and ask other parents to back you up if you can, but express your concerns and misgivings about this sort of setup to the head and stress it is unacceptable. As a teacher I wouldn't be happy with having so many children in different rooms so I don't know why they think it's OK to lumber a dinner supervisor (who only sees the kids for an hour a day and deals with more than one class) with this sort of burden.

We have 1 lunchtime supervisor per class for reception Y1 and Y2 and 1 supervisor for 2 classes in KS2

We have 1 per reception class, 1 for 2 Y1 classes, 1 for 2 Y3 classes and 2 for KS2 (2x Y3,4,5,6) - so 6 for 400 children.... well 4 for 200 KS1 and 2 for 200 KS2.... (of which I am 1, and my teammate is often absent with stress - I wonder why!)

There is no legal ratio for lunchtime supervision, just a duty of care.

That is why I soooooo love the MN thing of - "Oh, well check with the dinner lady", "Get the dinner lady to make sure they don't swap food" etc etc.....

At least most of KS2 have learned how to open things like yoghurt tubes, smoothies, packets and inserting straws into Innocent smoothie boxes (bane of my lunchtime!!).

We have 1 dinner lady for each Infants class, but once they get to Juniors there is 1 dinner lady between 2 classes - they shudder at the phrase "wet play", it means they have to shuttle between 2 different classrooms all lunchtime, on their own.

DS's school would normally have
Hall ,school dinners and 2 classes of packed lunch - 3 staff
Classroom A , 1 class of packed lunch - 1
Classroom B , 2 classes of packed lunch -1
Classroom C 2 classes of packed lunch -1
General playground duty -2 plus most pack lunch supervisors late in the lunchtime
1-1s are over and above these numbers.

It sounds like a lot, but with the layout of the school, a staggered lunchtime and the number of classrooms in use its only just enough.

The issue I would have with this is that if a child were to choke there would be no one there to notice. By the time another child spotted a problem and summoned the adult it would be too late. Whilst I realise that choking incidents in children of this age are not a regular occurrence they do happen and are more likely to happen where children are eating whilst mucking about. I don't leave my ds (5) alone when he is eating and would not expect the school to do so either. In our school the children all eat in the dining room with adults present.

It is possible that school are well aware that they do not have enough staff on duty but are struggling to FIND enough staff. one hours work on minimum wage in the middle of teh day is not an attractive job. Certainly DSs school always seem to be advertising the role.

I think the more fundamental problem is why are the pupils eating in their classroom? I would have hoped that the vast majority of the pupils would have been eating in the hall, whether they were on school meals or bought in.

Please don't tell me the hall has been carpeted like one school locally so that it is "nice" as opposed to being used! There the children have to go to the hall to get the school meal and then take it back to the classroom. Madness.

we have 2 for reception, 1 for year 1, 1 for year 2 , 1 for year 3 and 1 for year 4, we also have a floater and Head Mid day superviser, so 8 of us in total.

2 of us are down reception, seperate playground and 2 go out (1st aider and one other) into the playground as soon as the children have started to finish their lunches. The rest are in the dinner hall until things start slowing down in there , usually by 12.50-12.55 there are 4 of us in the playground whilst the last 2 finish with any stragglers.

Wet play whilst dinner being served/children eating packed lunch a mid day will cover 2 classes each until all dinners finished etc, but tha'ts the only time we are left to supervise more than 1 class at a time.

bytheway I totally agree on yoghurt tubes etc being the bane of a mid day's life and whoever designed innocent smoothie packaging should have been shot

the thing that gets me about the packaging is IF-THEY-CAN'T-OPEN-IT-AT-HOME-DON'T-SEND-IT-IN 1 dinner lady, say 50 kids KS1 (reception is forgiveable, KS2 get on with it) doesn't take many things to open before the whole lunchtime is filled with bl**dy innocent smoothie packaging (or cleaning the floor/table/child after they have had a go) !!!!! Sorry, but yes it is that bad....

wet play - 2 words designed to send shivers down the back of any mid day supervisor.......

Nominally one adult per class of about 28 pupils each, BUT obviously these adults are extremely busy and end up covering for each other (ie covering several classes) when the nominal supervisor has to rush off to deal with something work related. Or the dinner ladies are short staffed & different TAs/teachers will be drafted in for 20 minutes at a time each to cover the absence. I suspect that's the situation OP's child is really describing.

lol Bytheway- and yes we had wetplay today , although it was only the last 15 mins , and yes we don't have a day go by where some child has spilt yoghurt down themselves

All in a Mid day supervisors work ....

UniS at our school the MDAs are LSA's working through their lunch break (for which they are paid), for that reason.

LOL at admission. I guess you are used to bigger schools.

The school I MTA in, half the school eat in classrooms because the hall is tiny and can only seat 50 at a time, 200 + children in the school. To avoid a 2 hours long lunch time slot most children on packed lunch eat in a classroom or outside in fine warm weather. We do have picnic benches and floor blankets to use.

It would be nice to have a bigger hall but with the current freeze on school building projects , not to mention getting planning permission in a conservation area.... its not going to happen soon. For whole school assembly they have to walk down the road to a community hall.

Agree that yoghurt tubes are the work of the devil. I usually resort to scissors. Which is good thing about being MTA in a classroom, you do have access to such resources.