Where do your Reception age children eat their lunch?

[eviekingston]

At my son's school, he ate his packed lunch in the classroom for the first week. After that they moved into the big hall, where they start lunch before the older children but are joined later by Year 1 and 2. My son is having a few problems at school anyway (separation anxiety), but this is gradually improving, and his teachers are very supportive. However he has barely eaten any lunch since being in the big hall, as he says it is too noisy and he doesn't like it, so he wants to get out and back to the classroom/ playground ASAP (where he hovers around any available adult for 40 minutes, but that's another thread...). In MY school (I am a Reception teacher), the Reception children eat in their classrooms, with the teacher/TA supervising. We even serve the hot lunches in the classroom once they start after half term (also a whole other thread..). So, how do your schools manage lunch times, and are any of your children as freaked out as mine?

reception and y1 eat together in the dining room, then y2 and 3, then 4,5,6 I think. DS has never been worried by it at all ?

Is your son generally sensitive to noise ?

Reception eat in the main hall from day one. It's a smaller school though - a little over 100 children from R-6. The reception and KS1 children finish at 12 and go straight in to lunch, the KS2 children go in at 12.15 and usually by the time the last ones are being served the younger ones are finishing and making space for them to sit down.

Main hall, although I don't think it is big enough for the whole school so they must be on sittings.

Tbh it sounds like his lunch problems are a symptom rather than a separate issue. Hope you can find a suitable resolution with school.

Has he had a hearing test recently? I am losing my hearing and find noisy crowds almost painful. Unlikely that this is it, but thought it worth mentioning if only to rule out.

Same as Fuzzymum here.

my dd's at a 1 form entry primary. All hot dinners are in the school hall in 2 sittings, infants then juniors. All packed lunches are in classrooms. DD (yr 3) has always had schools dinners and it's not been a problem (despite some hearing problems with glue ear).

My little girl hated the hall too. Teacher slowly got her used to it by encouraging her to eat a little bit of her lunch in the hall and then a bit more each day. She also always has an adult she knows standing near her. I was so impressed with how they dealt with it. She is now aclimatised to the hall and enjoys eating her lunch with her friends.

It is very normal for little ones to find the hall overwhelming, over stimulating, scary .. Perhaps they need to re think how to help him to adjust?

In the main hall with the other Years but small primary (107 kids) However I know the large primary near by does the same but eats in shifts. Will be more children though as they have a intake of 60 pr year so even Y R 1 and 2 will be 180 children for 1 sitting.

In the main hall, first sitting. Teachers eat with them.

In the main hall. They have designated tables with 'reserved for Reception' signs on them; elder DS told me this.
They line up at the serving hatch and carry their own tray of food but they are obviously handled sensitively by serving staff and mealtime supervisors as both of mine have been fine and its a really big noisy school.

Does your ds have any friends from nursery etc that the teacher could make sure he is sitting with to help him relax a little?

All children are different, there are a couple of children in my DS new class crying outside the classroom every morning.
Your DS will settle in eventually, it is a bit heart wrenching seeing your little one only just out of babyhood, enter a new big institutionalised world. It gives me pangs when I leave my DS each day even though he is very happy at school so far.

our school nursery & reception are in a seperate building to the rest of the school and they eat in the nursery

so the scary school hall is postponed until Yr1

At the infant school my DS2 used to go to everybody ate in the hall. Yrs 1 & 2 are on first sitting and the reception children are on second sitting.

In the main hall. The only problem is that it is clearly very distracting as she reports that she never has enough time to finish her lunch, so comes home ravenous.
I suspect some children have an advantage if they went to busy nurseries where, say, 60 children ate lunch together. That's what my DD is used to, though clearly this is a step up. I hope he gets used to it soon.

DD, year 1, still cries when talking about lunch in the hall on tables with big children.

In our school Reception eat with Yr1 and 2. Years 3-6 eat in the main hall.

All schools I've worked in, and both schools my dc have been Reception age children in - all food eaten in the hall. From memory, I think they go in a bit earlier to begin with, to get them used to the whole 'system', but never known anywhere where they eat elsewhere.

My Reception children all eat in the dining room. The first 10mins are just us before years 1 and 2 join us. :-)

Reception and year 1 eat together in the dining hall at our school.

They don't eat in the classroom at all (apart from fruit snack), so go straight into the dining hall when they first start having lunches.