Lunchtime supervision - what's your school like?

[NiceCupOfTea]

Hi,

Just wanted to know how other MN-er's schools deal with lunchtime supervision: numbers of adults on the playground, their duties & training, who they are (teachers, TAs, mums-as-MSAs). Have serious reservations about the quality and safety of kids at DS2 juniors - ie Midday Supervisors have no First Aid training and are often left on their own overseeing a playground full of yr3-6's) - and need lots of ammo to fire at the head to help improve things!

Thanks alot in advance....

At my last school, the lunch time supervisors were all employed specifically as that. Teachers and TAs did playtime duties, but not lunchtime duties.

Can't remember whether they were qualified first aiders. I suspect not, as there was always a staff member in the school who was called on if a child bumped a head etc.

Well, in the part of school I'm referring to (yrs 3-6, approx 240 children) there are 4-6 people on duty any one lunchtime, depending on which MSAs can be bothered to turn up. When a cut or bump is being dealt with in the medical room, that can leave one adult supervising well over 100 kids. Sometimes a TA comes out for 15 minutes (yes, they deserve a break too). As a mum, this leaves me really uneasy. If teachers can't be asked to cover playtime and MSA numbers are so low, who's looking out for the children? Surely there's some legislation covering this?
Sorry for the rant!