Who supervises the children during lunchtime break at your primary school?

[Clumsymum]

I ask, because at DS's school, there are no 'proper staff' on the playground, simply mid-day staff, who don't know the children, and seem to have a problem with resolving some issues which currently affect DS, and are causing us some concerns about the discipline during this period.

BTW not belittling the work of mid-days, but trying to find out what is usual.

DS seems to be getting very little support from adults when being teased/bullied during lunch-times.

It's mid-day meals supervisors, but in the DC's school, like most in our area, they are also TA's in the school for the rest of the day. So they know the children pretty well, although that doesn't always mean they always deal with things as well as you might hope.

The school I work at has mid-day/lunhtime staff employed to work over lunch time. They supervise playground time. A couple of these people are also employed as TAs within school during the rest of the day/week, but this is simply because they chose to apply for both jobs. There are no teachers or TAs (other than the couple who are being employed as midday supervisers) out there at lunh time - it is their lunch break.

Our midday supervisers are trained and know they school policies for bullying and maintaining disciple, etc. They follow them through with children during the lunch break. A member of teaching staff, if appropriate, will follow this up further also.

Most schools follow a similar pattern. However, midday staff are often not trained or have minimal training. Some are bloody marvellous, while other make me cringe.

If your ds is having problems at lunch time, I would suggest talking to his teacher and failing that the head to discuss how things can be better managed.

The rest have the staff have not fallen off the planet. They are on their lunch break and can be called upon if the situation calls for it.

dinner ladies

I think we must go to the same school clumsy mum! Yes we have too few staff with too many children, and of course at lunchtime problems crop up.

But who would be a lunchtime supervisor the pay is terrible, and the job takes all day in effect. What job could you do round it? I can see why our school can't get enough people, so muddle through every day.

Our dd's is supervised by teachers and TA's. There is a duty rota which shows who goes where. There are three playgrounds at dd's school and generally two to three staff in each. Supervision levels vary enormously, from the vigilant to the standing around chatting between adults variety. I know that on a Monday dd will come home with tales of rough play that goes unchecked. We are not in the UK.

Mid days here. With teachers/head to call on to deal with bigger problems.

We have midday supervisors (I am one) for 1st half hour then some TA's come out after their break. Any serious issues are sent to deputy or head, whoever is on duty. Whilst we have had some training I agree that middays may not know your child as well but if you raise it with teacher they should be briefed to keep a special eye out.

We had a new head last year and she has now raised the number of supervisors as well as assigning each to a class so they do get to know the children well. We also spend 20 mins in the classroom after lunch reading with the children which again helps to get to know the class.

Supervised by TA's and teachers - they have a rota and there's always at least 2 on duty at once. Like Kreecher, I am not in the UK.

Teachers, but I'm not in the UK either. My kids have been in the school over two years and have never had any problems at break/lunch unlike in the UK where the hassle was endless (a lot of it caused by the fact it was non-teaching staff who didn't know the kids and believed whicever kids screamed loudest that it wasn't their fault).

Under the teachers pay and conditions agreement teachers can not be asked to supervise lunchtimes

dinner ladies. We have the same problem, the kids who are aggressive seems to be doing all their incidents then (there was one in particular who was doing all sort of things to our DD) . We complained , the teacher was there for a while, but I don't know what is happening now.

Teachers are not 'employed' over lunch times. They are free to leave the school premises - or not - as they please. If teachers (in the UK - state schools) are doing lunchtime duties then they are either a) being paid to do so b) volunteering to do so c) being directed to do so by the Headteacher/Governers which they are not allowed to do but teachers are too affraid to stand up to them and refuse to do it!

Teachers are not 'employed' over lunch times. They are free to leave the school premises - or not - as they please. If teachers (in the UK - state schools) are doing lunchtime duties then they are either a) being paid to do so b) volunteering to do so c) being directed to do so by the Headteacher/Governers which they are not allowed to do but teachers are too affraid to stand up to them and refuse to do it!

Ours are supervised by mid-day staff and by TAs who generally only get a half hour break.

Dinner nannies and TAs. Some of the dinner nannies also do some part time TA, so the kids know them well.

And what purpleheffalump said. Teachers need to eat and go to the toilet at some point in the day!

No teachers at all and during wet play they are left alone in classrooms. The playground staff pop in from time to time. This causes a lot of hassle really.

We had dinner ladies when I was at school and I feel almost 100!

many decades ago, when I started teaching, teachers had to do lunchtime supervision as a part of their job.
Then we went on strike in the mid-Eighties to improve our pay and conditions, and we also worked to rule.
As a consequence, one of the improvements was that we didn't have to cover lunchtimes.
This is from the NUT website.

"Do teachers have to do lunchtime supervision?

The Pay and Conditions Document stipulates that teachers cannot be required, under their contracts as a teacher, to undertake midday supervision and are entitled to a break of reasonable length either between school sessions or between 12 noon and 2.00 pm."

Currently, at my school, the children are supervised by middays, some of whom are TAs during the rest of the time. There is a child/adult ratio that is kept to, and the staff are deployed for maximum cover. Teaching staff are available if it's an emergency, and we always follow up on minor events that have arisen, afterwards in class.

What happened to my capital M?
Own up.