AIBU to think half an hour is not long enough for a school lunch break?

[LordTrash]

Hello, really interested to hear all opinions on this, but especially those of teachers.

My dc school did a 'consultation' last month on whether to cut the school day by 10 mins by shortening the lunch break from 40 to 30.

I thought it was a bad move, and said so, giving a number of reasons. The school has now announced the 'following consultation' the day will be shortened as proposed, but they give no details of that consultation or how the decision was arrived at, so I wonder if the whole exercise was just flimflam to make parents think they were being listened to.

Word on the street is that they want to cut the lunch hour so older kids aren't getting involved in home time clashes with kids at a neighbouring (about 25 mins walk away) school.

So, is this done at your school? If so, how has it worked? I can't see how my dc - who do school council/production meetings etc at lunchtimes - can possibly find time to eat and unwind between sessions in such a short time.

Bubbles, yes, I feel sad and angry that provision for my dc is worse than the provision I had (in the 80s) in so many respects

I was surprised how long secondary schools got for lunch when my boys went . ( youngest finished last year) They got 45 mins.
As I said before we got half an hour, same as the other high schools and that was in the 70s and 80s when me and my brothers and sisters were there.

Are you on South Yorkshire LordTrash? We are in one of the worst funded LAs as well. DD's school is the 4th most underfunded in the country.

This is really common and it does impact on behaviour because, in a nutshell, there's just less time for bullies to do bullying. There are still whole swathes of kids in schools for whom lunchtime is a scary prospect. I'm in favour and I say this as someone with 12 years secondary teaching experience.

Interesting to see how varied posters' experiences of school lunch 'hours' are. For me, half an hour is a new and alarming development, for others it's standard.

Not in S Yorks, Laconera, but a rural southern county considered affluent - but the particular area we live in is far from it!

KingThistle, my own dread of my v long lunch hour meant that I threw myself into extra-curriculars - learned a lot about theatre, gardening and opera that would otherwise have remained mysterious .

We moved from 40 mins to 30 mins this year and as staff we did have the same concerns as you op. It has reduced poor behaviour over lunch as they don't have time to do anything other than eat!

There is still time for some clubs (although it is difficult) but it has hit staff more than the students as by the time we have cleared up from the morning lessons, sorted for the afternoon, nipped the toilet, held a detention we are struggling to eat - the kids are fine!

My school did this some thirty years ago. I liked it because it meant there was less opportunity for bullying and I got to go home sooner. The downside was that there was no time for clubs etc at lunchtime so music practice etc had to happen during assembly, which wasn't really long enough.

DS's school cut the lunch break to 25 minutes meaning a lot of the pupils on FSM didn't have time to leave class, queue up, get their meal, eat it, and get back to class on time (1250 pupils, large site, small canteen). Really discriminatory.

Converter academy.

DS has this, he usually takes a packed lunch as the canteen is too busy. Unfortunately he has got into a bad habit of eating really quickly (no choice at school) and then gets annoyed when we ask him to slow down a bit at home

Ds's school has 30 min lunch break and 10 in the morning. I have more of an issue with the fact it's not until 1.45pm .

How sad that less time for bullying seems to be a popular reason for short lunch break

I agree, but I used to be a governor, and this reason was given for the short lunch break at my school. The SLT said that anything over 45 minutes made the children more likely to make mischief.

Dd2 described today's lunch break to me:
10 mins late leaving class (by no means uncommon)
Queue for 20 mins (by which time only one vegetarian option left, which she didn't like)
10 mins to eat.

The new lunchbreak will cut out the 10 mins she had to eat...

And yes, one of my concerns is how hard this will be on the teachers, who already have an intense working day and have taught 4 hour-long sessions by lunch break, with a 20 min break.

Oh and some pupils had 'lunch break' at 11.20. I kid you not.

Storm, another concern I have is the impact on kids with FSM. If they don't get near the front of the queue sharpish, they could miss out on their one decent meal of the day.

I agree with that. It's definitely an issue at academies.

My DD never experienced this, but a local friend said her DC's school did the same to cut out bad behaviour. I am not sure 30 mins is enough to eat lunch and do any lunchtime clubs, so I assume clubs just cease to be.

DD does several lunchtime clubs including language twilight classes. Her lunch break is a smidge over an hour and she says they still don't have time, the year groups each have a day a week they get to go first. An early lunch pass if they have a club or choir etc is like gold dust, they have to have a photograph on it! It would be a shame to miss out on friendship time and occasional club time.

Erm... I'm in year 8 and have 20 minutes. Whats the problem here? If your kid can't eat in 30 minutes it's not the schools fault

lol. We had 35 minute breaks in the '80s. It was plenty.

Our school has an hour. 30 mins to eat and then 30 mins for choir / orchestra / sport club. When will these schools do their clubs?

I had five minutes to eat a full tub of gravel and then lick road clean wit' tongue. Luxury.

, Storm.

Though I have read that a number of schools in the US have cut it to 15 mins. How is that even possible?

Smaller tubs of gravel.