Do you have a staffroom?

[CrinklyCraggy]

As with many schools we are desperately short of space. There is talk of converting the staffroom to intervention rooms, with just a small kitchen for staff to make a drink etc

Head says staff will eat in their classrooms and many prefer this (although IME in the happier schools staff do eat together in the staffroom). She also says many academies are being built without a staffroom as a deliberate policy not to have staff plotting congregating. Is that your experience?

It may be OK for teachers, but lots of staff don't have a base as such and some e.g. office staff will never get a proper break if they're expected to eat at their desks.

Do schools/employers "have" to provide a break room?

We're a teeny tiny rural school and have a teeny tiny staffroom that we all crowd into. Very occasionally it's used for something like interviews and it does sometimes get used for interventions in class time but it's the heart of the school at lunchtimes and you end up speaking to people you'd maybe not go and sit in a classroom with otherwise. I think it's hugely important for morale and bringing the team together.

Unfortunately, in answer to your question I'm pretty certain there is no obligation of your employer to provide such a space. Just another thing that shows how low down on the list of priorities staff are in some schools though.

We have a staff room (which most staff were not allowed to use during covid). Few (are allowed to) use it for lunch, but it houses the photocopier, giant guillotine, microwave, washing machine, kettle and fridge, laptops, PE equipment. It is also used often for PPA time (multi-form entry, so all teachers in one phase get their PPA time together). It has been threatened that it could be turned into a classroom if needed. Don't know what they'd do with the copier though as we're not allowed to use the one in the office.

You're entitled to take your lunch rest break away from where you work:
www.gov.uk/rest-breaks-work/taking-breaks

It doesn't say whether the employer has to provide a suitable space, but
www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg293.PDF
says employers need to provide a suitable seating area for workers to use during breaks.

We have several academic mentors that don't have a "base" so they would have no where to eat. Can't say I would be impressed at having to eat in my classroom and no one in the office would stop working if they had to eat at their desks!

If staff are eating in their classrooms what happens in wet lunchtimes then?
Staff just don't get a break, leave school or sort of huddle in a corridor?
We're a single form entry primary school with two staff rooms. One with tables to sit and eat at, which does get used for interventions a lot outside of lunchtime and another with lots of sofas and a soft drinks fridge. The children are strictly banned from this one so staff have their own space.
Reading this thread, I don't think we appreciate that we're a bit spoilt really.

We've actually got two staffrooms. We've got one for working, where all the computers and resources are based, and one for "socialising", where the microwave and the fridge/freezer and all the tea and coffee live. It's also where you can find the sofas, if you need to chill out and have a nap...
There are no children allowed in the staffroom. We wouldn't have interventions there.

Most schools I've worked in have had a main staff room and then department offices/staffrooms.

Usually the main staffroom tends to be used by support staff and pastoral staff who don't have their own base, but that's mainly because now lunches are half an hour nobody has time to go across school for their lunch.
It does mean I've often felt in a little bubble, which is good when you have a nice department but a bit isolating when you don't.

Single form entry primary here. We have a staffroom where people will do their PPA and we have staff meetings. It’s got a dishwasher, teas/coffees, microwave and a big table. Occasionally interventions will happen there but that’s only if the intervention room is full and it’ll be something like reading or mopping up test papers.

During covid we had split lunchtimes so only about 3/4 people could be in at one time.

Everywhere I have ever worked has a staff room.

I know of a brand new school that was built near here (secondary) which didn't have a staffroom. Two years in, they had to rebuild / rearrange as they realised what a bad idea it was.

I've worked in both Primary and special, and it is true many of us work through the lunch break most of the time BUT, you still need a 'space' to sit - as a pp said, on wet dinner breaks, but also sometimes when you just need to flop for 10 mins. Plus all those staff that don't have their own classroom. I know COVID has made things weird, but, in normal life, you learn so much, and get so much help from colleagues through casual conversation in chatting in passing.

Useful links provided by @lanthanum

This is a REALLY bad suggestion by the SMT.

No other industry gets a staff room. Why do teachers? TAs are the only ones who actually use our staff room - the teachers are all in their classrooms marking/planning.

@DogsAndGin simply not true
At a passing thought of friends and family who are not teachers
Staff rooms ( sometimes with different names) across the NHS, in the prison service, at the local biscuit factory, for social workers, at the local co op, morrisons
Do i need to go on
It is standard for employers to provide somewhere for their staff to relax when not actually on duty.

@DogsAndGin

No other industry gets a staff room. Why do teachers? TAs are the only ones who actually use our staff room - the teachers are all in their classrooms marking/planning.

That's nonsense - almost all jobs I did before teaching had some sort of break room for staff. My husband's current job moved premises a few years ago and both the old and new destination had staff facilities.

@DogsAndGin that's nonsense I have worked in 3 completely different jobs before teaching and they ALL had a room or canteen style staff room, completely away from the work area to have a break.

One even had table football and comfy sofas!

The options at my secondary school are eat in the hall with 500 hundred other students or in your classroom dealing with corridor behaviour letting students come in to work, cry, talk etc. There is no where to get away for just 10 minutes and have a cup of tea and breath.

Where would support staff eat if staffroom isn't there? I've worked in lots of schools and there has always been a staffroom.

The reason schools have a staff room, is because the workplace is with children. The adults need to get away from children for short periods, in the same way nurses or doctors need space away from the patients.