Five minutes to eat school dinner?

katrina1981

Hi

My daughter has just gone into year five at her primary school, it has always been a problem as the dinner hall is small, but now they only have five minutes to eat a packed lunch with a dinner lady counting down the minutes :mad:

Now I plan to see the head when you can eventually get an appointment with her, just wondered if anyone knew any guidelines on amount of time to eat?

Thanks

thunderbird

Have you been formally told of these new rules or is this what your daughter has told you?

If the latter, then I would call the school to confirm what the actual rules now are and then take it from there. Can't you phone up and ask to speak to the head/ask them to call you back?

gunsandbanjos

I would be very unhappy if that was the case. However as the previous poster said i would clarify the exact times with the school.

My daughter wouldnt get anything eaten if she only got 5 minutes, she eats sooooo slowly.

katrina1981

Hi there, no I have not been told of these rules only by my daughter, however my 10 year old is very wise and is quite upset by it all, I will definitely be phoning up to ask but she is a very hard lady to get hold off as she is the headteacher of two schools.

Thanks for your reply.

Edited to add, although only second day of term, today and yesterday she was told upon entering with her year group, 5 minutes left children. Will definitely speak with someone at school just to clarify eating time, but just venting really lol!

*max*

Yes, definitely confirm it with the school before you do anything. If it's true though, it's completely ridiculous! It takes me much longer than that to drink a cup of coffee, nevermind eat lunch.

toshkininny

why is it only 5 minutes to eat? Do they not stagger the children into lunch.

onlyroz

toshkininny wrote: »

why is it only 5 minutes to eat? Do they not stagger the children into lunch.

At my secondary school there was 50 minutes to get all 2000 pupils through lunch. Packed lunch children went into one of the classrooms and had as long as they wanted. School dinner children were farmed off into the two main restaurants, and two smaller ones, in "sittings" of 15 minutes each. It was all run with military precision and I don't remember ever having to rush my lunch (although the choice was a bit limited if you went last).

gratefulforhelp_2

I would write to the chair of governors and ask them to clarify for you.

katrina1981

Yes they do stagger the children going on, the little ones go in first, but apparently they have moved all the seating around, so the last year to go in has to wait for a seat to become available, which by then they have very little time. Will definitely clarify this with the school and will post an update.

It has always been a problem at this school purely because the hall is so small.


Thanks

lostinrates

If its a packed lunch would they not be better eating at their desks/in the playground if its not raining? I know eating at desks would create a supervision problem but wolfing down food is surely not what we should be teaching children?

vax2002

If this is true the local press would be interested in this story and it is the best way to get things changed quickly.. they dont like it up em