Five minutes to eat school dinner?

meritaten

That is not on! they give you more time to eat your meal in prison! why cant the packed lunch group eat in a classroom? there is no reason why the mess cant be cleared up during the lunch hour.

wantnomoneyworries

Its a shame we spend so much time trying to get our children to eat sensibly and enjoy their food. This sort of defeats the whole object!!

kingfisherblue

I agree that five minutes is too little time to sit and eat lunch, but I also agree that this should be clarified with the class teacher rather than the head first.

I have a child who eats very slowly, due to a medical condition. In the last school year, he was eating more and more quickly, to keep up with his friends and because there are two sittings in his school during the lunch break. His medical condition has worsened and he now needs minor surgery (which might have happened at some point anyway). I have written a note to the school to explain that he needs to be encouraged to eat very slowly, drink plenty, and that his food needs cutting into very small pieces (he is in a special school due to the extent of his disabilities). When this doesn't happen, he is more likely to vomit, which is damaging his oesophagus 9despite various medications to try to prevent vomiting and reflux). Hopefully, my son will now be allowed enough time to eat at his own pace.

OP - good luck, I hope it is a start of term blip that is easily sorted.

HappyMJ

I don't have a medical problem and I couldn't eat a balanced packed lunch in 5 minutes. I would be sick if I shoved it all in that quick. I'm assuming a packed lunch would be a sandwich, piece of cheese or pot of yoghurt, and a piece of fruit and a drink as advised on nhs choices website. http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/childhealth6-15/Pages/Lighterlunchboxes.aspx

Buttonmoons

5 minutes!! Wow, my daughter eats ridiculously slow (unless its sweets!!) and probably takes her about 15-20minutes to eat a small sandwich, frube, few strawberries and her drink.

milliebear00001

Why would you need to approach the Head (or even more bizarrely as some have suggested, the Governors/local paper!?)

When you drop off/pick up, pop down to the office and ask them how long the last sitting are getting for lunch. Even if the secretary doesn't have the rota to hand, she can get whoever needs to, to give you a quick call back.

I teach in a primary school and it would be pointless asking me anything about lunch - I have no idea what happens at lunchtime at all! I could though, find out for you (but I would probably only ask at the office myself!)

katrina1981

Hi all

I have calmed a little now and will approach her teacher first.

Happy MJ she had a sandwich, innocent smoothie, a yoghurt, a cheesy snack thing, and eeek! a mini sausage roll

meritaten

seems plain to me - ask the dinner ladies! the teachers are on their OWN lunch break and have no idea what is happening with the kids. but the head should know!

katrina1981

meritaten wrote: »

seems plain to me - ask the dinner ladies! the teachers are on their OWN lunch break and have no idea what is happening with the kids. but the head should know!

Hi, not sure how I would approach the dinner ladies, don't they only work an hour a day?, see that's why I thought to ask the head, as a previous poster said the teachers are on lunch, mind you I bet they have more than 5 mins to eat and don't have a voice counting down the minutes lol

KateBob

I can't imagine this is either safe (choking hazard of bolting food) or productive (hungry children don't concentrate or work well).

I would probably approach the class teacher first as she may be able to give you more information, and I would do so calmly (even the most sensible child can get things mixed up).

But if this has really happened on more than one day I would seriously consider a strong complaint to both the LEA and governors as making children eat so fast/go hungry could be considered abusive.