Five minutes to eat school dinner?

sarabande

Maybe there was only five/10minutes left of lunchtime or before the dinner halls had to be tidied?

meritaten

the teachers have no contact with the kids during lunch hour - why would you think they do? thats why they employ dinner ladies and supervisors. I would very much doubt any teacher would know what went on at lunch time.

mum2one

I would ask the office first, as they will know the routine for the lunch, it could be due to numbers allowed in the area at the one time, but if there is a dinner lady standing over thats def bad pratice.

If you get no satisfaction, I would then ask to speak to the head, at the end of the day they are in charge of the school, and are responsible for what happens at the school and the actions of the staff, whether that is a teacher or someone contracted to work within the school.

As for the govenerors, the general process is through the school, then no satisfaction then write to the chair of govenerors, but (again this depends on the school etc), we only have termly meetings at our primary school, where all the govenerors attend, there are seperate sub commities, I know some schools the chair of govenerors will work with the head on a regular basis, but if you can get it sorted lower down the chain of command you should get it sorted quicker.
Good luck

pigpen

Our school take my 6 year old in to eat her lunch as one of the first as she regularly sits for 45 minutes eating her lunch.. she does everything so terribly slowly.. they simply cannot rush her.. in 5 minutes he might have had 2 forks of food.. there would be hell to pay.. the children must all have terrible belly ache

Id ask the class teacher what the policy is and kick off from there if needs be!!

JC9297

meritaten wrote: »

the teachers have no contact with the kids during lunch hour - why would you think they do? thats why they employ dinner ladies and supervisors. I would very much doubt any teacher would know what went on at lunch time.

The teacher probably is not aware that the class are only getting 5 minutes to eat but he/she will be able to find out what is going on, the teacher will want the children to have eaten properly so that they can function in the afternoon.

gratefulforhelp_2

milliebear00001 wrote: »

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

No it's not bizarre. If the OP wishes to complain about a policy (as it sounded like she might wish to originally) an appropriate way to complain/or enquire about policy is to contact chair of governors (part of the school leadership).

I am a secondary teacher, a parent, and a primary school governor.

moomoomama27

Ask at the office, or a dinner lady, because the class teacher probably won't know.

Before you go all guns blazing, go diplomatically, what a 10 yr olds interpretation of 5 mins could infact be 10 or 15 minutes. Not saying you child is lying, but sometimes they can't be all that reliable! I work in a school, and yesterday one of the pupils told me the bathroom was flooded, hen infact there was a small water puddle from the sink!

mrs_marty

I would speak to the class teacher in the first instance. Our primary school lunch is split small ones 12.10 - 1.10 then older 12.30 - 1.30. Not just for space in the lunch hall but for playground safety too. The P7 eat theirs in the class room as there is simply no room. Our school also has a traffic light system where by no one is to leave the table when on red all children are free to leave the table when on green as to encourage them to eat all their lunch, so to set 5 minute eating rule is crazy!

sunshinetours

Amzing how some people want a battle at every occassion. As millebear says just ask her teacher. Could be she is out playing and ends up rushing on for food, could a million and one reasons but i am sure a quick word with class teacher or head if a small school and an active head and all will settle down. Probably teething problems on new term

I could never be a teacher or head teacher as dealing with some of parents "issues" would drive me nuts" hope you get is sorted OP as clearly 5 m,inutes whatever the reason isn't long enough

moomoomama27

mrs_marty wrote: »

I would speak to the class teacher in the first instance. !

There really is no point, most class teachers have nothing to do with lunchtimes, that's when they get their break! It would be best to ring the school office and speak with them, as they do the lunch rotas!