should school dinner ladies entertain the kids??

daska

bonjovibel_729 wrote: »

hi thanks think i got confused they are not dinner ladies as in they serve the food just that they supervise the children in the classroom when its wet and outside when its dry

I think I'd be wanting to know a bit more as well. My first question to the class teacher would be is s/he aware? Then why? They why the different treatment for other classes? It could be a misunderstanding. It could be that there is a specific reason that is or isn't valid. It could be that this is what they do if the class behaviour gets too rowdy. You need to talk with the teacher first.

bonjovibel_729

have talked to the headteacher and she was not aware this was happening and at first denied it but as the other dinner ladies in other classes have told me knew it was......this was before xmas and its still happening

daska

Then presumably the Head thinks it shouldn't be happening. So you need to go back to the Head, tell her it's still happening and ask what she's doing to ensure it's stopped. You're not actually being very clear as to what you've done already and what the responses have been!

bonjovibel_729

went to skool before xmas and made them aware then sgain a few weeks later...the response was denial at first then acknowledgement it was happening and they were gonna try and get them active during lunch but now my son comes home and says they still doin it

shebangs

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dizziblonde

What sometimes get called dinnerladies also tend to be called midday supervisors - which it sounds like these are, and do rotaed bits between serving/supervising dinner halls and outside/inside playtime. In any school I've been in (and I'm supply so I get in a fair few) - they're expected to at the very LEAST be supervising and engaging with the kids if they're on the outdoor rota (which moves indoors when it's wet play), and most schools have them being very pro-active particularly with the little ones - we used to have an old-time playground game of the week they'd be running among the kids (in an attempt to teach them some new ways to amuse themselves and widen the range of games they were playing on the playground).

Always tended to be they got a bit lazier when things moved inside though and basically would literally just supervise whatever that particular class were allowed to use for wet-playtime (varies slightly - some teachers have huge mounds of wet-play colouring sheets, some teachers have games that had walked into school from when their own children had finished with them etc etc), get them tidied up before the end of playtime and normally when the teaching staff return (thank God no clown's started on the "teachers shouldn't have lunchbreaks crap yet") they've got them sat on the carpet doing stories or songs or daft games ready to take the register just as the bell goes.

Some schools do things like having set classrooms for set types of activities, so one room might have a DVD on, one might have colouring, one might have Lego out and similar and one might be planet Top Trumps - depends on the staff available what they do but sitting passively for 30 minutes - nope no way. Most of them I know are fantastic and genuinely do enjoy spending time with the kids - but there are a few who DO tend to regress to standing in a huddle having a chat staring at the playground -and usually heads are trying to clamp down on that anyway.

As for teaching staff on breaktimes - normally I spend most of a yard duty starting off the peeling of a million satsumas, oranges and bananas! "Easy Peel" is a lie.

thegirlintheattic

The midday supervisors should be doing just that - supervising the kids. At 'wet play' they need to do this whilst the kids play in classrooms/a hall. They don't need to 'entertain' the kids but they should make sure that there is something to entertain the kids - be that toys, a film, coloring, each other.

Teachers do not supervise at lunchtimes anymore - only breaktimes and this often means there isn't the staff at lunch to have all the classrooms open.

mirrorimage0

19lottie82 wrote: »

They are "dinner" ladies, not "playtime" ladies. It is not their job to entertain the kids, it's theri job to cook for them. As long as they are doing this then I don't see how you can call them lazy.

Maybe the kids need to learn how to entertain themselves.

dinner ladies do not cook for the kids. the local council employ cooks for the kitchens.

dinner ladies are there to make sure there is order in the dining hall and playground, to supervise and help the children

balletshoes

bonjovibel_729 wrote: »

hiya was just wondering the above as if it is raining in my sons infant/junior school they have their lunch then the rest of the lunch around about half an hr the dinner ladies make the children sit in the little cwtch area they call it.....its a square of the classroom about a metre and half wide and 2 metres long and just leave them to sit there doin nothing until the bell rings. this area is right next to the door and only has lino on the floor where they sit.....several of the dinner ladies have made my husband aware they are doin this as they work with my husband in their second job but none of them are prepared to do anything to stop it as they dont want to get involved and 'risk' their job so to speak..have complained to the school before xmas and it is still happening.........
just wondered if this wazs how other schools did it
or is it just a case of having lazy dinner ladies who cant be bothered to do anything with the kids??

I'm pretty sure the dinner ladies at my DDs school are there to serve and help with providing lunch, they are not there to entertain the kids. On days when the weather is too bad for the kids to go outside and play after they've had their lunch they go to their classrooms. The playground supervisory staff go into the classrooms with them, no dinner ladies involved.

JC9297

I think the OP means lunchtime supervisors, when I was at school we called them all dinner ladies but now that term would only be used for the kitchen staff. In my school lunchtime supervisors work either in the lunch hall or out on the playground, on a rota system.
If it is wet play the children go into their classrooms, each class knows what they are allowed to play with/use e.g. toys, puzzles, books etc., some class teachers let the children use computers/felt pens/scissors/glue, some don't. One lunchtime supervisor usually covers a year group i.e two classes next to each other.
The situation the OP describes sounds totally unacceptable to me and I would be speaking to the school about it, the children should have access to things to occupy them.