should school dinner ladies entertain the kids??

rosalie-lavender

JC9297 wrote: »

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.

This is pretty much how it is run in the school I work in. On a wet play the children go to their classrooms and the lunchtime supervisors generally supervise and make sure they are occupied and safe. We also have a bit of help from some monitors from year 6 who on the whole do a fantastic job. Each class has their own wet play equipment that they can use.

The teachers don't supervise at lunchtimes and as far as I am concerned that is the job of the lunchtime staff. I firmly believe they need a break and would only call a teacher out of the staff room for something really important that couldn't wait.

I would not be at all happy to be expected to huddle the children onto cold lino or to have my children treated like that.

milliebear00001

These are 'lunchtime supervisers', as distinct from dinner staff who might cook and serve. Each classroom should have at least one of their own. At lunctime play, if it is raining, the supervisers would be in the classroom with the children and should make sure they are 'occupied' - that is, board games, drawing etc, and make sure they are safe.

This is one of the few areas where it is worth going directly to the Head. teaching staff have nothing at all to do with lunchtimes, and the class teacher is unlikely to know what is going on. It is certainly not in the teacher's interest to regain 30 children after lunch who have been made to sit still for half an hour!

As an aside, technically teachers are not employed at lunchtimes and do not even have to be in school.

busiscoming2

I have been a lunch time supervisor (and as has been said, it's a completely different job from the dinner ladies that cook/serve the food).

The first school I worked in was a large junior school and wet lunch times meant the children ate their lunch in the canteen and then went back to class to play with puzzles and drawing etc. There was one supervisor who was responsible for two classes.
The second is a small school and wet play is spent in the hall with toys, games and more recently a dvd player.
I would not be happy as either a parent or supervisor knowing the children were being made to sit still with nothing to do.
As an aside, teachers are not usually around at lunchtime, unless there is an emergency.
The supervisors role is becoming more geared towards 'play leaders' these days.

cutestkids

At our primary school wet playtimes are spent in the classroom with access to drawing and colouring materials, things like lego bricks, brio trains and cars, board games and puzzles etc for the younger kids, they can also read.

The older ones are able to play on the computers (supervised) or read draw, board games etc, there are also DVD players and they may often watch a film over a period of a few wet days.

Also the school has a system where the older kids age 10-12 can go into the younger classrooms and arrange activities, games etc with the youngers kids and make sure that no child is left out, this system also works well in the playground, they call it the buddy system and it helps kids with organizational skills etc.

The classroom assistants and the school janitor work a rota for break supervising.

There are no extra stafff employed just for lunch breaks but this may be because most of the classroom assistants etc are part time so work either 9 -1 or 12-3 so don't actually take a full luch break themselves.

lilputuk

Hi I am a dinner Lady or Midday Assistant whatever you want to call it!
When we have wet play the children are allowed to play board games or draw or read etc or just talk with their friends. The only thing they are not allowed to do is run around. There are only 2 of us between 3 classes but they are easy enough to supervise if not a little(?) noisy. i would keep going in and speaking to your child teacher about this. Maybe you could arrange some fund raising activities to buy the children some board games etc so they have stuff to do?
Hope this helps

MERFE

At my kids primary school, during wet play they do arts and crafts, watch dvds, read and play games. I think mine enjoy wet play more because they come home with allsorts of tales of what they did. They are 5 and 6 so in the younger bit.

Reggie_Rebel

bonjovibel_729 wrote: »

btw the teachers are not present in the classrooms at lunchtime hence the two dinner ladies looking after htem

You sure about that? Most of the teaching appeasers on here would have you believe that all teachers are on site twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, fifty two weeks a year and all for a Mars bar and a bottle of Ribena

flora48

Pity the teachers trying to teach childfren that have had no opportunity to move or play. All that pent up energy will ruin the afternoon lessons.

dizziblonde

flora48 wrote: »

Pity the teachers trying to teach childfren that have had no opportunity to move or play. All that pent up energy will ruin the afternoon lessons.

Sadly, although teachers get held accountable for everything these days - the weather ain't one you can pin on them and wet playtimes are crap - the kids are off the wall by the afternoon, the classroom looks like a small tornado's hit it and we hate it too.