School dinner times

sweetgirl2015

Sorry perhaps the wrong section but desperately need some advice if possible.

Our daughter is 5, and their alotted dinner break since covid has been cut to just 15 minutes.

Our daughter is a slow eater even at home, and shes not eating even a quarter of her meals at school which is deeply concerning, she comes home complaining shes hungry everyday.

We tried asking the school what can be done, and they just say each time, sorry we cant make special requirements for individual children.

Is this acceptable? Is 15 minutes normal to expect a 5 year old to eat their meals?

She takes anything up to half hour, 45 minutes at home.

What can we do? 

[Deleted User]

You could go down the formal complaints route of the school, you are entitled to ask for a copy of their complaints policy and procedure. I don’t know how far this will get you but it’s worth a go? 

Penguin_

Who have you asked in the school? Could it be worth asking the head teacher?

IvanOpinion

Should you maybe look to address why your child takes so long to eat a meal?  Is there possibly a medical issue?

Laz123

Maybe the school feels this is a family problem. None of my kids took this long to eat.

jon81uk

I also assume this is a covid thing? They have reduced the amount of time children can be indoors for?

I am often a slow eater and can still remember (30 years later) when I was in secondary school after half an hour being encouraged outside by dinner ladies.

But you might need to either hope things return more to normal as covid becomes less of an issue, or try to get your daughter to eat quicker, or see if you can talk to the school and get time elsewhere for her to eat outside maybe, if the issue is there is another group coming in to the room and covid?

MattMattMattUK

sweetgirl2015 said:

Sorry perhaps the wrong section but desperately need some advice if possible.

Our daughter is 5, and their alotted dinner break since covid has been cut to just 15 minutes.

Our daughter is a slow eater even at home, and shes not eating even a quarter of her meals at school which is deeply concerning, she comes home complaining shes hungry everyday.

We tried asking the school what can be done, and they just say each time, sorry we cant make special requirements for individual children.

Is this acceptable? Is 15 minutes normal to expect a 5 year old to eat their meals?

She takes anything up to half hour, 45 minutes at home.

What can we do? 

15 minutes is probably acceptable yes, 30-45 minutes is very slow for a packed lunch.  

Have you tried to establish where her slow eating comes from, eg. does it vary with foods she likes, vs foods she does not like but eats, is she slow with certain foods, some children will pick apart their sandwich, where as they will eat quicker if provided with the parts individually so they do not have to disassemble it first. I would however think that eating a meal that takes 30-45 minutes is something that is worth investigating. 

You might also find the benefit that if you raise it with a child nutritionist it becomes something which the school can then not ignore as they would be breaching their duty of care, but that might also involve some form of action plan.

daveyjp

Nothing new in my world.

Over ten years ago my daughter's primary reduced lunch sitting from 25 minutes to 15 when numbers increased from 150 to 350, with no additional dining facility provided.  This 15 minutes was for 60+ pupils to line up, get food, sit down and tidy away, time to eat was about 5 minutes.

It was unacceptable, parents weren't happy and a written formal complaint was made to school and Governors.  Changes were made to get it back to nearer 25 minutes.

jon81uk

daveyjp said:

Nothing new in my world.

Over ten years ago my daughter's primary reduced lunch sitting from 25 minutes to 15 when numbers increased from 150 to 350, with no additional dining facility provided.  This 15 minutes was for 60+ pupils to line up, get food, sit down and tidy away, time to eat was about 5 minutes.

It was unacceptable, parents weren't happy and a written formal complaint was made to school and Governors.  Changes were made to get it back to nearer 25 minutes.

But that is slightly different as its to get the food. The OPs daughter has a packed lunch so we can assume they are getting around the 15 minutes of actual eating time.

GeordieGeorge

I think that you need to work with your daughter to get her able to eat lunch in fifteen minutes. Explain to her that her slow eating is the reason that she’s getting hungry.

sheramber

You need to address why    she takes  longer than the rest of the class.

Is  she slow chewing and swallowing? Has that been checked? My sister had problems chewing meat as a child. It was thought she was just lazy until a dentist explained her back teeth do not meet. So she could not chew properly.  Decades later she still has the same problem.

Or is she distracted instead of concentrating on eating?