Views & Opinion Why we should be concerned about lunchtimes
and school dining halls Comment by Jenny Mosley, author of "How to Create Calm Dining Halls"
“Lunchtimes are about an hour of the school day. The lessons may have ended but the learning continues…. The teaching of table manners and eating etiquette are part of the ‘hidden curriculum’ that goes on at lunchtime. Also…we have to be well organised and efficient to ensure that the issues of lunchtimes do not stretch into lesson time. Working closely with the dining hall and kitchen staff helps us to achieve this goal.” John Talbot, Headteacher, Smith’s Wood Primary Academy, Solihull I have been running training in schools for over 35 years now and can honestly say the most neglected area is often the dining hall system. The balance has now finally been tipped by Universal Infant Free School Meals and dining halls that once coped with demand now feel the pressure as older organisational systems creak under the strain. Many children don’t even know their own Dining Hall Rules and with Ofsted now about to inspect “the ambience”…
..the time is right for improvement.
The most common problems are; • overlong queues • too much noise
• Midday Supervisors (MDSAs) struggling to make themselves heard
• tables and floors that are very slippery and messy
• children not eating a healthy lunch or trying new foods and often slipping their food onto the floor when the MDSA’s back is turned so they can get out quickly to the playground
• senior staff having to spend lunchtimes directing queues and trouble shooting
• children returning to the afternoon class distressed, hungry, dehydrated or just lacking in energy
I passionately believe in a whole school approach to positive lunchtimes and was glad to see that the National Diet and Nutrition Survey made the same recommendation (Weichselbaum and Buttriss, 2014). The best way forward is to engage with MDSAs, teachers, the catering team, senior leadership, children and parents using checklists, questionnaires, circle time discussions and suggestion boxes - you will soon see what bothers people most! A small working party can then meet for at least four meetings a term to ‘Plan, Do and Review’.
Some ideas that definitely help are: • eventually move to recruiting TA’s who are happy to also cover lunchtime duties
• meanwhile recruit ‘Dining Hall Helpers’ from your fabulous children who love wearing aprons and skull caps while ensuring all children have water, handing round the bread basket when the children have finished their main meal, dishing out the salads and supervising correct procedure for scraping the waste • consider setting up a Golden Top Table Of The Week – dining hall staff then choose well-mannered children to sit at a gorgeous golden table (some schools even have candelabra) and invitations that these children can give out to adults to accompany them. The image of adults and children quietly chatting to each other with proper place mats and sparkly water and napkins can be very inspirational for some children who only ever have TV suppers
• check all your teachers are letting the children out on time for the dining hall and that your queues are not overlong, and that earlier that day all children were given visual images of what food they could choose so they can move more briskly through the catering counters.
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