Provision for Pupils Who Have Packed Lunches
Provision for Pupils Who Have Packed Lunches
Dear Parents/Carers,
We have decided to stop having packed lunches outside for the 250 pupils who have them during lunchtime and return to using the hall and dining room for the final half term, due to a variety of reasons described below.
Health and Safety
It has become apparent over the holidays that, now we are in full summer, many birds roost in the trees that the children sit under to each their lunch. The amount of bird droppings on the new rubber flooring has become a concern and it is clearly not healthy for pupils to eat whilst sitting on this surface. We have jet washed the surfaces over the Whit holiday but as you can imagine, this problem will be a never-ending cycle of buildup and washing away of droppings. Sadly, we don’t have enough outdoor benches for all the pupils in KS2 who have packed lunches to sit at.
During very hot and sunny periods, it can be unsafe for the pupils to be outside in direct sunlight without sunscreen and a hat, so reducing the amount of time that they are outside in these conditions is beneficial in the long term.
Healthy Eating
When the children eat outside, we tend to see a pattern of behaviour where a significant number of the pupils do not sit down to eat but walk around or even play whilst trying to eat their packed lunch. This is clearly not the best practice for aiding children’s digestion and despite constant reminders, this situation continues.
In contrast to this, when the pupils sit down to eat in the hall and dining room, the way they eat is much more beneficial to aiding digestion and it also encourages better conversation and manners from the children whilst they are sitting down.
Behaviour
We have also noticed that a significant group of pupils find it harder to behave appropriately at lunchtime if they are outside for the full hour so the period of time spent eating sat down inside actually improves overall behaviour at lunchtime.
Litter
We find it much easier to control the amount of litter on the playground when the pupils eat inside as all the waste from their packed lunches can go in the inside bins. When they eat outside, despite bins being available, litter tends to end up spread over a wide area.
Yours sincerely,
Simon Langley,
Headteacher