Supervision in Primary school

kerryparent

I have a question regarding supervision during breaks at large primary schools.

I am worried about the level of supervision (or absence of it) of especially my youngest in senior infants. My children attend a school with about 700 pupils. At break time (there are 2) the juniors go to the yard for 15 minutes. There are 3 junior classes "supervised" by 3 techers (the teachers are chatting together keeping their eyes on each other). The remaining 15 minutes of the break is spent eating in the class.

One of the 2 breaks children are supervised by the teachers when they're eating in class, but during the other break there is only a teacher popping her head in once if at all (the classroom door of the 6 junior classes are kept closed while the teachers are out in the hallway).
According to the school it is impossible to supervise classes during lunch break since the school is too big to arrange supervision in each classroom. Therefore I'd like to know if anyone else has a child in a big primary school (like 3 of each classes) where supervision is arranged?

Basically I'd like to know whether it is really impossible to arrange supervision or if my children's school just couldn't be bothered? Thanks

Meet with the principal and ask him/her. If the answer is not to your liking then homeschooling may be a better option. Alternatively ring around local schools and ask how they arrange it and if it is more suitable move your child to that school. Asking on here is not going to be of any great help as some will have more some less supervision and a lot of parents won’t know what actually happens so it will just often turn into teacher bashing. I can see your concern but I’m sure you do not supervise your own child 100% of the time (as in be in the same room watching 24/7) so you will have to think how to approach this for the best for all. It is a grey area so all schools will be doing something different.

wirelessdude01

I have worked in plenty of schools and that sounds about right. One school I worked in the part of yard that I supervised had approx 170/180 children in it. For wet days that meant you supervised 6 classrooms. Can't be in six places at once.

byhookorbycrook

As teachers are entitled to lunch breaks too , it isn’t possible to have a teacher in every single room . If your child is eating and seated , the supervision needed is different to that in an open yard .

The Wordress

I'd be sure that in a school of 700 pupils that there would be SNAs in some of the classrooms too which would help the adult:pupil ratio.

Legally, teachers are as entitled to a break as every other worker.

15mins for every 4.5 hours worked + 30 mins if over 6 hours.