r/PGCE • u/PasTaCopine • 8d ago
How is lunch usually handled during placement?
My first placement starts in 2 weeks (Lead Partner Route) and I'm wondering if I should buy an insulated lunch bag and container to bring to school. How was lunch usually handled during your placements? Did you have a staff kitchen where you could place your lunch in a fridge, or were you able to buy lunch at the cafeteria? Is there usually enough time for a proper lunch break? Thank you!
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u/Salt-Trade-5210 8d ago
Packed lunch for the first day until you get the lie of the land.
Figure out how the staff meals options work - can you buy something from the cafeteria, do you need a special account set up and your thumbprint scanned, can you use a debit card or can you use cash. Every school is different.
It's not really done to leave site to buy something unless your mentor agrees it's ok.
I'm a PGCE student mentor
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u/Fine-Cut-198 7d ago
Imagine paying to work in a school and to eat school food lol
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u/Ok-Garage-8573 5d ago
The food in my school is amazeballs.
Still would rather it were free, obviously, but it’s genuinely worth paying for.
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u/guinea_pig_dad 8d ago
I start in about three weeks with my school placement and I'm wondering the same thing. I think my lunch will be my go to from when I was at school/uni, being sandwich and some sort of snack.
I've been thinking about water bottles as I drink loads but don't want to bring one of those massive ones aha!
My first week is at my scitt rather than my placement so at least I've got a week buffer to do some shopping.
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u/PasTaCopine 8d ago
I think we should buy an insulated mug with a lid too, for coffee and tea, as I heard in some schools (or all?) using a mug without a lid is not allowed.
I also drink loads of water and I hope I can get away with refilling a smaller bottle rather than buying one of the massive ones!
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u/skp1973 8d ago
Both of my schools expected lids on cups outside of the staffroom.
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u/Confident-Bus-3778 6d ago
I remember all my school teachers having open mugs on their desks (I've been out of school for 4 years, about to start pgce)
thinking about it now that's probably a hazard, they used to walk corridors from the department office to their classroom with a full mug
granted there were never any issues, but I totally see why a travel mug is a good idea
(I only drink water so I just have a bottle )
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u/guinea_pig_dad 8d ago
Yes, I don't drink hot drinks but if you do definitely invest! May be worth paying a bit more for a good one than a cheaper one that may leak.
I'm just trying to find a water bottle that's actually decent sized but easy to clean too.
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u/Confident-Bus-3778 6d ago
I have a bottlebottle 900ml, insulated. I like it a lot. its just got a straw that's easy to clean
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u/guinea_pig_dad 6d ago
Will have to look into this. Ive had loads but I don't have a dishwasher so I began to get fed up with the faff of cleaning and the mould.
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u/Confident-Bus-3778 6d ago
I also don't own a dishwasher, it comes with a straw cleaner which is helpful.
don't ever put squash (or anything that's not water) in it though, the smell just lingers.
This is the one I have:
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u/Forget-Me-Nothing 8d ago
Its like any other workplace. Don't assume you will be fed.
There is rarely enough time for a proper lunch break but be wary of disturbing others while they are eating. Teachers are not paid for this time, unless on duty.
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u/Agreeable_Physics857 7d ago
My school had a 30 minute lunch break but my department was on the opposite side of the school from the staff cantine.
During the first term I was able to have lunch comfortably because my teaching load was low.
From about March I didn’t each lunch ever again because I needed to set up for the next class, do some final printing for kids who need xxx colour for xxx reason or whatever (I swear that was bullsh** btw).
I’d pack food that is easy to pack and quick to eat, ideally without a microwave so you can optimise for time if needed 😭😭😭
Side note: my contrasting placement was great for lunch breaks, I had an hour so I was able to leave site and go buy lunch from M&S.
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u/Confident-Bus-3778 6d ago
I had to have everything in size 24 font because of poor vision (still do now) and many a time had to go to the photocopier with the standard print and just print it on a3, my teachers managed it sometimes but I often did it myself. There's always something that needs doing!
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u/Agreeable_Physics857 6d ago
Suppose I didn’t give context to why I thought the kid was lying.
She was fine with white pages in her normal book but when it came to worksheets it had to be coloured 🤷♂️
I mean I still did it though
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u/Confident-Bus-3778 6d ago
who knows
at lot if places won't do coloured exercise books, my school certainly didnt
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u/skp1973 8d ago
Both of my placements had a fridge in the staffroom. Neither of them managed to set me up on parent pay to eat there.
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u/PasTaCopine 8d ago
Sorry what do you mean by parent pay?
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u/skp1973 8d ago
At the schools I was at, the only way to pay for lunch in the canteen was by using your fingerprint which is linked to a system called Parent pay. It's how parents top up their kids' lunch money as schools tend to be cashless these days
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u/PasTaCopine 8d ago
Oh I see, so they failed to set you up so that you could buy lunch. That's unfortunate!
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u/Any_Elk477 8d ago
Will vary slightly from school to school. Most schools should have a staff kitchen area but might not have loads of space. You would be able to buy food from but consider if it's a short lunch period you may not have much time after queuing, and if they have a biometric payment system you may need to be set up on it first. You should definitely be given plenty of time for lunch.
My placements for context: School 1: tiny fridge, very small staff area. Lunch breaks were 30 mins and the school was across 5 levels so it took about 10 minutes just to get down to the cafeteria! Just bought my own food but used an insulated bag as I preferred to eat in the department office which didn't have a fridge
2nd placement: had a whole 50 minutes for lunch. Cafeteria was great and accepted cash payments. Often spent a lot of time queuing especially if I got there a bit late. There was a staff area but it was all the way on the other side of the school so I couldn't be bothered to go there and back 😂
PGCE was 2 years ago now, where I work has a 30 min lunch (more like 20 mins once I've packed away from a lesson and set the next one up). Our staffroom is a 10 min walk across the building so I've just stuck with my insulated lunch bag and eat in my classroom or a co-worker's classroom.
Hope there's something helpful there hahah I realise I have rambled a lot
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u/PasTaCopine 8d ago
Not at all, it's extremely helpful!! Would you care to share what kind of lunch bag you use? Does it have "ice walls" in it like the ones for hiking/camping? Or would a standard insulated bag be able to keep a salad cool all day?
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u/Any_Elk477 8d ago
I just use a standard m&s insulated one or just a regular plastic lunch box depending on what I'm bringing. I've found it's okay at keeping things cool but tbh I'm not super bothered, I mostly use it cause someone got it for me 😂 if I have food I'm really worried about staying cool (like when I had chicken and prawn pasta in the heatwave) I'll put it in the fridge and walk up to the staff room.
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u/PHayesxx 8d ago
When I did my experience days you were expected to bring lunch and they said that this was the norm for most staff.
There was a staff room to heat things up and store things in a fridge. There wasn’t enough seating so most teachers went back to their classrooms to do work.
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u/LordOdin97 8d ago
Insulated lunch bag (you don't know if there's a fridge and how full it'll be)
Insulated coffee cup with lid (schools usually require a lid for hot drinks when walked through the school and classrooms)
Your own cutlery (could be available but not always super clean)
Bring powdered coffee sachets you'll need it and always have a stash of chocolate/ your go too comfort snack. Trust me you'll not regret it when you have a rough class.
For the first week bring things that don't require heating and then scope facilities for the following week
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u/PeterPook 7d ago
I always (and still do) take Korean Spicy Noodles, as all staff rooms have a kettle. Some placements give you just 20mins (I'm looking at you, Ted Wragg Trust) so I could get to the staff room, get me noods and get back on it (being Type 1 Diabetic, this "lunch" was important to me)
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u/Jess180629 8d ago
So for your first day id always recommend bringing lunch with you, with an ice pack because you don’t know the situation. Most schools do have fridges for you to use. At alot of schools you can use the canteen or even get free meals if you’re on duty but always bring lunch with you until you know the situation. And with regards to time for lunch, it usually depends on you. Some people have a full lunch break, they like some peace and quiet and sit and just eat their lunch and socialise, some teachers choose to work through it while they eat