The dining area and its impact on food consumption

The dining context differed from the serving context in that most o f its physical, temporal and social characteristics tended to influence each other rather than existing as discrete features. On the other hand, the two contexts were similar in that the children’s eating experience and their consumption behaviour were influenced by interactions between certain physical, temporal and social characteristics as was seen with the choice behaviours at the serving hatch.

6.4.2.1 Social actors within the dining area

In the dining area, ‘actors’ was the only category within Spradley’s Descriptive Question Matrix (1980) whose characteristics were not influenced by the others. As well as the children taking lunch, the actors included midday supervisors, teaching assistants, teachers, children acting as monitors, and, in one school, the caretaker and handyman. The dining area was one that catering staff could not, or would not, seek to influence:

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“Here it’s difficult because if you haven’t got midday supervisors out with them to encourage them to eat, because we can serve and if they don’t want anything we can say ‘Oh go on, try a bit of this’ and they say yes, but unless

there’s somebody out there” (Q1-02-C01)

“We’re not employed to be out in the hall as supervisors” (Q2-01-C01)

“The kitchen staff themselves find it very frustrating that they can’t have any influence beyond the servery. They are aware that meals they have cooked can just be thrown away and that a lack o f basic cutting skills can make it difficult

for small children”. (LEA-99)

Midday Supervisors

Midday supervisors were mostly female, although one school had a male midday supervisor who was also the caretaker. As with the catering staff, their ages varied, most described themselves as mothers or grandmothers, and many had several years’

service. Headteachers agreed that the role of midday supervisor was difficult to recruit, particularly in the higher socio-economic areas.

“It’s very difficult to get lunch time supervisors. Not only for this school but for other schools in this city but particularly here. People don’t want that kind of job. Some o f them come from outside the area but it’s very difficult to get.

We try and get the mothers, all of those we have at the moment are ex­

mothers or current mothers. That’s how we recruit. It’s seems that we recruit by twisting arms a little bit. It’s that difficult” (P01-SM1)

“It’s a huge issue in this area. I have a constant advert out, I’ve tried local shops. I’ve tried everywhere. I’ve tried the parishes and no-one wants to do it.

It’s an hour in the middle of the day. They’ve got enough money. It’s not worth them doing it and it’s a huge issue here. A huge issue. We are always

running chase our tail here” (Q1-02-SM1)

A possible consequence of this is that midday supervisors were perceived by some as a powerful group:

“The schools are frightened of a range of people who are key workers I suppose. So basically, the caretaker, the school secretary, the midday supervisors and the cleaners usually scare the pants off the schools. For some reason, I can never figure and have a real influence because when things go wrong in those quadrants it can really disturb the school day” (LEA-03)

“They’re there for an hour, hour and a half maximum, they need training as well which is a huge issue but you can’t force people to be trained can you

when there’s such a shortage” (Q2-01-SM1)

A comparison between the attributes o f catering staff and midday supervisors is illustrated in Table 22.

There is no legislation covering how many supervisors are required per child. An employee within the LEA recalled that the Welsh Office published guidance in 1994/96 stipulating that the supervisor:child ratio for juniors was 1:40 but could not recall what the ratio for infants was, other than that it would be lower, possibly 1:25- 30. Staff levels were based on local risk assessments and concerns for health and safety rather than concerns over health from a nutrition point o f view. Most schools were short staffed. For example, in one school, midday supervision was done by teaching assistants and the headteacher. Another had declined to participate since it had no supervisors and was relying on parent volunteers. A critical factor when setting staff levels was adequate supervision in the playground:

“We work on a ratio. We currently work on 6 or 7 depending on which day of the week it is. Some are part time and some are full time. There’s always an argument to have more. On a nice dry day we could get away with about 5 dinner ladies but when it’s wet play, that’s when it becomes really difficult.

We need supervision within the terrapin classrooms. If I could have another dinner lady we would employ one but as I already intimated, it’s difficult getting hold of people that are prepared to do this.” (P01-SM1)

“We’ve got 2 play areas and we need to make sure that both of those are

supervised adequately.” (Q3-02-SM1)

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Four schools catered for special needs children who had dedicated supervision, sometimes on a one-to-one basis.

Absenteeism exacerbated the problems resulting from recruitment issues but was largely ‘tolerated’ by the school management for fear of alienating staff. Nevertheless, it created problems for both headteachers and other supervisors22:

“Eight supervisors are used at present but realistically 6 would suffice. The additional two are to increase the likelihood that on any day, 6 will turn up for work. If supervisors do not turn up they do not get paid.” (Q3-03-SM1)

“There’s one dinner lady that only seems to turn up when she wants to and it used to throw the rotas and things out of the window. We did another rota including everybody, like what do you want to do, what do you want to do and we did it that way, but again, when dinner ladies don’t turn up, the rota goes out the window, we need to go where we are needed.” (Q4-Q2-S03)

Midday supervisors were employed by individual schools and it was rare for them to have a written job description or training (see Table 23 for a comparison with the job profile of catering staff). Previous training related to behaviour or playground management rather than dining hall activity and was arranged and paid for by schools who felt that they could not mandate attendance. Consequently, many supervisors relied on their experience as mothers whilst encouraging the children to eat:

Supervisor: “I’m a mother as well so it’s a motherly thing in me you know”.

Interviewer: “Yes. Do you think that it is your instincts that lead you to do what you do when you go round [the tables]?”

Supervisor: “Yes. I’m a mother of 3 children and I work with children.

You’ve got to make sure they eat. But if they don’t like it I make sure they have a dessert or eat a bit of it.The teachers’ll say, they’re quite good, they’ll say ‘oh you need

22 Prior to the adoption of telephone interviews, three midday supervisors who had agreed to face-to- face interviews were absent on the days of the observation.

to cut it up’ or, you know, but to me that just comes

natural.” (Q2-01-S01)

“I think all the little ones are the same aren’t they so if you can see what they’re like at home. You know, as far as my .little one goes, probably all his friends are the same so I would try and encourage them just to take something and try a little bit more and eat a little bit more of it”

(Q3-03-S01)

During observations, midday supervisors appeared marginalised from the main school in that they arrived and left promptly and almost unnoticed at the start and end of the lunchtime, often via rear entrances. They were also perceived as such by two of the three LEA managers that were interviewed:

“They’re out on a limb really and I’m sure if you sat down with a group of supervisors, they’d probably feel out on a limb. They’re not part of the school but they’re not part o f the kitchen” (LEA-02)

“They’re like wraiths aren’t they?” (LEA-03)

Some schools attempted to integrate supervisors by inviting them to attend lunchtime management meetings, special assemblies, school concerts, or possibly to sit on the school’s governing body.

“We all go in the staff room or one o f the other rooms and then the head and then we all sit down together and then she always asks how we are getting on, and the children and things like that. Any more ideas and yes,

we all talk together, yes” (Q1-02-S01)

“One is the parent-govemor. Actually, she is a bit different, she is also our caretaker. She’s caretaker and dinner supervisor, she comes in to hear children read as well. She’s veiy active. She’s head o f our PTA so she’s

very involved.” (Q4-02-SM1)

“I think before, they felt separate from the school and hopefully this involves them a bit more like fort example we leave the newsletter out there for them to pick up because if they haven’t got a child in the school, you

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want them to feel a part o f it, and the welcome board - they didn’t know what was going on in the school sometimes so we put the welcome board now which they can see which classes are out, who’s in” (Q1-02-SM1) In general, they seldom interacted with anyone but the children, except on playground duty where they often chatted to each other:

“I wouldn’t go out o f my way. I mean I talk to the girls in the playground but I wouldn’t go out of my way to go and see the head.” (Q2-02-S03) Some schools allocated supervisors to either infants or juniors, which meant they worked different hours. The pleasure most took from engaging with the children was noticeable and many spoke o f the desire to work with children as being their motivation for doing the job.

“I love being with the children. I’ve got to leave about half past 11 because I live in .... to get to work and I drive anyway so it’s OK, yeah, I think it’s

the children. I just like being there” (Q1-02-S01)

“They’re very loving and I just like being with them over there. The children are nice. I mean they all have their days but on the whole, they’re

pretty good” (Q2-02-S01)

Another com m on reason was the convenience of working patterns that suited family life, i.e. short hours and long holidays.

“It was easy for me because mine were small and were in school and I was

off with them” (Q2-02-S03)

“The convenience. I’ve got children in school so holidays I’m home, well the majority o f the holidays, there might be the odd inset day that I’m off or

my little boy isn’t or whatever.” (Q2-02-S04)

Teaching Staff

With respect to teaching staff, some headteachers actively engaged with lunchtime activities, others did not. There was usually a duty member o f staff overseeing the dining hall.

“I’m on lunchtime duty every day, sometimes it means I’m in the hall, sometimes it means I’m outside. Sometimes I’m dealing with behaviour

issues or children that have fallen over. But I’m on lunch time duty every

day” (Q2-01-SM1)

“I have 2 members o f staff that are also doing lunch time duty as a matter of course and that is just trying to keep the children safe basically”

(Q1-02-SM1) Other than the duty member o f staff, it was rare to see teachers in the dining hall unless they were collecting their own lunch, and even less common to see these teachers interacting with the children. Exceptions to this were teachers of the infants classes who would oversee their own class whilst they were being served. One school required teaching staff to supervise the children whilst they were eating.

Interviewer: If you had the maximum amount of supervisors would you still use teaching staff in the dining hall?

Headteacher: Yes

Interviewer: Do the staff accept that because they are almost sacrificing their own dinner time.

Headteacher: We tend to take reception children in ten minutes before, we lose ten minutes classroom teaching (Q2-01-SM1) However, these teachers tended to stand by the tables without much interaction, other than with each other. It was more common to see teaching assistants undertaking supervisory duties in the dining hall, especially in schools where there were special needs children.

“We do bump it up by using our teaching assistants as well and they support the children during lunch time as well and we do have quite a large number of children who’ve got special needs so if they’ve got a member of support staff that’s designated to them obviously they’re keeping an eye out on those children as well so there’s a lot more informal supervision going on as well as the formal midday supervisors role which is specifically for that. But part of that obviously, you’re basing that on goodwill of staff as well as a certain amount o f direction “ (Q3-02-SM1)

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Children as monitors

In some schools, children were used as monitors to assist with some of the supervisory duties. Tasks assigned to monitors included handing out cutlery and drinks, helping younger children to their seats or leading them out to the playground after eating.

“They look after the cutlery. They look after drinks, they also look after supervision and also supervise the children when they are scraping the food on their plates away. As the children get to year 6 we try to give them a bit more responsibility, it’s good training for them. It generally appeals to the year 6’s. They like to do that job. I think it sends all the right messages then for those children to help their friends, their young friends in school and also for the younger children to see the year 6’s behaving responsibly and perhaps something they’d aspire to when they get to year 6” (Q4-01-SM1) Their assistance often appeared critical to the smooth running o f lunch. Occasionally, children would volunteer to help with clearing up before going out to play.

“When I first started, there were dinner ladies that were seniors in their late sixties and seventies and they used to, out of their own pockets used to pay some o f the year 6 children to scrape the plates and then to help tidy up and she used to do that out o f her own pocket” (Q4-02-S02) 6A.2.2 Physical and temporal inter-relations within the dining hall

Many aspects of the space, objects and time periods in the dining hall influenced each other in that the physical accommodation, the objects within it and the length of the lunchtime were inter-dependant. The dining accommodation (i.e., the space) took many forms, the most common being a dual purpose hall which was used for teaching as well as dining, and shared by packed lunch and school meal children. One school had separate halls for infants and juniors. Another had a small, dedicated dining hall for school meals that was shared with a nearby school. Ten o f the schools displayed healthy eating/school meal promotional materials in the dining area, but only five displayed the daily menus.

The type of physical accommodation influenced the time available for eating. For schools with dual purpose dining halls, the times when it became available after morning teaching sessions and when it was required for afternoon teaching sessions

were strictly defined and placed stringent constraints on the time available for eating.

For one of the two schools sharing dining accommodation, only 30 minutes were available for eating to allow the dining hall to be available for the second school.

Lunchtimes (inclusive o f playtime) were set by the school and varied from 70-90 minutes for infants (mean = 74.5) and 40-60 minutes for juniors (mean = 54).

“That’s set by the school so presumably it would be discussed with the governors. If the school or the headteacher felt it needed to be altered for any reason then it would have to go through the governors. Any consultation then with the parents but also through, I’m not sure which department o f the Schools Service but it has to go through Schools Service, the school can’t just do it on their own. As Catering, we have a say in it then and at the moment because the trend seems to be that lunch hours are

reducing more and more”. (LEA-01)

Some headteachers reported that they had reduced the length of lunchtime, usually to restrict the length of playtime for behavioural reasons:

“That’s mainly for behaviour reasons. It was suggested, we had a sort of whole staff meeting to discuss ideas mainly for improvement of behaviour again and one suggestion was some o f the children are out there for a long time in the playground once they’ve eaten, is there any way we can cut that back and maybe take time off the end o f the school day.” (Q3-02-SM1)

Headteacher: At the moment we joined all the other schools in the area so we’re having a shorter lunchtime and we’re finishing at 3 o’clock rather than quarter past 3 and half past 3. We used to finish at half part 3 and have an hour and a half for lunch but the children became very bitchy towards each other by the end of the lunchtime.

Interviewer: In the playground?

Headteacher: Yes. So then we shortened it and then we shortened it again and now we’re sort o f in line with all the other schools in the area.

(Q4-02-SM1)

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Such reductions indirectly affected the time available for eating as there was pressure to render the dining hall available for the next teaching session. During most observations, the perception was that the children’s eating experience was rushed.

By virtue of the fact that most halls were dual purpose, the objects within them temporarily organised the physical space to facilitate the events associated with the particular time period. During lunchtime, all objects associated with teaching (e.g.

physical education or music equipment) were removed to the perimeter and replaced by the objects associated with eating (see Figure 14). Most schools used foldable tables on wheels with either 12 or 16 integral seats which allowed them to be quickly set up and removed after use.

Figure 14 A primary school dining hall

Only four schools had dedicated storage space for the folded tables, in others, they occupied the perimeter of the hall during the teaching period. Only two schools used conventional tables and separate chairs. All tables and chairs were child sized and could be wiped over. Some schools pre-laid the tables for the younger children with knives and forks and occasionally with drinks as well. One school used a tablecloth,

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once a week on a special table used to reward good eating behaviour. Receptacles for disposing of waste/dirty plates were variously on trolleys, tables or on the stage.

6.4.2.3 Physical and social inter-relations within the dining hall

6.4.2.3 Physical and social inter-relations within the dining hall