Join hundreds of early years practitioners in the TES Early Years group. Find lesson ideas and inspiration, share best practice and get your questions answered by your peers.
upsadaisyI don't use the children's play time as a break, it is used for me to set up for the next lesson etc.
I'm not talking generally, but specifically to where I work. When I was in KS1 I didn't use a full break (if at all), but they are technically, non contact time. Teachers and TAs in our EY don't get a morning break at all.
In our nursery we have around 40 minutes non-contact time a day which is our lunch break. We just put up with it to be honest but it would be lovely to have an hour lunch as we spend generally 10-15 minutes tidying and setting up then have the remainder to eat lunch, go to the loo and have a cup of tea. I think reception work slightly differently and the teachers take it in turns to have a ten minute tea and toilet break in the morning so perhaps that's an option?
I am a reception teacher and we get a ten minute break in the morning, which I rarely take as there is so much to do and things happen which need sorting. My TAs (full time and the 1:1 I give the same ten minutes, but I am not sure what they are suppose to have. We start at 8.40am and finish for lunch at 12noon and start again at 1.10pm. I usually get half an hour for lunch. We do not have break time with the rest of the school or go to assembly, except Friday afternoons. I think it is ridiculous that we run ourselves so ragged, I am thoroughly exhausted Friday nights and take most of the weekend to recover. None of my friends, who are not teachers cannot understand how or why we work like this. They cant believe the hours I do each day. No wonder so many teachers leave or are burnt out. Its madness for us and the children. Making me reconsider what I am going to do for the rest of my life. I am 43 years old and I cannot imagine working like this for the next 25 years. Early grave!! I love the children but honestly! We need to make big changes to the whole early years provision. And as for eating your lunch on your own, how awful!
Staff in the nursery I work start at 8am, get 15mins break in the morning and 15mins in the afternoon. Nursery closes at 6pm. Non contact time? Yeah right...
Our FS staff don't get a break apart from lunch but then neither do our KS1 staff
We don't get a lunch break as that is the time when the children need attention the most.
Top of page