Working late and staff meals

mdj101

Free Member
Mar 10, 2008
277
33
Hi There.

My wife is a teacher. She's been asked to work till 7:30 this evening so new parent can come and look around the school and speak to the teachers.

She won't be able to come home to eat dinner before hand.

Is the school at liberty to pay for a meal?

She's been there since 7:30 this morning.
 
Is the school at liberty to pay for a meal?
Has she asked them to pay for food?

Is this a short notice thing? Did your wife only find out today that she needed to stay late? Could you bring her dinner to the school?
 
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Hi There.

My wife is a teacher. She's been asked to work till 7:30 this evening so new parent can come and look around the school and speak to the teachers.

She won't be able to come home to eat dinner before hand.

Is the school at liberty to pay for a meal?

She's been there since 7:30 this morning.

It is normal for some sort of meal allowance in such circumstances but whether the school are obliged to offer this I couldn't say? If it was a regular occurrence I would expect some formal arrangement to be in place but, for a one-off event, it's probably one of those cases where if you don't ask you don't get?
 
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If she's under the standard teacher conditions, yes, under condition 26.1 c or d (I believe but I might be wrong) but she should get it agreed beforehand and should not be being asked on the day required.
Why on earth is it necessary? If a parent wants to see a school out of reasonable working hours, then it should be leadership's responsibility to sell it not be asking teachers to stay behind for a couple of hours on the day - that's unreasonable and it is not, imho, enhancing anyone's learning which is the purpose of 'whatever hours may be necessary'. My schools always put on a meal if we were doing a twilight session and those sessions were always planned at least a half-term ahead so we could organise our lives. If she's on leadership points, she might not have a choice but if she's just mainscale, I think I'd be coming home... I don't teach nowadays!
 
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If she's public sector- tell the head to take a running jump. They need her more than she needs them.Any parent wanting to visit a state school at those house should be told to get real.

If she's at a well paid private school, and the President of some African dictatorship is demanding to walk round at 19:30, she may have to suck it up.
 
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Many schools appear to run a selling day once or twice a year, selling the school to parents of prospective students.
Daytime and evening events and opportunity to meet the staff.
My local infant & junior school does it such the staff aren't all there in daytime and evening. So some get a break then come in for the evening shift.
 
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I dont know if such circumstances are defined in her contract. If she has daily allowances for meals than they should also cover these circumstances. If not, she might also ask her superior if they are going to cover expenses for this sort of additional work
 
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My partner is a teacher at a local comprehensive and they never get meals supplied when they have to stay late after school hours for anything. If its a parents evening there is generally a time left free to allow them to get something. When they have parent visits like the OP was mentioning they get time to get something. The staffroom generally smells of takeaways or ready meals so the school tour generally misses that out. Saying that the school also uses years 12 and 13 as tour guides.
 
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If my staff have ever had to work late because i asked them i would buy them something to eat, dont know if have to but if staff willing to work late i think you should get them something.
 
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Is this mumsnet or uk business forum.

My most effective advice would be to kneel down to talk to a little person .You can look them in the eye and the message is understood clearer and it is better to both be on the same level

Sadly the usual suspects on here with their age related health challenges may not be able to get up again :eek:
 
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My most effective advice would be to kneel down to talk to a little person .You can look them in the eye and the message is understood clearer and it is better to both be on the same level

I had a boss once who was inflicted with a severe case of short man syndrome. In retrospect, that may have been worth a go?
 
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Hi There.

My wife is a teacher. She's been asked to work till 7:30 this evening so new parent can come and look around the school and speak to the teachers.

She won't be able to come home to eat dinner before hand.

Is the school at liberty to pay for a meal?

She's been there since 7:30 this morning.

If they are keeping her longer than usual hour, they should provide meal.
 
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In schools and colleges, I've never known food to be provided unless a HoD paid for it out of their own pocket. Contracts generally are you don whatever is needed, time wise, hence why marking into the early hours on or off premises is not paid for either.

My wife works for the NHS, she is contracted till 6pm, most days she leaves off between 6.30 and 8, with the hours to be taken as TOIL, but there's never a possibility of having a week off - it has to be taken in odd days here and there. Union not interested. Life sucks for professionals. If you want rigidity, get a different job. Day before yesterday I left home at 9am, got into bed at 2.30am - all for a day rate. no breaks, no nipping to the loo - but as much tea and coffee as I wanted.
 
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I'm of an age where the Ethiopian famine filled the news everyday...I'm sure Sir Trevor would have shunted that down to the "and finally" section if he'd known of this travesty!!
 
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