Changes to Lunchtimes - 1 July 2019

We are delighted to announce that arrangements for lunchtimes have been brought forward to begin Monday 1 July, rather than waiting until September. We are very grateful to our Robertson FM catering team for their willingness and organisation behind the scenes to enable this change to happen so quickly.

Lunchtimes are now ‘split’ so that whilst students still have the same length lunchtime, ie 30 minutes, these take place at different times depending on the year group. Whilst some years are on lunch, other years are in their Period 4 lesson.

The changes were discussed with Student Council last week, and wholeheartedly welcomed. As a result of the changes, queuing times have been reduced considerably, to around 7 minute maximum, meaning students have much more time to spend socialising with their friends. Lunchtimes are much less crowded, and for the first time students are now able to sit, eat, chat, read, sketch at dinner tables for the whole of lunch if they would like, rather than feeling obliged to eat quickly to create space for others to eat. Robertsons have reported a huge increase in the number of meals being eaten by students, meaning more have the right diet to keep learning effectively right to the end of the school day.

As lessons are now continuing during lunchtime, less staff are available for lunchtime supervision, so the outside area for students at lunchtime is now the central yard only. We have having landscaping work done over the summer to allow more grass areas for students to sit on, with a view to moving the fence back slightly to allow more access to field space all year around. We are hopefully students will enjoy these new arrangements. Certainly feedback has been very positive already.

Further improvements to lunch arrangements will be made over the coming months, with information appearing on our new website when it goes live.