EDUCATORS

I give my kids extra time to eat. That way they aren’t rushing out the door to play and not eating anything.

No one comments on the food. We tell kids to put uneaten food back in the lunchbox, not the bin.

2 equal size breaks of 40 mins (split into 10 mins, sit and eat and 30 mins play). Because the breaks are equal length, we don't police the lunchboxes here or encourage eating certain things first etc.

I feel kids should eat what they want in whichever order they like - there’s so much ‘control’ in a classroom - why do we need to add stress to eating time?! Parents are packing the lunches they want their kids to eat - so we teachers just need to back off and let them eat them!!

As a teacher I'd say these days 90% of children's lunches are balanced so for me it's easy, offer breaks and let the children decide what they need at that time of the day some eat more in morning others mid to arvo.

As far as I'm aware we don't have a policy on lunchboxes... We participate in crunch and sip but it is as an additional fruit/veg snack before recess. 

I have seen some teachers and EAs making kids eat sandwich first or finish it before play and others that do no policing. I personally don't police food but would always mention to a parent if their child was taking so long to eat that they were hardly playing.