Calmer Dining Halls 2 – Dining Hall Values and Rules

Here are some questions to reflect upon:

• • • Do the children know how they should behave in the Dining Hall?   Yes/No

 

• • • Are your Dining Hall Rules on display so that you can remind them?  Yes/No

 

• • • Are you personally able to be a positive and calm role model in the Dining Hall  Yes/No

 

• • • Do you have time to praise children and regularly give out rewards to those children who are keeping the Dining Hall Rules? Yes / No

 

 

Sharing Values and Rules – Children and Adults Together

• Values are the broader beliefs we all share. An example of these are my Golden Rules – based on universal values.

We are gentle                          We don’t hurt others

We are kind and helpful          We don’t hurt anybody’s feelings

We listen                                  We don’t interrupt

We are honest                         We don’t cover up the truth

We work hard                          We don’t waste our own or other’s time

We look after property            We don’t waste or damage things

Schools often have their own values, for example,

Respect Yourself,

Respect Others,

Respect The Environment.

• The values should be displayed everywhere in the school so that adults can gently point to them and remind children how to behave.
• There are many ways to help and encourage the children to keep to the values and these are explained in Session 7 on Behaviour.

Dining Hall Rules

• Rules on the other hand are explicit, observable ways of behaving. By keeping to them, we are putting the values into action.
• The Dining Hall Rules help everything run smoothly.
• One way to do this is through ‘Thank You’ posters that tell the children what to do and encourage them.

 

Here is a copy of my Dining Hall Rules posters

 

Thank you for speaking quietly

Thank you for finishing your lunch today

Thank you for using good table manners

Thank you for trying some new food today

Thank you for cleaning your plate tidily

Thank you for lining up calmly

Thank you for keeping the table clean

Thank you for walking carefully

Thank you for being polite to everyone.

• A good idea is to have a focus on one of the rules for a week. This is called ‘Target of the Week’. The target is displayed on a board for everyone to see.
• The target is introduced in assembly. See the Top Tips below for how to make the system work.

 

What to do if children break the Dining Hall Rules

Research shows that withdrawing a privilege is most effective in incentivising children to behave well. If children break the Dining Hall Rules they need to receive a warning. If they continue to break the rules, then a good consequence could be to withdraw the privilege of sitting next to their friends or the children that they choose to sit next to.

 

Senior Manager Top Tips to Implement Dining Hall Rules

• Talk to the midday supervisors and decide which is the most important Dining Hall Rule that needs to happen. If there is too much noise, then the target is to be ‘We Speak Quietly In The Dining Hall’.
• The midday supervisors need to know what the Target Of The Week is – and what day this is being highlighted in assembly.
• You need a ‘Midday Supervisors Noticeboard’ which is easily accessible so that you can put this weeks news on it – including what the target of the week is.
• If the Target Of The Week for example is ‘Using Good Table Manners’, then it would be wonderful if we could create an assembly around this or a Circle Time role play for example.
• Parents need a copy of the Dining Hall Rules when they receive their Healthy Eating Policy when they first bring their children to school. See session ?
• Make it a tradition to start off every term with a refresher on the Schools Values / Golden Rules AND the Dining Halls and Playground Rules. Have it just before lunch or after lunch so we can invite the midday supervisors.
• In session ????? we talk about the rewards and consequences to back up the rules.
• To help promote them, would it be possible to offer a free school meal to teachers to join the children. Some schools have a Code of Honour for the teacher. She or he agrees to sit in the middle of the table with the children (no other teachers with them), interact positively which the children and use the same incentives that the midday supervisors are using to reward children who are making the right choices.
• Any adults who go into the dining hall need to reflect on whether they are modelling the good behaviour required.
• It’s important to speak gently and be good mannered with the children and to know what the rewards and consequences are.