Oaklands Junior School
Job Description
Designation:
Midday Meals Supervisor and Play Leader
Responsible to: Headteacher, Senior Supervisory Assistant, or designated
Officer.
Job Summary:
To work as part of a team to ensure the safety, welfare and good
conduct of pupils during the midday break, in accordance with the
whole school positive behaviour policy. To promote the lunch break as
an opportunity to extend the curriculum and make it a positive play
and learning experience.
Duties:




Duties will be allocated by the head teacher or his representative.
To notify the school office if any Play Leader is absent at the beginning
of a shift. In the event of one Play Leader being absent, cover will come
from the Play Leader on duty in the hall. (In the event of more than one Play Leader being absent then
refer to the School Office for advice.)
To know the staff duty list and the name of the member of staff on duty at the end of each shift.
To be responsible for the supervision of children in the following areas:
1. Dining hall and out door lunch area
2. Cloakrooms
3. Playground and playing field
4. Classrooms during wet lunchtime
On the playground and playing field –

To be a positive role model for the children by following the expected code of behaviour. To
remind children of, and implement, the rewards and sanctions adopted by the whole school.
 To interact with children building a positive and caring relationship with the children.
 To engage children in developmental play.
 To ensure the children’s safety by taking care of injured or unwell children, by passing them to a
qualified firstaider and notifying a responsible adult when going off duty.
 Hall  Assist the SSA’s in the supervision of children
 Supervise the clearing away of used cutlery, plates etc promoting children taking responsibility for
clearing away their own cutlery and plates sensibly
 Attend to spills and breakages
 Promote good manners and the whole school ethos.
 Classrooms during wet lunchtimes  To work as a team to ensure the safety of all children
 To be responsible for a designated landing and group of up to 4 classrooms
 To get to know the children in your care by name
 To engage children in purposeful activities and conversations
 When appropriate bell rings line children up and escort to the collection point to be met by the SSA
to be taken to the hall for lunch
 Reinforce the behaviour policy. Remove children who are a danger to themselves or others to the
SSA in the hall, to the teacher on duty or seek assistance from the head teacher or his
representative.
Oaklands Junior School
Job Description
Designation:
Senior Supervisory Assistant (SSA)
Responsible to: Headteacher, or his representative.
Purpose: To ensure the safety, welfare and good conduct of children during the
midday break, and to organise and manage the deployment of other midday
meals supervisors. To work in accordance with the practices and procedures
of the Local Authority and to implement the instructions of the Headteacher or
his representative, for the overall arrangements for the midday breaks.
Duties: (which will be allocated by the headteacher or his representative)

To be responsible to the Headteacher for the supervision of children throughout the school
during the designated midday break. [SSA’s may not leave the school site during this time,
without the permission of the Headteacher, and must be availabale for that period, to deal with
any problems that may arise.

To communicate the Headteacher’s instructions to the Midday Meals Supervisors and support
them in carrying out their duties.

To report any absences of Midday Meals Supervisors to the Headteacher. [It may be
necessary to rearrange the deployment of MMS duties to ensure the effective supervision of all
children during the midday break.

To oversee the supervision of all areas, both inside and outside the school building where
children gather during the midday break, and to organise and assist the team of MMS to
ensure that discipline is as effective as possible.

Ensure that satisfactory arrangements have been made to cope with any serious incidents and
to report such incidents to the Headteacher immediately.

Ensure school security regulations are upheld.

To specifically supervise the children in the dining hall in a manner that reinforces the ethos of
the school so that they eat their food within a social environment with due regard for good
behaviour and acceptable manners.

Colect [from the playground or field as appropriate] all packed lunch children once all school
dinner children have been served.

To eat their own lunch after all of the pupils have been seated.

Deal with any problems arising from unacceptable behaviour as outlined in the school Positive
Behaviour Policy.

Support MMS to implement the school Positive Behaviour Policy using where appropriate
Stage 1 or Stage 2. Where a MMS requires support to discipline a child giving serious cause
for concern to intervene and take appropriate action. [Children should never be left in the
entrance hall of the school as this is a public area. They should be supervised either in the
dining hall or a room in the school]

SSAs should make every effort to resolve any problems with children before the end of their
time in the dining hall. If this is not possible, the child should be supervised until the end of the
midday break or taken on to the playground by the SSA and placed in the charge of the
teacher on duty, or in one of the designated areas of the playground ( i.e. ‘time out zone’) and
a Stage 2 sheet completed.

To delegate the treatment of minor accidents to MMS and report any serious injury to the
Headteacher.
[If a child is taken ill during the lunch break, the SSA must take responsibility for contacting
parents or other designated carers (using information supplied on the red forms) to enable the
child to be collected from school and inform the child’s class teacher. This task must not be
undertaken by an ambassador or any other child.

On wet days when children have finished eating in the hall the SSA should circulate
throughout the building in support of the MMS as appropriate. It is the SSAs responsibility to
ensure that all pupils return to their classrooms after eating their lunch.

SSA’s will undertake such additional or altered duties as the Headteacher may assign to
ensure the effective supervision of the children during the midday break. It may occasionally
be necessary to change arrangements due to outings or visits etc. The SSA will be informed of
any such changes and be responsible for adjusting arrangements accordingly.

Make arrangements to cover absence if known in advance.
First job description: April 1992
Revised: October 1997
Reviewed, and incorporating Medway Council job evaluation and pay
harmonisation, implemented at this school: September 2002.
PLAY LEADER
PLAYGROUND QUICK GUIDE





Keep moving around the playground
Talk to children about what they
are doing and how they are playing
Keep scanning the playground for
'hot spots'
Each lunch time - start a game or
activity with a group of children
Act before it escalates!
PLAY LEADER
PLAYGROUND QUICK GUIDE





Keep moving around the playground
Talk to children about what they
are doing and how they are playing
Keep scanning the playground for
'hot spots'
Each lunch time - start a game or
activity with a group of children
Act before it escalates!
PLAY LEADER
PLAYGROUND QUICK GUIDE





Keep moving around the playground
Talk to children about what they
are doing and how they are playing
Keep scanning the playground for
'hot spots'
Each lunch time - start a game or
activity with a group of children
Act before it escalates!
PLAY LEADER
PLAYGROUND QUICK GUIDE





Keep moving around the playground
Talk to children about what they
are doing and how they are playing
Keep scanning the playground for
'hot spots'
Each lunch time - start a game or
activity with a group of children
Act before it escalates!
PLAYGROUND MONITORING OBSERVATION
M = Mrs. Mortley
P = Mrs. Porter
W = Mrs. Winchester
Date time
1. moving
2. talking
3. scanning
4. leading
game
5 escalation
Mid-day Meals Supervisor Interviews
Les:
Welcome, introduce self and Margaret and explain her role
Margaret:
Explain role of mid-day meals supervisor
Les:
Q
What experience do you have of children?
Les
Q
Have you any experience outside of the family?
Margaret:
Q
How would you carry out your role supervising a lunchtime on the
playground?
Margaret:
Q
Les:
Explain the post is initially for 1 term as a probationary period and can be extended if
The candidate is suited to the role – it also gives them a period to decide if it is the
Right post for them.
Are there any questions you would like to ask us?
Salary: