Lunchtime supervisor (midday meals supervisor)

A lunchtime supervisor, often called a midday meals supervisor, looks after pupils during the lunch break: in the dining hall, then out in the playground or in wet-play classrooms. The shift is short, usually only around the lunch period on school days, and no qualifications are needed. In maintained schools the job is paid on the bottom point of the council pay spine, which in 2026/27 works out at about £13.28 an hour, and many people use it as a first step into other school jobs.

What happens during a lunchtime

The shift usually starts just before the first sitting. You help younger children with cutlery and opening packets, encourage them to eat, keep the queue moving, clear up spills and watch for pupils with allergies or special diets. Then you move outside, supervising play, sorting out disputes, dealing with grazes and bumps, and making sure no child is left alone or left out. When the bell goes, you line pupils up and hand them back to their class teachers.

Wet days are harder. Children stay inside, often in classrooms, and supervisors move between rooms keeping order. Behaviour incidents are logged and passed to the class teacher or a senior leader. Injuries go in the first aid log, and a bumped head usually means a note home.

Safeguarding and first aid

Lunchtime is unstructured, so supervisors often see things teachers miss: a child who never eats, a child who is always alone, or bruising that has not been explained. Under Keeping Children Safe in Education, all school staff must know the school’s safeguarding procedures and pass concerns to the designated safeguarding lead. Schools train midday staff in this when they start.

Many schools also train lunchtime supervisors in basic first aid, and some ask them to learn how to use an adrenaline auto-injector for pupils with severe allergies.

Pay for short hours

Maintained schools in England and Wales usually pay midday supervisors on the NJC pay spine. Since 1 April 2026 the lowest point is SCP 3 at £25,614 full-time, after the 3.3% award and the deletion of SCP 2. Divided down to an hourly rate, that is about £13.28 an hour. Academies set their own pay but often use the same spine, and no employer can pay less than the National Living Wage of £12.71 for workers aged 21 and over.

The job is term-time only and very part-time, so the annual figure is small. The NJC advisory method for term-time staff adds pro-rata leave to the weeks worked; on the NJC example, 39 weeks with a 36-day leave entitlement gives 86.778% of the full-time salary, before the hours are taken into account.

Say you work 1 hour 15 minutes a day, five days a week (6.25 hours a week), term-time only, on SCP 3. Your annual pay would be about £25,614 × 86.778% × 6.25 ÷ 37, which comes to roughly £3,755 a year, or about £313 a month spread over 12 months. Schools that pay hourly plus holiday pay will show different monthly amounts. See term-time-only pay for the method.

Tax and other income

On those figures you would earn well below the £12,570 personal allowance, so if this is your only job you would normally pay no income tax and no employee National Insurance. With another job, your tax code usually gives the personal allowance to the main job, and the lunchtime job may be taxed at the basic rate through a BR code. Our guide to tax when you have two jobs explains how that works, and the take-home pay calculator shows the result.

Council and academy employees can join the Local Government Pension Scheme. In 2026/27 members earning up to £18,400 pay 5.5%, or 2.75% in the 50/50 section.

A first step into schools

Lunchtime work is one of the easiest ways to get a foot in the door. It shows a school you are reliable and good with children, and it gives you something concrete for a later application. Many teaching assistants started as midday supervisors, and schools often advertise TA posts internally first. Read our guide to the teaching assistant role and getting a school job with no experience.

Applying

Posts are advertised by schools, councils and academy trusts, often with flexible start dates. You fill in an application form, give references and have an enhanced DBS check with a children’s barred list check, which costs £41.00 in England and Wales from 5 October 2026 and is normally paid by the employer. Current vacancies are under school support jobs.