School children in Bristol are being sent home during lunchtimes because of a shortage of dinner ladies.

Headmasters say they may be forced to send children home during lunch hour.

Some schools have drawn up rotas of parents to cover the midday break period.

The low pay and changes in working patterns are being blamed for people being reluctant to work in school kitchens.

Staff cover

At Bishop Road Primary in the city there are not enough adults to supervise the 500 children at lunchtime.

"The children eat and go to play and we don't have enough staff to supervise that number," said headteacher John Waldren.

"It ends up with the school management team and parents doing it with me.

"We came very close to sending children home at lunchtime in October when we were desperately short with one or two staff ill.

"But we escaped because some of our parents volunteered on odd days over a four-week period - without them we would've had to send children home."

Pay restrictions

He said pay and hours were the cause of the problem.

"We ask people to give up one hour and ten minutes of their day in the middle of the day so you can't go very far in the course of the week," he said.

"We're limited by regulations about how much we can pay at just over �5 an hour.

"It's not particularly attractive financially particularly when you've got lots of other businesses willing to pay a lot more than that."