A community day initiative started by pupils at a Newham school is being held up as a national example to other schools wanting to encourage families to take up free school meals.
We’re sharing the innovative ideas used by St Luke’s Primary School on our website, in a bid to help other schools across the country boost free school meal registration and take up.
The ‘community day’ strategy was launched when all pupils at the school became entitled to free school lunches, as part of the Government’s 2009 Universal Free School Meals pilot, which Newham Council decided to continue independently when the original pilot came to an end. .
With concerns mounting over the contents of some packed lunches pupils were bringing to school, Head Teacher, Theresa Aanonson, was thrilled by the decision and wanted to explore new ways of communicating the healthy school food message to parents and pupils.
Attended by parents, pupils and local residents, the ‘Community Day’ events are planned by pupils on an elected Food Group. With a small budget, they decide on a theme for the day, how they will decorate the dining room and with the guidance of school chefs, they create a menu to fit their chosen theme. .
Headteacher Theresa Aanonson, said: “Our latest event, ‘Italian Day’, was our biggest to date. On the menu, we had Mediterranean pasta bake, spaghetti and meatballs and fish in a creamy sauce. We had flags flying, pupil helpers in full costume and some pupils made lovely table decorations and each table had cards with interesting facts and phrases to stimulate conversation amongst our diners.”
Since the school began to implement ways to increase free school meal take up, Theresa has not only noticed an improvement in the quality and variety of food also in the level of pupil, parent and staff enthusiasm for school food and healthy eating.
Theresa added: “85% of parents who came to one community day event said they would continue to give their children school dinners even if they had to pay for them. This fantastic result demonstrates how important it is for schools to involve parents and carers in their children’s eating habits during school hours.
“Since we have been able to give all our pupils a free school meal, academic standards have continued to rise here and although it’s impossible to say it’s just due to one factor, I’m convinced that eating a good meal at lunchtime, having fruit at morning break and water available during the day helps to keep the children alert.
“I hope what we have achieved here will help inspire other school’s to create a new and exciting approach to boost free school dinner uptake figures. It’s essential to find out what your pupils and parents want and what gets them excited, and move forward with that too.”
We’ve also launched a new support pack called Free School Meals Matter, which includes practical resources to help schools promote free school meals to parents and tackle some of the issues which can mean children don’t want to take them.
Read St Luke’s Primary’s story here.
