Jo Mercer, Business Manager at Parbold Douglas Primary School in Lancashire, was involved in a light touch direct school engagement project with the School Food Trust. This project is aimed at schools that wish to improve their current school meal provision using advice, resources and support from the Trust. This support is telephone based only and is held over a period of up to eight weeks.
Since taking part in the project, the take up in this school has increased by 11% from 38% to 49% which the school directly attributes to the work they carried out. This reflects a 29% increase in the number of pupils taking school meals! This is a truly tremendous result achieved in a relatively short space of time.
Parbold Douglas has 205 pupils on roll, and had a take up of 38% at the start of the project. This is a little below the regional average of 47% in Lancashire. Jo takes the lead on school meal provision and is very committed to improving the quality and experience. The school is also involved with Let’s Get Cooking, and the school started their own cookery club at the beginning of this term.
Actions Taken
Jo wanted to invigorate the School Council which had been quite inactive for a while. The main objective was to get the council to survey the pupils and increase pupil engagement by getting them more involved. Jo also wanted to take steps to introduce a packed lunch policy, and encourage a more whole school approach amongst catering and teaching staff throughout the school.
The school used various resources, but focused particularly on the school council pack, Work up an Appetite for Change. This pack incorporates a six step plan to involve pupils in co-operation with the Catering team, Head Cook, Headteacher, other pupils and the wider school population. The objective of the pack is, through consultation, to improve the school meal experience based on pupil feedback and survey and then to offer what the pupils, as customers want. It also shows pupils how to approach local businesses for financial support if required.
The school council at Parbold Douglas are now meeting regularly, with a newly appointed lead in the teaching staff, and have had slots at Assembly. Catering Managers have attended some of their meetings and this way of working together is unprecedented in the school and has led to clear channels of communication and a greater understanding and appreciation of what the young people want.
In addition to all of this work, the school has trained up several of their Year 4 and Year 5 pupils for a Food Hygiene Certificate, which they all passed with flying colours! These pupils were trained on site to assist with serving the cold salad and sandwich trolley and are encouraging the other children to have extra salad with their meals and to try different healthy options. This has been a hugely successful.
Outcomes
- School meal take up has risen by 11% and is now higher than the regional and national averages!
- An newly invigorated and active school council which uses the whole school approach
- Involvement from the catering team, Head, teachers, other pupils, and the head cook which is now building the wider school to become a more effective team for improvement
- School council now been promoting school meals to their peers, which is showing a direct and measurable impact on take up
- Pupils have been surveyed which has increased pupil involvement and contribution to the development of the school meals service
- Parents were also surveyed which increased parental involvement and promoted engagement; this has had adirect positive impact on school meal take up
- Both pupil and parent survey responses have been used to inform decision making and help improve the overall dining experience. This has had direct impact and increased the number of young people choosing to eat a school meal
Pictures
Sustainability
The school plans to continue their good work into the future by using the School Meals Detectives KS1 and KS2 curriculum pack to encourage enthusiasm for school food and really strengthen the links between catering managers, kitchen staff and the young people. This pack gets pupils really thinking about school food using cross curricular links and activities, ranging from talking to their parents about their own experiences of school food and surveying the views of their peers, to finding out why eating healthily is so important from the perspective of a well known Tottenham Hotspur and England footballer.
Also for the future at Parbold Douglas is a closer look at the school meal ordering system which is still in need of some improvement, as well as some development with the planned packed lunch policy work. The School Food Trust has already provided a wealth of resources to enable the school to carry out this work in future, including the step by step guide to implementing a packed lunch policy, nutritionally balanced packed lunch ideas, and letters for consulting with parents about the introduction of a policy at various stages.
Evaluation
Jo says “the light touch engagement provided by the Trust could be marketed to schools who are struggling with their school meal take up” as a tool to help them by using the valuable resources, ideas and feedback on offer. “I would like to thank the School Food Trust for their help and support to keep the improvements going. The recommendations and resources have been valuable and have kept me on track to link with the Catering Managers and other kitchen staff”.
