Introduction:
The Blue School is a secondary school (11-18years) in Wells Somerset, with 1450 pupils on roll. Around 60% of pupils take a paid school meal and 7% of pupils registered for a free school meal (FSM) claim their entitlement. The school believes that their students should have access to a school meal service that provides a nutritious and balanced diet.
In recent years The Blue School has developed an excellent reputation within the region for the meals service it provides. The School has invested heavily in staffing and facilities and has also acted as a reference site for other schools trying to reinstate or develop their provision.
The school had three catering outlets including the large main dining space (Bailey Hall) which has been utilised for the last 20years. In 2005 a new science block was built which incorporated a science themed café. The pupil’s aptly named the catering facility the Atom Café.
The third and final catering outlet was a smaller facility known as the Milton Express.
What were the drivers for change?
Dining space:
In September 2009 the school took the decision to introduce a stay on site policy for all pupils (years 7-11). Previously only pupils from years 7, 8 and 9 had remained on site at lunchtimes. The introduction of the full stay on site policy had resulted in an increase of an extra 500 students passing through the dining room and additional catering outlets during lunch. Therefore, the current school catering provision no longer has the capacity to cater for the increased demand created by the stay on site policy.
Furthermore, the smallest of the existing catering outlets the Milton Express, was situated adjacent to the main examination room and was often closed and used as an overspill room during exam time. Exams take place throughout the academic year which resulted in this outlet closing for around 12 weeks a year. The school also had very little external dining space and social space. Furthermore, pupils had to queue outside in an uncovered area to get into the Bailey Hall dining area. During the winter months pupils were less willing to queue for a school meal which inevitable impacted on take up.
Serveries:
The former servery had limited space and equipment and consequently struggled to cope with the demand. Closure of the smaller catering outlet increased pressures on the remaining two catering outlets and resulted in larger queues at serveries.
Kitchen areas:
The former kitchen lacked sufficient cooking or preparation areas.
Take up of school meals:
The Blue School expected to see an increase in turnover of £10,000 to £12,000, once the planned building and refurbishment work had been completed.
Project funding overall costs:
The Local Authority capped the Targeted Capital Funding available to schools at £100,000. The Blue School also match funded an additional £125,000 to enable the majority of the required building work to go ahead.
Who was involved in driving forward the changes?
Who was involved during the project?
- Head Teacher
- Leadership Team
- Governing Body
- Business Manager
- Premises Manager
- School Council
- Catering Manager and Team
Who was responsible for resolving issues?
- Head Teacher
- Leadership Team
- Business Manager
- Catering Manager.
Who was involved in implementing the changes?
- Head Teacher
- Business Manager
- Premises Manager
- Catering Manager
The Business Manager wrote a successful bid enabling access to the Targeted Capital Fund. Furthermore, the Premises Manager and School Council played a crucial role in designing a fantastic dining space for students. The Catering Manager and extended team worked in partnership with the Premises Manager to design the kitchen and servery area.
Blue School Targeted Capital Fund bid
Click here to download (Adobe pdf doc 50KB)
What improvements did the school make?
The School started budget planning in 2008 in preparation for the full stay on site policy to be implemented in September 2009. The planning stage took around 2-3months to complete. The actual project work took place in one phase rather than in the two originally proposed in the bid. The extensive work this involved meant considerable disruption. A major thoroughfare had to be closed for three months and some classrooms could only be accessed via other classrooms. Pupils had to be re-routed around the outside of the building and sufficient fencing put in place to ensure the health and safety of all. The disruption was minimised where possible by creating alternative access to classrooms and installing temporary toilets to replace those closed by the building work.
The Gallery dining room
The Blue School converted an existing thoroughfare and removed two offices to create a larger space which would replace the Milton Express. The scope of the building work required significant changes to electrical wiring and large scale removal of asbestos from ceilings and floors. The flooring was replaced, the area redecorated and new lighting was installed.
New tables, chairs, stools, wide screen TVs and sound projection systems were also added to the dining space. All these improvements have enabled the dining area to be multifunctional and double up as an event or meeting space.
As the new dining area is adjacent to the Art department it will also be used to showcase pupil’s artwork, starting with a range of large portraits painted by students. The use of this space for the display of students’ work has led to the new facility being named ‘The Gallery’.
Although all the pupils can utilise this space at break times the dining area is only reserved for Years 10 and 11 at lunchtimes. A new menu was designed to appeal to the older year groups which included platters to share between four or five pupils.
The Gallery servery area
An adjacent and redundant science prep room was refurbished to create a new servery area. The School also purchased new light equipment to enable pupils to see what food was on offer at the servery. A new queuing system with barriers was introduced to increase flow and reduce time spent at serveries.
The Gallery kitchen area:
The science room was completely refurbished to create a bright modern kitchen complete with: preparation space, refrigeration, washing up facilities, a gas range and storage space. The new kitchen area was rewired, complete with new lighting and an extraction system.
For more information about the scope of the building work please view the project floor plans at the following link:
Floor Plans
Click here to download (Milton_Express_Design.pdf)
Pupils in year 7 also created some artwork to feature in both the Atom Café and Bailey Hall.
The Atom Café:
Bailey Hall:
What were the outcomes and benefits to the school?
Dining Space:
The seating capacity has now been doubled and the standing capacity has trebled. In the old Milton Express Café there were 40-50 seats with standing space for an additional 30 pupils. The Gallery now has 100 seats with space for an 80-100 pupils standing. The dining space is proving very popular amongst the pupils. The area is always full and sales increased significantly almost immediately. The dining area has increased the overall social space available to pupils. Furthermore, the new dining space can remain open throughout the exam period which has helped to relieve pressure on the other two remaining food outlets.
Servery area:
The new servery area has shortened queue time and improved the flow of pupils. Increased space and new equipment has improved the overall presentation and choice of the food on offer.
Kitchen area:
The new kitchen facility has increased capacity and enabled more efficient working practices. The catering team are now able to prepare good quality fresh food on site every day. New menus have been implemented which have proved popular with the older pupils.
Take up of school meals:
This year the school expects to make an additional £16,000 turnover, compared to previous year’s takings.
Other improvements:
A member of the catering team has recently completed NVQ training. As a result the staff member has been given the opportunity to run the new catering outlet. The training has enabled the staff member to create and design new and imaginative menus.
What lessons were learned?
The nature and scale of the project and building work required the closure of the main school thoroughfare during term time. This inevitably caused some issues with staff due to restricted areas. Staff and students were very accommodating and soon got used to using different routes; everyone knew that the end result would benefit the whole school population. Staff who previously had to walk to an alternative outlet or up two flights of stairs now had a new, attractive space where they could sit and work as well as buy a delicious range of food and drinks.
Did you use any of the School Food Trust resources?
The Art Department has used the Trust website and in particular some of the Million Meals resources and nutritional information to inspire some artwork for the dining areas. See the link below for more details
www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk/millionmealsresources
Do you have any tips for other schools wanting to undertake a similar project?
Jane Spencer Business Manager, commented “In our experience it’s worth the time and effort to have costed plans in place and ready to go. Even though projects sometimes seem unachievable and especially unaffordable, opportunities do arise that need a prompt response. The DCSF periodically come up with grants that require a speedy turnaround and are time limited in terms of spend window. So, have the arguments ready and rehearsed and an outline, costed, project plan.”
“We have benefited from this approach on a number of occasions; it is never a waste of time, even if plans sit on the shelf for a few years! This Targeted capital Fund bid is a perfect example of that. This project had been part of our long terms plans for a while but we knew that it was very expensive and would cause considerable disruption to operation of the school because we had to do it in two phases. Along came the Targeted Capital Fund and suddenly we were in a strong position to bid, our vision met the criteria and our outline plans were drawn and costed. We were able to achieve our aim in half the time.” Jane Spencer.
What are the School’s future priorities?
The Blue School are planning to turn the old Milton Express area into a common room for sixth form students. This is expected to be completed by September 2010. Another priority is to install a covered queuing area outside of Bailey Hall however; this work is dependent on funding.
Contact details:
If you would like further information then please contact the Trust at info@childrensfoodtrust.org.uk
