Please tell us your experiences of running the Universal Free School Meals pilot at your school. What impact has it had on pupils?
Yes it has. The most significant change for us has been the overall attitude towards eating in school. Now that the right fuel is going into the children, they’re able to sustain their academic success, they run around more at lunchtime and they’re generally healthier. I think that’s down to a combination of different things; the pilot, the development of the lunchtime supervisor role and changes to our contract catering. We’ve also changed our approach to the way we do things academically over the last three years.
During the pilot, school lunch became part and parcel of coming to school. So there has been a significant change in the pupils’ attitudes towards eating; it’s not an inconvenience between the classroom and the playground, it’s to refuel and be enjoyed.
What strategy did you put in place to increase registration and take up?
The biggest step we took was to stop packed lunches altogether. I felt that for the pilot to work, the whole school had to get behind it. We teach children about healthy eating in the classroom, so it has to follow through to what they eat at school. Just like we wouldn’t allow a child not to do English just because they don’t like it, the same goes for a school lunch – that was the message I had to get across to governors and to parents.
There will always be foods that some children don’t like, and that’s fine, but we work with them. It’s not a case of putting food on their plates and saying ‘get on with it’; it’s about finding out what they like and what they don’t like. My school cook Diane can tell you everybody’s likes and dislikes, she knows the children and she accommodates them absolutely fantastically. She’s really passionate about it.
Did you encounter any difficulties along the way?
Unsurprisingly, when we told parents that we were going 100% school meals, there were some who were resistant to changes, and there were all kinds of reasons why. For example, one Father came to see me who told me that his child’s Mum was concerned because she’s always fed her child from birth and she was finding the idea of handing over that responsibility to someone else really difficult. I said to her, that as a parent myself I know how scary it can be but we’re very open about what we do. I was always saying ‘let’s see how it goes’ to her and she was happy with the way things worked once the pilot got started.
There was one child who was getting support from a dietician. He was worried about what he was going to have for lunch and for him, having to have a school meal added an element of stress to his day. So, every morning he went to speak to the school cook to see what was for lunch and if he was worried about certain foods they would discuss what he could have instead.
How did you communicate the changes to parents?
We gave parents plenty of warning. I spoke to the governors in the spring before the pilot started and said I would like to go 100% school dinners, no packed lunches.
Then I told parents that it would be starting the following September and invited anyone who was concerned to come and talk to me about it. Diane spoke to the School Council about how she was going to support the move -that the menus would be shared and that they could make some decisions together. Mums came in regularly to talk to Diane about the menus, and they still do.
We did Mothers Day and Christmas Dinner and invited parents to come along.
Parents would see their children eating all sorts of vegetables and be amazed. Lots of Mums and Dads have asked for recipes!
How did you cope with the practical issues raised by suddenly having 100% uptake of school meals?
The biggest problem was that our kitchen wasn’t designed with cooking from scratch in mind, so that made cooking fresh meals really difficult for the cooks. We realised that improving the kitchen was the only way we were going to make it 100% successful. So we invested in the complete redevelopment of our kitchen and now we cook fantastic, fresh meals here every day.
New tables and benches also made a difference. The new tables fold up and are easy to push which makes it significantly better for the kitchen staff, which in turn had an impact on their willingness to support the process. We also got lots of advice and support from our contract caterers.
How were the pupils involved?
Involving the school council was key. They met on a number of occasions with the cook and shared any concerns, what they liked and what they didn’t like. It was important for us to listen to what they thought and to take their views on board.
Were staff supportive in the move to 100% school meals?
All the staff have been very supportive and in particular, the role of the lunchtime supervisors has come a long way – they play and organise things with the children and it makes a big difference.
How many children are still having school lunches now that the pilot has come to an end?
Before the pilot we were below 60% take-up of school lunches, we had 100% take up for the 2 years of the pilot and now we’re at 85.
The healthy packed lunch policy that came from Durham County Council has been very good and we’ll continue to use it. Since the pilot, the children that have gone back to packed lunches are bringing much better food to school; it really has been an incredible change.
Can you share any individual “success” stories?
There is a child who was having significant dietary issues at the beginning of the pilot. He had a very poor diet, but we opened his eyes to a range of different foods and over time he started to eat more and more variety. During the pilot, he stopped needing the support from a paediatric dietician that he was receiving before.
Now that the pilot has ended, his family have decided to go back to packed lunches and the child is working with the dietician again but the pilot was an opportunity for him to try things and he has much more variety in his packed lunch now. He has things like fruit and carrot sticks, and sandwiches that he just wouldn’t have been willing to eat before.
For younger children who had parents who were nervous about someone else feeding their child, now only three infants are having packed lunches. Lots of those parents have accepted that school meals are part of going to school.
