Background Information
Denbigh Community Primary School is a community school located within the North Tyneside Borough of Howdon. The school is situated approximately 5 miles outside of Newcastle City centre within a large housing estate. There are currently 373 pupils on roll. Of these, 97 children receive free school meals (FSM), and 110 pupils are taking a paid school meal. In addition 132 pupils have Special Educational Needs (SEN) and 18 pupils speak English as an additional language (EAL).
The Small Step Improvement Programme
The Million Meals School Engagement Team from the School Food Trust has been running a Small Step Improvements (SSI) programme within 3 Local Authorities. They approached Tyneside Local Authority to see if they would like to engage in the SSI program to encourage schools to improve their catering provision and increase take up. North Tyneside sent out invitations to all local schools encouraging them to sign up to the programme. Denbigh Community Primary School expressed an interest in getting involved.
Small Step Improvements is about making small low cost, or no cost improvements to the catering provision, that could benefit the whole school. The programme engages key players within the school team; including a member of the kitchen staff and the schools’ leadership team. Using a continual improvement process known as ‘Plan, Do, Study, Act’ (PDSA) the school’s team collect data to show how the process currently works, identify where improvements can be made and then trial different interventions. The data collected will eventually show whether an improvement has worked or not. Often the improvements bring some astonishing results including an increase in take up.
Why did the school want to get involved in the program?
The staff at Denbigh Primary supported the notion that dinnertime should be an enjoyable, relaxing and sociable part of every child’s school day. At present lunchtimes are relatively fast paced, the volume of pupils in the dining hall is quite high and the dining facilities needed updating.
It was felt that by raising awareness, making improvements to the dining hall environment and encouraging the children to adopt a civilized and relaxed approach to their dining, this would improve the lunchtime provision and encourage more children to take a school meal.
Who was involved in driving forward the improvements?
- Alison Higgins – Head Teacher
- Rebecca Brennan – PSHCE Coordinator
- Margret Davidson – Unit Manager
Denbigh Community Primary school adopted a whole school approach which enabled all the staff and pupils to have a key role in implementing the small step improvements.
What improvements did the school make to the lunchtime provision?
In order to implement the ethos of Small Steps and to increase the uptake of free school meals, it was decided that the first step would be to raise awareness amongst the staff and children.
A staff meeting was held whereby; the Small Step Improvement programme was discussed alongside the impact of implementing changes on the school. All staff were asked to become part of the project by sharing the information with their class, and engaging pupils in the decision making process.
Pupils took part in class discussions and produced several posters, lists of ideas and suggestions on how to improve lunchtimes. They were also asked to think about what changes they would like to see made to outdoor playtime during the lunch hour. All the information was gathered and collated in order to form part of the Denbigh Primary School Action Plan.
In addition the Governors and the School Council were also consulted and it was decided that the School Council members would form part of a Small Steps Action Group. The idea behind the action group was to provide a voice for the pupils in the school, who would be able to play an active role in sharing information between their peers, creating a Small Steps notice board and discussing proposed changes.
What are the future priorities?
The school devised a list of future priorities raised during the consultation process with both pupils and staff. All the following priorities were incorporated into the Action Plan:
- To send out a letter to parents regarding free school meals.
- To replace the existing dining furniture with round tables, chairs etc.
- To replace flight trays with normal tray, plates and bowls.
- To improve the atmosphere within the dining hall by introducing relaxing music, managing behaviour and redecorating.
- To introduce a Golden Table in the dining area.
- To re-design where and how the children wait to be served.
- To introduce a staggered lunch sittings by year groups are served.
- To provide Healthy Options / Grab Bags as an alternative option to home prepared packed lunch boxes.
- To display Menu’s on tables / classrooms and at the main entrance to school.
- To monitor the Self Service Salad / pudding bar
- To introduce tablecloths in the dining area.
- To undertake an Audit of food waste produced.
- To ask pupils to wait for the majority of their table to finish eating before they leave to scrape their plates
- To introduce themed food weeks.
- To introduce table monitors from KS2 to sit with FS / KS1 children.
- To offer Parent taster sessions
- To introduce party opportunities to enable parents to sample school dinners and share opinions.
- To provide outdoor equipment for lunchtime.
- To allocate 1 cage for ball games and another cage for lunchtime games / activities
- To provide lunchtime clubs.
- To transform the school garden into a ‘Tranquil area’ with paved areas, large pot plants, water features, picnic tables, canopies over tables etc
- To provide an area to eat packed lunches and for relaxation.
Contact details:
If you would like further information then please contact the School Food Trust on 0800 089 5001 or alternatively please email info@childrensfoodtrust.org.uk
