Background Information
Rainhill St Ann’s C.E. Primary School is situated at the heart of Rainhill Village, in St Helens. The school has approximately 420 pupils on roll (aged 4-11years). At the start of 2009 the take up of school meals had hit an all time low. Only 99 children were taking a paid school meal on a daily basis. Only 5 pupils entitled to a free school meal (FSM) were taking this offer daily.
The Small Step Improvement Programme
The Million Meals School Engagement Team from the School Food Trust has completed a Small Step Improvements (SSI) Programme within 3 Local Authorities. They approached St Helen’s Local Authority to see if they would like to engage in the SSI Programme to encourage schools to improve their catering provision and increase take-up. St Helens Local Authority sent out invitations to all local schools encouraging them to sign up to the Programme. Rainhill St Ann’s C.E. Primary School expressed an interest in getting involved.
The Small Step Improvements Programme is about making small low cost, or no cost improvements to the catering and dining 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 School 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 Programme?
The school wanted to get involved in the Small Step Improvement Programme to ultimately increase their take up and ensure pupils were eating healthy lunches. Furthermore, the school thought it was equally important to tackle the parent’s perceptions of school meals.
Who was involved in driving forward the improvements?
- Rebecca Wilkinson, Head Teacher
- Helen Dean, Healthy School Coordinator
- Jenny Briggs, School Cook
What improvements did the School make?
The Healthy School’s Co-ordinator, Helen Dean spoke to the School Council to gauge pupil views in relation to school meals. Evidence gathered seemed to suggest that pupils were satisfied with the quality of the school meals. However, pupils felt that the layout of the school dining hall needed improving so that it ‘looked more like a café’. It was important for school meal pupils to be able to sit with their packed lunch friends.
Initially those pupils who had a school meal, dined in a separate area to packed lunch pupils. Therefore, pupils could not always eat their lunch alongside their friends. This was thought to be a main factor in reducing take up figures. So the school enabled packed lunch and school meal pupils to dine in the same area and sit together. A menu was placed outside the dining area to promote the range of food options on offer. This also enabled pupils to make their selection before reaching the serveries and reduced queuing time. The salad bar was also moved to the start of the servery area to encourage more pupils to select healthier options. The layout of the dining area was re-arranged to reduce congestions. A new system was implemented to enable pupils queuing for their lunch to enter the dining hall from separate entrance to those pupils leaving the dining space. This helped to improve the flow of pupils through the dining area and created a calmer environment. Furthermore, a rota system was set up to ensure that each year group had the chance to take their dinner first on allocated days.
Pupils who demonstrated positive behaviour at lunchtimes were rewarded. The class who had demonstrated the most positive lunchtime behaviours was rewarded on a Friday. They were able to have their lunch first and at an earlier time of 12.15pm rather than at 12.30pm.
During November and December 2009 the school held seven parent taster sessions. Every child was invited to try a free school meal and dine with a parent representative. The taster sessions were staggered by year groups and proved incredibly successful. During the taster sessions parents were given an Information Pack. The Information Pack contained: school menus, information on the School Food Trust and leaflets outlining free school meal benefits. Parents were also invited to complete a survey rating the school food. The feedback from the survey was generally very positive. These questionnaires have been entered into a prize draw. The winning entry will receive a food hamper donated by St Helens Healthy Living Programme.
What have been the benefits to the school?
On average 199 pupils now take a paid school meal every day. The take up figures have almost doubled since the start of 2009 when on average only 99 pupils were taking a meal. The take up of FSMs has also risen from on average 5 pupils daily (January 2009), to 13 pupils daily (January 2010).
The improvements to the dining space have created an improved environment for social interactions. Both the parents and pupils enjoyed the taster sessions. The positive feedback received from the parents has shown a change in their perceptions towards the school food.
Interestingly pupil behaviour significantly improved towards the end of 2009 compared to previous years.
Tips for success:
- Work closely with the Local Authority as you can access funding opportunities and gain advice.
- Trial something similar
- “It will be interesting to observe if there has been any increase in pupils learning towards the end of the year from those pupils who changed from packed lunch to school dinners” commented Rebecca Wilkinson, Head Teacher.
Future priorities:
Reception children and their parents will be invited into the school (May 2010) to try a free school meal before the pupils move up to primary school. Again this will help to tackle parent’s negative perceptions towards school food and ensure new pupils are aware of the food on offer.
The school would like to introduce music and play DVDs in the dining area. Furthermore, they plan to introduce a ‘Top Table’ to enable pupils’ who have received the ‘Weekly Lunchtime Award’ to dine there.
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
