Introduction:
St Peter’s C.E. Primary School is located in Newton Le Willows, Merseyside. The school currently has 250 pupils on roll. Prior to any improvements the school was selling approximately 117 hot meals, to pupils every day. The school had trialled a number of initiatives to improve their take-up figures. Pupils are currently being rewarded with stickers for making healthy food choices. All new pupils and their parents were invited to come into the school to try a free school meal. Furthermore, one year group each month was invited to bring their parents in to try a free school meal.
Small Step Improvement Programme
The Million Meals School Engagement Team from the School Food Trust has completed a Small Step Improvements (SSI) Program within 3 Local Authorities. They approached St Helen’s 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. St Helens Local Authority sent out invitations to all local schools encouraging them to sign up to the Program. St Peter’s C.E. Primary School expressed an interest in getting involved.
The Small Step Improvements Program is about making small low cost, or no cost improvements to the catering and dining provision, that could benefit the whole school. The Program 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?
Pupils were surveyed to find out what improvements needed to be made to the current catering provision. The findings showed that pupils rated the food as very good. Karen Dearden, Head Cook and Karen Hankey, Governor, realised that they would have to look at alternative ways of encouraging pupils to take-up a school meal.
Who was involved in driving forward the improvements?
- Barbara Flitcroft – Head Teacher
- Tracy Howson – Deputy Head
- Karen Hankey – Governor
- Karen Dearden – Head Cook
Both the Head Cook and Governor attended the Small Step Improvement Workshops. They met with delegates from other schools where they swapped ideas and formulated a plan of action to tempt packed lunch pupils back to school meals. Karen Hankey, Governor took the plan to Barbara Flitcroft who then authorised the improvements.
What improvements did the School make?
In October 2009, the School set up a “Rainbow Table” in the middle of the dining room with colourful crockery and a colourful tablecloth. Those pupils already taking a school meal and who demonstrated positive behaviour in the dining room were entered into a prize draw to sit at the Rainbow Table. Pupils who demonstrated good behaviour, good manners, were willing to try new foods and help others were entered into the competition. At the end of the week, six pupils were selected from the prize draw and invited to dine at the “Rainbow Table”, on a Friday. Pupils dining at the “Rainbow Table” were able to stand at the front of the servery queue and had first access to the fresh fruit and salad.
What have been the benefits to the school?
Karen Dearden comments on the “Rainbow Table” ‘The children loved this and felt quite important, one little girl said she felt like she was in a posh restaurant’.
Packed lunch pupils also started to ask whether they could sit at the “Rainbow Table”. St Peter’s C.E. Primary School noted an increase in its take-up, following the improvement. On average, the school is now serving around 136 meals every day. Please refer to the table below which illustrates an increase in the take-up of school meals in 2009, compared to the corresponding months in 2008. Furthermore, there has been a marked increase in take-up since October 2009, when the “Rainbow Table” was first introduced.
| Month | Sep-08 | Sep-09 | Oct-08 | Oct-09 | Nov-08 | Nov-09 | Dec-08 | Dec-09 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daily average Number of Meals Served | 99 | 114 | 100 | 112 | 110 | 122 | 120 | 133 |
Tips for Success:
“Reward the children. It is important to get the packed lunch pupils envious of the rewards that school meal pupils can receive” comments Karen Dearden.
Barbara Flitcroft Head Teacher commented “I have been amazed that such little changes could have such a big impact”
Future Priorities:
St Peter’s C.E. Primary School plans to reorganise the seating area in the dining room. The focus will be on reducing queue length. Each table will take it in turns to queue up at the servery. A menu will be placed in every classroom and teaching staff will read the menu out to their pupils each day.
Contact details:
If you would like further information then please contact the School Food Trust on 0800 089 5001 or alternatively please email casestudies/rainhillstannsceschool
