Background Information
Rawmarsh Community School in Rotherham is a mixed 11-16 comprehensive and specialist Sports College with over 1100 students on roll. The school’s principal aim is to serve the local community as effectively as they can. A vast majority of local families send their children to the school.
Opposite the school are a number of fast food outlets and shops. Many of the pupils were going off site at lunchtimes to purchase food from the local shops. This was also causing a number of behavioural problems in the local community. John Lambert, Head Teacher, comments “As a Sports College we feel it’s morally imperative to provide healthy food”.
What improvements were made to the school food service?
Introduced a stay-on-site policy:
In 2006 Rawmarsh Community School implemented a stay on site policy.
The staff was supportive of the policy because they had witnessed the previous success of the Active Lunchtime programme. They no longer had to spend the majority of the afternoon lessons dealing with issues that had arisen off-site during the lunch break. John Lambert has relied on the goodwill of staff to supervise pupils on site, during break times. Staff members that supervise children, over the lunch period, get paid for their time and are offered a free school meal. The school did not want to bring in new lunchtime supervisors because, the current staff already know the pupils and have developed behaviour management strategies.
John Lambert and members of the teaching staff spoke with every year group to explain why the stay-on-site policy was coming into force. Pupils were also given a list of pros and cons for the policy during assemblies. The school council were also consulted and found to be supportive of the decision.
The majority of local parents and carers were very supportive of the stay-on-site policy as they could see the educational benefits to their children. A small minority of parents opposed the policy and John Lambert spoke with these families directly. Many parents relied on their children to return home at lunchtimes due to family commitments. Updates surrounding the policy implementation were communicated to parents through the school’s newsletter and website. Rawmarsh Community School also offered a degree of flexibility. If a pupil genuinely needed to return home at lunch time e.g. for medical reasons, then this was considered on an individual basis.
The local Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) supported the stay-on-site policy as they noted a reduction in anti-social behaviour, during lunch times. Any pupil found outside the school grounds was escorted by the PCSOs back onto the school site. This partnership proved to be important to the overall effectiveness of the policy. Pupils soon realised that it was futile trying to leave the grounds at lunch time.
Implementation of the stay-on-site policy resulted in some initial hostility from local shopkeepers. Shop owners feared their businesses would suffer a loss of profit. On a number of occasions, John Lambert met with shop owners to try to reach a compromise. He managed to persuade fast food outlets to open at different times outside of the school’s lunch service, to cater for the wider community. Customers, who may have previously been discouraged by the long queues of pupils, were now more likely to buy their food from local outlets. John Lambert now feels that the shop owners would report no loss of profit.
Dining areas and Active Lunchtimes:
The dining area has been refurbished to cater for up to 160 pupils. However, the rest of the school, including some classrooms, has been opened up to enable more pupils to dine on site. More recently the outside A Quad area has been revamped and additional undercover seating and tables have been installed to provide additional dining and social space. The school also installed two additional enclosed spaces with shelter. One of these sheltered areas has a covered dance floor and facilities for pupils to play table games. Please click on the following link to view the undercover seating area:
www.rawmarsh-comp.rotherham.sch.uk/activelunch.asp
Catering staff also transport food on trolleys to various outlets within the school e.g. the main hall. This has helped to reduce the pressure on queues in the dining area.
Lunchtimes are split into two, thirty minute sessions, and activities are held during break times. Pupils eat their lunch in one session and participate in activities during the second lunch period. Rawmarsh Community School launched Active Lunchtimes in March 2005 prior to implementation of the stay-on-site policy. The most popular activities have proven to be: football, cricket; hockey; swing ball and dizzy discs. Those pupils choosing to take an lunchtime activity usually eat their lunch during either of the extended break times before and after lunchtime. For more information about Active Lunchtimes please click on the following link:
www.rawmarsh-comp.rotherham.sch.uk/activelunch.asp
Cashless Catering:
A cashless card catering system was installed in December 2005. There have been some issues with pupils losing their cards. John Lambert recognises that a Biometric system would have been more useful as it relies on fingerprint recognition instead of cards.
School Food:
The catering manager offers pupil’s taster sessions to encourage a greater take up of school meals. Samples of the school food are offered during parent’s evenings. Parents and carers are also invited to meet with the catering manager to discuss their child’s dietary needs. The catering service is provided by the Local Authority and all food is prepared fresh on site. Menus meet the nutritional standards and are reviewed regularly to ensure compliance. For an example of the menus please click on the following link
Rawmarsh Community School Menus
Click here to download (Adobe pdf doc 177KB)
Extended learning initiatives:
Rawmarsh Community School offers an on-site City Learning Centre with extensive adult learning provision. Both pupils and members of the wider community feel a sense of ownership for their school.
Resources:
The Catering Manager is aware of the work of the School Food Trust. She is proactive in finding information and resources from the website
What were the benefits?
The stay-on-site policy has now become an intrinsic part of the school culture. A reduction in pupils, queuing at local fast food outlets, has decreased tension within the local community. On average 370 meals are paid for every day and 180 free school meals are claimed daily. The school has around a 50% take up overall of school meals.
Performance and concentration in afternoon lessons has increased since implementing the policy. Around 66% of pupils at Rawmarsh are achieving 5+ GCSEs and 100% of pupils are leaving school with at least 1 GCSE. The increased performance levels have helped to raise the aspirations and self esteem of the pupils. The majority of post 16 pupils are now going on to further education or a work based placement. Bad punctuality and poor attendance in the afternoons are no longer issues.
John Lambert has received countless letters in support of the stay-on-site policy and improved school dinners. A former pupil writes: “Can I say well done and keep up the excellent work you are doing”.
A community member comments: “Congratulations on biting the bullet to introduce a diet for children that might be of some nutritional benefit to them, rather than chips with everything.”
A fellow teacher also writes: “This is just the briefest of letters to express my support for the stand you took over the recent issue of school dinners. The debate about pupil health is a live one and, as a teacher myself, it is clear our duty of care must also extend to meal provision. I believe future generations may marvel that we did not earlier make the connection between pupil behaviour and nutrition.”
“The gains we have seen have been well worth the challenges. The pupils seem happier and the school is perceived as caring for their wellbeing” John Lambert.
How have you overcome some of the difficulties?
Initially it was difficult to persuade a small minority of both the pupils and their parents to support the implementation of a stay-on-site policy. The policy is now presented in the school’s prospectus as a non-negotiable, it has become an intrinsic part of the school culture. Please click on the following link to view a copy of the prospectus:
www.rawmarsh-comp.rotherham.sch.uk/school.asp
The building has received more wear and tear since being opened up to pupils at lunchtimes. The school has employed two reactive cleaners to ensure critical areas are cleaned more frequently.
John Lambert also reports that a stay-on-site policy can be costly to implement and fraught with difficulties. However, he comments “I would do it again in an instant as the benefits have far outweighed the financial costs”.
Tips for success:
John Lambert knows that thorough planning and preparation has been key to the success of the project.
Contact details:
If you would like further information about this case study then please contact the School Food Trust Million Meals Team on 0844 800 9048. Alternatively please send an email to info@sft.gsi.gov.uk
