When it comes to school food and the experience that children have at lunchtime, small changes can make a big difference.
This programme is about using little changes for the continual improvement of lunchtimes in your school. It also helps schools achieve their wider objectives and to get everyone in the school community involved.
Why make continual improvements?
There are some common goals that most schools share for their school food service:
- Making sure children and young people are healthy so that they can achieve their full potential in life.
- Improving behaviour and attainment
- Providing a pleasant social dining experience
- Increasing take up of healthy food
- Developing a thriving service
But some schools tell us they think it’s too difficult to achieve these goals. They often feel they don’t have enough money or enough time to improve their lunchtimes.
That’s where Small Step Improvements can help. It’s a simple method (Plan, Do, Study, Act) that schools have used to achieve:
- Quick, effective change
- Low-cost change
- Win-win scenario (for student and school)
Download the PDSA Cycle Methodology for an explanation of the methodology
Click here to download (Adobe pdf doc 51KB)
The programme itself consists of a series of workshops, where a small team from each school (including a member of the kitchen staff and the schools leadership team) discuss changes, how they were made and evaluate them.
Small Step Improvements Film: Members of Rainhill St Ann’s Catholic Primary School talk about their experiences of being involved in the Small Step Improvement programme in their area.
The video below explains more about the programme from the perspective of schools, caterers and local authorities.
Northumberland Case Study Cambois First School, Meadowdale Middle School and Northumberland County Council talk about changes they made, how Small Step Improvements worked for them and how they are continuing to keep the group together.
To view our initial findings and case studies please click the initial findings link below.
