Eating a healthy meal is known to improve behaviour, concentration and the ability to achieve. That’s why it’s especially important for children to eat a delicious, healthy meal at school.
We are very lucky that our children can enjoy healthy and delicious meals for lunch every day, prepared on site by the wonderful team of cooks in our kitchen. The team are part of Barking and Dagenham Catering Services, who have developed their menus in consultation with pupils, schools and parents to ensure pupils enjoy their meals. The food they provide meets all nutritional standards and guidelines, including Food for Life and the School Food Plan. And they cost a very reasonable £2.30 per day. Indeed, many pupils are entitled to free school meals – including all those in Reception, Year One and Year Two – which can save parents hundreds of pounds. You can check if your child is eligible quickly, easily and confidentially by applying here.
However delicious our school meals may be, we know some families prefer their child to have a packed lunch. It is of course equally important that these provide the healthy and nutritious meal our children need to concentrate and succeed at school.
This is why we spoke to children from Years 1-6 last Friday in assembly and sent out a letter to all parents reminding everybody of the importance of not placing chocolate, crisps and sweet or fizzy drinks in packed lunches.
Sitting with children in the dining hall this week and taking a look in lunch boxes, it has been great to see so many of them have embraced this healthy approach. Children proudly showed delicious looking sandwiches and mouth-watering pasta dishes, accompanied by fresh chopped vegetable batons and fresh and dried fruits, to be washed down with pure fruit juices and water. Great stuff.
However, the week has not been without its moments of controversy.
Are mini-cheddars a healthy alternative to crisps?
Is chocolate cake a healthier option than a chocolate biscuit?
These questions have shown that we at school have not provided clear enough guidance on these matters. To address this, we are busily rewriting our School Food Policy.
In the meantime, here are some good websites that give advice on what to put in a healthy lunchbox:
Change4Life: Healthier lunchboxes
Another area of controversy has been our decision to remove unhealthy items from children’s lunch boxes, replace them with fruit, and leave a note reminding parents of our quest for healthy meals and letting them know they can collect the removed items from the school office.
I understand that part of parents disquiet at this approach was that they felt they had not been properly informed that this would be happening. For this I apologise. This information, whilst given to children in assembly, was not included on the letter. In future I will be sure to share any such information as widely as possible, in as many forms as possible.
I also understand that for some others it was the approach itself that was controversial. Please be assured that we set off down this path with best intentions and with knowledge that this approach had been trialled successfully elsewhere. Indeed, the issue was discussed in the House of Lords with Lord Nash, an education minister, making it clear that: ‘There is nothing to prevent schools from having a policy of inspecting lunch boxes for food items that are prohibited’, and that ‘a member of staff may confiscate, keep or destroy such items found as a result of the search.’
Again, I apologise if this upset any parents. It is the school’s intention only to make your child’s experience of school as enjoyable and successful as possible, and to do so in partnership with you.
With this in mind I turn to other happenings in the dining hall this week.
On Tuesday our dining hall was turned into an artic wonderland and we were visited by two giant penguins and a very accomplished sushi chef. As winners of Barking and Dagenham Catering Service’s recent competition, our children got to enjoy sushi taster pots as starters to their packed or cooked lunches. The sushi was cooked in full view at one end of the hall and the children got to ask questions of the chef and their helpers.
It was a wonderful experience. Albeit a slightly surreal one.
