FOOD FOR LIFE Rikke
Bruntse-Dahl introduces the Food for Life
Partnership and its work in supporting schools to provide healthier and sustainable school meals
T
HE FOOD for Life Partnership works with more than 2,500 schools across England to transform food culture. This is done through supporting caterers and cooks in providing healthier and more environmentally sustainable school meals and by
encouraging schools to provide cooking lessons, on-site food growing, visits to local farms and make improvements to the dining area. From enrolment with the programme to receiving
their Bronze, Silver or Gold award, meal take-up in participating schools increases on average by 23 per cent, with some of the best practice Food for Life Partnership schools reporting take-up of more than 80 per cent. The Food for Life Partnership takes a whole-
school approach to decision-making, involving catering staff, teachers, families and the pupils themselves – promoting personal responsibility and ownership. Schools report that the programme helps them
to improve the curriculum. The kitchen and garden make excellent learning environments for literacy and numeracy, as well as history, geography and science. Headteachers report improvements in attendance,
behaviour, attentiveness in class and attainment, benefits that are also demonstrated by research into food in schools and the link between diet and behaviour. Louise Rosen is headteacher at St John the Baptist
School in east London, where attendance is hitting its highest ever levels at an average of 96 per cent. She said: “The change in the children’s behaviour
when we changed the food from processed to freshly prepared and organic was incredible. They’re much
Independent thinking Lost in the system
I’M AFRAID I may be about to launch into a rant – so look away now if you are of a sensitive disposition! What has driven me to this state of exasperation? The dreaded Department for Education (DfE) database results checking exercise. As many of you will know, on 27 September the
DfE sent out an internet link to all secondary schools which – in theory – should enable them to click easily through to a database where they log-on and check their school’s data. The sheer quantity of data held and the number of different categories are in themselves astounding. Information has been collected
about pupils’ past performance, current examination results, ethnicity, whether they have special needs or English as an additional language, whether they are entitled to free school meals and a whole host of other columns and boxes. The idea is that schools check all of
these data before October 11 and then the DfE will assume that they are accurate, unless verified amendments have been submitted, and a mighty judgement will be made about your school’s performance which will be published to the world at large. I have been trying valiantly – but I
cannot log-in to the site! I cannot find my password from last year and apparently I have to use it. If you click on “forgotten password”, it comes up with a screen saying: security question three, followed by three mysterious xs and a blank box to type in the answer. I have not the foggiest idea what security question three may have been, nor do I understand the significance of the xs. So I emailed for help as suggested – I received
a reply indicating that they were overwhelmed and would reply in due course. I waited and waited for several days but no reply. I tried phoning the helpline – but I was always held in a queue – and by the way, they will only speak to the headteacher or email a new password to the headteacher, and that is me. Now the phone helpline only operates 9am to
5pm – hands up any teachers or heads who only work these hours – and it does not operate at weekends. You are told that you are waiting in a queue because
so many people are phoning that they cannot deal with the volume of calls – well, surprise, surprise! So, I did a very silly thing – I sent another email. Then after a delay I received two responses
by email from two different operatives who both claimed to have reset my username with a new password (and a different one). Ever the optimist, I tried them both – neither worked and then the system locked me out and told me to ask my headteacher (oh, that’s me) to send an email for help or to phone the helpline – of course, it was 5.30pm, and the helpline was closed. So, I still have not unlocked the data! Does it matter, you may ask. Well, I like things to be right and
in past years the DfE has listed pupils who left my school five years ago or who have never even been on roll. Then, to add insult to injury, they have the nerve to do a value-added calculation for my school
– BUT, they refuse to allow me to record the fact that my pupils have English as an additional language or are entitled to free school meals. Yes, we are an independent school,
but we have some 50 home languages and 107 pupils on bursaries, the majority of which are free places and
our pupils would qualify for free school meals. The worst of all worlds – the independence not to have to submit detailed
data, but no escape from the inaccurate calculations and judgements of the mandarins.
I despair. It reminds me of the current inspection debacle
– outstanding state schools have no more inspection, outstanding independent schools can have 19 inspector days over a six-year period and far more if they have large numbers, or boarding or early years. Somehow, the coalition government’s bonfire of red tape seems to be passing the independent sector by. It is enough to make me do more than just see red!
• Marion Gibbs is headmistress of the independent James Allen’s Girls’ School in London.
NASUWT – the largest teachers’ union in the UK
School food – what’s next?
happier and more attentive in class now and 72 per cent of the children now have school meals and even those who previously refused to eat vegetables are trying them for the first time.” The programme also provides valuable life-skills,
which can help to close the attainment and opportunity gap which currently exists between rich and poor people. As most teachers know, school meals often
represent the only nutritious meal in some children’s day. A quarter of children are now overweight or obese, meaning they are more likely to suffer from serious
health problems later in life, costing the NHS an estimated £10 billion a year. Many children are also malnourished, meaning they
lack the vitamins and minerals essential to maximise health and ability to learn. Addressing the improvement of school food and food culture can help to cut the cost of ill-health and give children the ability to take responsibility for their own health and wellbeing now and in the future. Mat Jones from the University of West of England,
who is evaluating the Food for Life Partnership’s work with schools, explained: “Since school meals are
offered in all maintained primary schools and form part of a means-tested programme to provide free school meals to those on low income, approaches that address both health and environmental impact through school meals could have far-reaching impacts on children’s health and could go some way to overcoming income- related inequalities in access to healthy food.” We believe that by involving the whole school
community in improving food culture, and providing healthy and sustainable school meals on a limited budget, every child is given the opportunity to get the start in life they deserve. We therefore have launched a petition asking government to introduce a protected minimum spend per pupil on ingredients for a school lunch, and to encourage all schools to follow the example of the Food for Life Partnership. So, what can schools do? There are many small and
often inexpensive steps headteachers can take to help the caterer improve the lunchtime for pupils – make the dining room a pleasant place to be and suitable to seat all the pupils, for instance, or use a cashless system for quicker queueing. Keeping parents informed and inspired in the
school’s activities around food is important, and parents can be hugely helpful in organising food-related activities such as fairs and farmers’ markets or helping out in gardens and cooking clubs. Asking if the school governors will consider
appointing one of themselves to take responsibility for school meals and food education can be effective, and teachers can introduce the work of the Food for Life Partnership as part of PSHE lessons. There are teaching resources available online. The school council could also be asked to provide support and ideas.
SecEd
• Rikke Bruntse-Dahl is communications manager for the Food for Life Partnership.
Further information
The Food for Life Partnership is a coalition of food and health promotion charities working with schools and communities across England. With the support of a BIG Lottery grant of £16.9 million over five years, the Soil Association, Focus on Food Campaign, Health Education Trust, and Garden Organic are working to change school food culture. It is free for schools to join and receive guidance. To sign the Save Our School Dinners petition,
which calls on government to support a healthy school meal service and promote food education in schools, visit
http://apps.soilassociation.org/schoolmeals/ For more information on Food for Life, visit
www.foodforlife.org.uk
NASUWT The Teachers’ Union FREE MEMBERSHIP
of the largest and most influential teachers’ union Join today
pay NO SUBSCRIPTIONuntil 2011* Online
www.nasuwt.org.uk
or one hassle-free phone call 0121 457 6211
*If you join the NASUWT and agree to pay your 2011 subscription by direct debit, you will receive immediate full membership benefits for the rest of 2010 totally FREE!
SecEd • October 14 2010
7
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16