EDUCATION
Councils urged to think smart about school catering L
ocal authorities can boost turnover for school catering services
by thousands of pounds with simple changes to school canteens and kitchens, according to new figures from the School Food Trust.
The organisation, which is leading the work to encourage more children to eat a healthy meal at school, says councils that join with their schools to think differently about issues such as queuing, cramped dining rooms or waste in the kitchen have already increased their turnover by up to £63,000.
The figures emerged from a programme launched to help
councils and schools find their own solutions to issues which can prevent children from wanting to eat in the canteen or kitchens from running efficiently – without investing large amounts of capital.
The first four local authorities to take part increased their turnover by an average of £41,000, with one council seeing a rise of more than £63,000.
School Food Trust chairman, Rob Rees, said: “At a time when local authorities are scrutinising every single penny they spend and budgets are being squeezed from all sides, these councils and schools have proved that there are still lots of things you can do
to improve school catering which really don’t cost the earth.
“It’s a win, win, win – this is a way to encourage more children to eat healthy school meals, which means they will behave better and do better at school. At the same time, council catering services have more customers – and you don’t have to spend lots of money to achieve it.”
More than 200 schools have taken part in the programme across England so far, meaning that around 92,000 children will have seen changes in their canteens.
Schools have developed solutions including buddy systems to
help younger students feel more confident in the dining area, new table layouts to improve capacity and policies allowing packed lunch students to sit with school lunch students - which all helped to encourage more children through the canteen doors.
The School Food Trust is now inviting local authorities to try the programme with their schools in January, at a series of workshops with industry experts in Birmingham. It offers a tailor-made package for local authorities wanting to run the workshops solely for their schools – visit
www.schoolfoodtrust.org. uk/ssi for more information and registration details.
A
Scots pupils to learn from babies in the classroom n innovative
programme involving schoolchildren
learning from the interaction between a parent and baby in the classroom is being introduced in mainland Britain for the first time today when it launches in Lanarkshire.
The Roots of Empathy
programme started in Canada in 1996 and has been shown to have a dramatic impact in reducing levels of aggression among children and making them more aware and responsive to the feelings of other people.
It also reduces problem
behaviour, including bullying and fighting.
It is being introduced in Lanarkshire in a partnership between North Lanarkshire Council and leading charity Action for Children Scotland with funding provided by the Scottish Government.
Nov/Dec 10
Roots of Empathy is a structured programme that teaches primary schoolchildren how to interact in a nurturing manner by bringing a real baby and parent into the classroom.
By giving the children the opportunity to observe the attentive, loving interaction between parent and the “tiny teacher”, the children become more competent in understanding their own feelings and the feelings of others.
Action for Children has recruited local parents and their babies to visit the eight schools in North Lanarkshire that are taking part in the project.
They will take part in nine classroom visits, each lasting 30 minutes, over the course of the next 12 months.
The programme will be led by Action for Children staff trained in the Roots of Empathy methods. They will introduce the
sessions and pay follow up visits to classes in a total of 27 sessions.
Roots of Empathy has been extensively evaluated and shown to have a long-lasting positive impact on the behaviour of pupils. Since 1996, it has been delivered in more than 12,600 Canadian classrooms.
It has spread to the United States, New Zealand and most recently the Isle of Man, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
This is the first time it has been introduced in mainland Britain. It has also been endorsed by the World Health Organization and the Dalai Lama, in addition to several senior politicians, including the UK Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith.
The pilot programme in North Lanarkshire has been funded for three years. It will be targeted at pupils in primary five and will be
pse 33
delivered to a total of 60 classes over the three years. It will be subject to evaluation and, if successful, it is hoped it will then be rolled out to more schools across Scotland.
Scotland’s community safety minister Fergus Ewing said: “The Scottish Government is committed to preventing youth offending by early intervention wherever possible.
“This exciting project has an impressive record of reducing aggression and bullying among young people in the classroom, helping them to improve their social skills and paving the way for better behaviour as they progress through school and beyond.”
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