GENERAL NEWS NEWS...
Dolce Schools Catering secures over 100 new contracts
Family-run, independent education caterer Dolce Schools Catering is beginning the academic year by working with 102 new schools.
The new contracts bring Dolce’s total daily meal provision to over 130,000 pupils nationwide, with the family-run business now catering for 1 in 20 schools
across England, and continuing to see strong growth in Wales. The wins are the result of months of dedicated work from the Dolce team, marking a significant milestone in the company’s continued expansion.
The summer will be a busy period for the business, with major dining area redesigns underway at a number of high schools. These large-scale transformations will include full fit-outs of school dining halls and the creation of exciting new food courts, designed to appeal to students with global flavours and modern trend-led menus.
Each food concept has its own identity, branding and dedicated menu, offering pupils choice, variety and dishes tailored to a wide range of tastes.
Concepts include: • The Street Kitchen: Street food style favourites from around the world • Casa Brasilia: Afro-Portuguese inspired dishes • BOXT: Pan Asian cuisine • Italian Kitchen: Classic and contemporary Italian comfort food • The Toast Office: Creative hot sandwich and toastie offerings
Scott Curtis, Managing Director of Dolce Schools Catering, commented: “Winning 102 new contracts is a fantastic achievement, and a reflection of the commitment, creativity and skill of our team. We’re proud to support new schools and we remain focused on delivering fresh, exciting food that pupils genuinely enjoy. From our catering service to our design and fit-outs, we want school dining to be an experience - not just a meal.”
Teachers sound alarm on absences due to poverty
Stark new research has laid bare how a lack of access to hygiene products due to poverty is forcing children out of the classroom, with UK teachers reporting that it’s causing pupils to miss an average of 6.5 school days per year. The result? Children missing out on vital learning and struggling with mental health and socialising.
As the government’s Child Poverty Taskforce prepares to publish its
strategy, new research from laundry brand smol, with support from national charity The Hygiene Bank, show a 68% year-on-year surge in state school teachers reporting daily instances of pupils experiencing hygiene poverty. Teachers believe that the millions of children in hygiene poverty are more likely to under-perform academically (75%), be bullied (85%), become socially isolated (84%) and suffer poor physical health (80%) as families in poverty struggle with prioritising hygiene amidst rising costs.
Teachers say hygiene poverty is disrupting every aspect of school life, as more than 4 in 5 (89%) say pupils facing hygiene poverty find social integration harder than their peers, with over a third of teachers (39%) witnessing children avoiding eye contact and almost half seeing them sitting away from peers (49%). Teachers note that children in hygiene poverty are avoiding PE (48%), isolating themselves from classmates, and over half (52%) are too embarrassed to attend school at all. In fact, more than 4 in 5 (84%) teachers believe these students are more likely to miss school than their peers.
Staff also report a worrying range of emotional and behavioural signs amongst pupils affected by hygiene poverty including low self-esteem (68%), low mood and anxiety (55%), visible distress (30%) and even lashing out verbally and/or physically (28%).
The issue was brought to life through a powerful public campaign entitled “Marked Absent”, featuring a Back to School window display in London’s financial district with five real school uniforms worn by children living in hygiene poverty, anonymously donated for the installation.
The window aims to raise awareness and drive donations to smol’s Suds in Schools programme, which has provided free mini-launderettes to more than 100 schools in the UK.
Avantis Education advances ClassVR solution with hardware innovations
Avantis Education has advanced its ClassVR hardware suite with the launch of two new headsets to meet the evolving needs of global students. Xcelerate and Xplorer are set to deliver ClassVR’s most powerful yet practical immersive learning experiences to date – combining best-in-class VR/AR design with proven education pedigree. Xcelerate is the first ClassVR headset made specifically for high school and further education. Designed to maximise student comfort, Xcelerate delivers six-degrees-of- freedom head and controller tracking plus an
innovative 90° flip visor that supports seamless transitions between immersive learning and real-world collaboration.
The advanced four-camera spatial tracking system allows for greater precision and provides a boundary safety system that makes it easy for teachers to bring exciting VR/AR experiences into the classroom. “Everything about Xcelerate has been designed with education in mind
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– like all our ClassVR solutions,” explains Gillian Rhodes, Chief Marketing Officer, Avantis Education. “That means putting the student front and centre with ergonomics and experience, and ensuring it’s a plug-and- play technology that teachers feel confident to deploy and manage in the classroom.” While Xcelerate opens up ClassVR to the high school and further education spaces, Xplorer delivers a next-gen headset for K-12. Developed in direct response to demand for more advanced and sophisticated VR/ AR experiences, Xplorer is built to deliver
richer learning with a new 4K Ultra-HD display, upgraded LCD screen, and enhanced audio.
Xcelerate and Xplorer are available to schools globally through a network of approved partners. To make it easier to bring immersive learning into the classroom without large upfront costs, Avantis Education has also introduced an affordable monthly subscription for schools in the UK and US.
September 2025
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