The new School Food Plan, devised by schools, restaurant owners and the government, is surely something we should be supporting, not despairing at as is happening in some of the recent media coverage. The new standards as outlined in the links below could eventually mean a tangible realisation of nutritional and educational research where it counts most. The recent news stories of school kitchens not being able to cope with this new plan and the new UIFSM (Universal Infant Free School Meals) is clearly a very important matter. Yet, it also seems just as important that we don’t lose touch with the core purpose of these changes – better educational outcomes for more students and less future health and obesity problems for the next generation.
When working with the school business manager and county nurse as PSHE coordinator at my first school, I remember being fascinated at some of the complex systems being used to ensure that children got at least some ‘nutrition’ from their school meals. The new finger scanning technology used for buying canteen food firstly allowed parents to pay dinner money directly to the school and therefore cut out their children’s morning shop visits which were leading to daily diets of energy drinks, sherbet tubes and bags upon bags of Starburst. Needless to say, stopping this in the short term whilst educating them further about healthy eating in the long term was crucial to getting them to learn and, in many cases, behave.
The finger scanning technology also allowed the tracking of what was bought when and so rules and limits could then be added. For example, pupils could only get something sweet at break time if it had sufficient starchiness to it, i.e. an iced bun rather than an iced sugar drink. They could also only get a dessert at lunchtime if they had a main course, and so on. Another good start in terms of a short term solution, but still a far cry from balanced nutrition and students making healthy choices for themselves. Despite running healthy eating sessions with all year groups, peer pressure and eating habits at home made it feel like a real battle.
Consolidating children’s eating habits and healthy choices via routine from a young age seems a much more hopeful strategy. It is this sort of holistic-based long term planning and foresight that we need more of in education at present, so listening to the disparaging comments about it being yet another failed government initiative is somewhat disheartening. Let’s talk budgets and kitchen spaces, yes, but in a way that says ‘how can we help?’ not ‘well that’s that then, I’m off.” Throwing the baby out with the bath water comes to mind.
Useful links
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-30644523
http://www.schoolfoodplan.com/
http://www.schoolfoodplan.com/standards/
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Rachel Wallace is a former English teacher and KS3/4 Leader. Easyread is an online intervention for children with reading difficulties, dyslexia,auditory processing problems and more. www.easyreadsystem.com