Special Needs

Too many cooks

Looked After children can have ten social workers at a time and are often shipped to a new children’s home every year. But a new model being piloted - ‘Social Pedagogy’ – is claimed to give children stability and security. Martin Thomas reports.

Looked After children can have ten social workers at a time and are often shipped to a new children’s home every year. But a new model being piloted – ‘Social Pedagogy’ – is claimed to give children stability and security. Martin Thomas reports.

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      string(305) "a socialenvironment in which healthierfood is more attractive and mor eaccessible. We also need a policyof price discrimination in favourof  healthier  options, whichencourages famil ies  t o buyhealth y fo o d and chi ldren toreco gnise and accept it.To get children to ea t morehealthily we must, as ..."
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      string(5568) "a socialenvironment in which healthierfood is more attractive and mor eaccessible. We also need a policyof price discrimination in favourof  healthier  options, whichencourages famil ies  t o buyhealth y fo o d and chi ldren toreco gnise and accept it.To get children to ea t morehealthily we must, as part of a whole school approach,ensure that nutritional education is carr ied throughfrom theory in the classroom t o practic e in the diningroom. There is also a need for gr eater nutritionaleducation for parents. No amount of nutr itionaleducation is going to work, however, if schools do notallow pupils sufficient time to eat lunch. It is also vitalthat the school has a fo od policy which is applied toevery asp ect of school life including packed lunches– the cont ents of which are not controlled by any68CateringCateringCateringCateringCatering School mealsManaging Schools Today November/December 2005nutritional standards. In fact , the Fo od StandardsAgency’s 2004 packed lunch survey revealed that theywere less nutritious than school meals.The Healthy Living Blueprint also suggested that“food eaten in school can encourage pupils to developa taste for food low in salt, sugar and fat ”. L ACA believesthat unless society as a whole moves towards productswith less salt, sugar and fat , and childr en are notexper iencing an across-the-board reduction both inand out of school, then they will b e receiving mixed‘taste messages’.Scho ol cat erers across the coun try have alreadybeen proactive for some time in reducing the levelsof salt, sugar and fat in cooking. But with the last 20years having focused less on school meal provision asan essential education ser vice, much school kitchenspace has been lost to classro oms. Under theseconditions, it is not realistic to think that school mealscan be co oked entir ely from raw pr oduc e withoutsourcing some pr e-prepar ed ingredients frommanufacturers. LACA is working closely with schoolcatering suppliers to help develop new recipes andpro ducts which have reduced salt , sugar and fatcontent suitable for school use.LACA agrees with the principle of increasing the useof fresh, seasonal, locally sourced and organic food inschool meals wherever p ossible, and many schoolcaterers around the country are endeavouring to dojust that . There are many examples of good practice andmany school caterers are doing an excellent job despiteoperating in difficult circumstances and within tightconstraints.While local authority caterers would like to work moreclosely with local suppliers, there are difficulties inobtaining enough organic or local produce. To achieveeconomies of scale, school meal providers operate large-scale, centrally managed purchasing policies. Many small,loc al producers cannot meet or sustain these supplylevels. In addition, the Government needs to undertakeregulat ory refor m which enhances rather than hinderslocal pro curement by public sector caterers.New standardsMan y are calling for the curren t fo od group-basednutritional standards introduced by the Governmentin 2001 to be replaced by nutrient-based standards ,as were introduced b y the Scottish Parliamen t in 2003.While improved standards ar e inevitable, we shouldremember that whether nutr ient- or foo d group-based, they will be of little benefit to any child unlessthe fo o d gets int o their  mouths and stomachs.Children must reco gnise and understand what theyare eating.Limiting choice has also been mooted but this toowould need t o go hand in hand with limiting thefr eedom that curren tly allows secondary pupils toleave school at lunch times. And limiting choice stillwould not mean the food gets into st omachs unlesschildr en want to eat what is on their plates. Choiceand freedom have been etched into our culture andinto our children’s way of life. Endeavouring to reversetha t trend thr ough school  meals  would be ac onsiderable challenge.LACA believes that the current foo d culture in thisc ountry would make it unlikely that radical changes toscho ol meals would br ing about the majorimpro vements everyone is anticipating in children’sfoo d consumption in schools. A more likely result issimply fo od wastage.I f menus with more ‘ home-cook ed’, traditionaldishes and less pro cessed f oo d are required thenscho ol meal  con trac ts must include this  in thespecification. These higher levels of ser vice w ouldmean higher f o od, lab our, infrastruc ture andop erational  c osts. LA CA is  pleased that theG over nment has committed £280m for school mealimpro vemen ts and is  keen to see this  moneychannelled appr opriately to ensure a better qualityand range of ingredients and k itchen and diningfaci l i t ies . T he Go vernment needs to c ommit toimproved, mandatory nutritional standards; other wise,impro ving school fo od will be a very long, laboriousand disjoint ed process.In summary, LACA wants to see a return to a schoolmeals service with health and welfare values, a realisticimprovement programme and an education frameworkthat sees school meals as an essential education servicerather than an additional income stream. While changingchildren’s diets is everyone’s responsibility, school mealshave a role to play in the health of the next generationand it is time to start engaging with the skilled workforceof school caterers in this country to make sure that wehave the means to do the job.There is no quick fixfor children’s attitudesto foods and theirdietar y  habits.We need wider,fundamental changes insociety and the education system"
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Leadership

Too many headlines not enough cooks

1 Nov 2006

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In this programme, cooking is seen as the key connection, the activity at the heart of good food education, empowering children and adults to take control of their food lives and longer term health.”The Cooking Buses Focus on Food’s schools and community outreach programme is spearheaded by The Cooking Buses, unique full-size travelling teaching kitchens housed within expandable, articulated vehicles, which open out into state-of-the-art food learning environments.Highly experienced qualified teachers on each of the five Cooking Buses teach over 40,000 individuals per annum from children aged 4 – 19 and they train 2,500 teachers to teach curriculum-linked cooking, healthy eating and food safety. Workshops for parents and others in the community provide vital culinary skills coupled with nutritional and dietary advice.Cooking Buses are sponsored by the Governments of England, Scotland and Wales, the BIG Lottery, a Regional Development Agency and The Helen Hamlyn Trust. 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Uncategorised

The focus on food campaign

6 Sep 2009

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      string(4127) "primaryleadershipTODAY • Issue:11/1218…a school cookchool meals are rarely out of the news these days. Whateveryour view the fact remains that we rely on school cooks acrossthe country to come up with the goods. But what is it like behindthe servery?SA School cook19Issue:11/12 • primaryleadershipTODAYHi. My name is Julie. I work for Warwickshire county caterers serving healthy meals to schools in the Warwickshire area. I workedfor the company for four years as a mobile supervisorbefore gaining my own kitchen. I’ve been here nowfor a year and love it. I’m fortunate in having a greatteam of four other ladies. Sandra has been a foodservices assistant for thirty-three years, Jane forover eleven years and Michelle (my older sister!) forfour years.We try to encourage children to try new recipesand sometimes they even ask for seconds! This is anoutline of my week. I hope you enjoy reading whatwe get up to from Monday to Friday.Monday – 8.15 startWe only have four for breakfast. That’s low. We putaway the frozen foods after delivery and then it’s alook at the day’s menu. It’s a new one for the winterso we’ve not got the hang of it yet. It’s just guesswork as to what the children will go for. Bonfire lunch– bangers and mash – went well. We have severalMuslim children so we have to remember to orderhalal sausages for them. Then it’s on to puddings– toffee apple sponge. Surprisingly that didn’t go sowell. Popped some in to the secretary. Left at 2.15.Tuesday – 8.15 startEleven for breakfast today. K reminded me that hewanted a packed lunch. We will try anything to get himto eat. Fishfingers and sauté potatoes – the childrenliked this. Muffin, custard and chocolate whip – whata lot of mess. A big delivery came today and I needto catch up on paperwork so 2.30 finish. Had to pickup son as he’d fallen and hurt his knee – only justhad his cast off!Wednesday 8.15 startTwelve for breakfast today. Think I might start to puthot chocolate on as it’s too cold for juice. Got thesweet and sour sauce on the go for the chicken. Aswe transport to two other schools they go out at 11.00everyday. Daryl our delivery driver transports for us.Chicken on with fish again. Good thing the childrenlike fish. Pudding today was chocolate cracknel andpeppermint custard – that brought back memories ofmy own childhood school dinners. Lots of seconds.Phoned the date and numbers through to the officefor Christmas lunch. Can’t think about that – not fora few weeks. K was late for dinner – a good job wesaved him one. Finished on time at 2.00.Thursday 8.15 startOnly nine for breakfast. Got tins ready to cookfood in as usual. I have to name them – beans,jacket potatoes etc. as I may get them in the wrongtransporting boxes. Jam sponges and custard today.Yes, custard again. Hurray, my delivery company havesent me vegetarian jelly. I’ve only been requesting itfor 6 months. Normally we have to say to the Muslimchildren ‘you can’t have jelly, sorry’ as it containsbeef gelatine.The jelly didn’t set very well – nothing I can do now.Two hundred yorkies. Very messy dinner today, batterand sponge and jam everywhere. 2.15 finish today– very late. K ate all his lunch today. He smiled too.Friday 8.15 startFish and chips today. Just right having fish on aFriday. Our numbers go up especially when chipsare on. Made flapjack for pudding. Then on to homemade coleslaw. The children have fruit and veg andbrown bread every day – so I do those. Pop into myoffice to do the paper work. Not so much for the endof the week. Have several children not bringing theirdinner money. Awful to try and chase this up. Musthave  a word with the head. It should be no money, nodinner – but I can’t do that – maybe I’m too soft?ProfileJulie Jean Checkley is a married mother of three boys, 17, 15 and 12. Julie has alwaysworked as a cook, starting with helping her mother cooking Sunday lunches in abusy kitchen. Julie has also worked in retail for eight years and as a delivery driverdelivering frozen foods. She joined Warwickshire County Caterers in 2001."
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Leadership

…a school cook

18 May 2008

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Leadership

No such thing as a free lunch

1 Nov 2006