7.1 At national level, the proportion of pupils taking school meals remained fairly steady from 2005 to 2007, at just over 46%4. The proportion of primary pupils taking school meals dropped to 46.3% in 2007, following an increase in 2006. However, the proportion of secondary pupils taking school meals rose from 43.4% to 44.9% in 2007. Uptake of school meals varied across LAs, with some achieving encouraging improvements in the percentages of pupils taking school meals. The proportion of entitled pupils taking free school meals dropped to 67.5% in 2007, following an increase in 2006. The proportion of primary pupils taking free school meals increased from 74.4% in 2005 to 76.2% in 2007. The proportion of secondary pupils taking free school meals dropped from 53.4% in 2005 to 50.1% in 2007. As the data on school meals is collected in January, the impact of Hungry for Success on the uptake of schools meals in secondary schools will not begin to show until data is collected in January 2008.
7.2 The dining environment influenced pupils’ decisions on whether to choose a school meal. In the majority of schools, dining rooms provided a pleasant atmosphere for pupils to eat and socialise with friends. In almost all schools, relationships between catering staff and pupils were very positive. Almost all staff encouraged pupils to take their full meal entitlement and specifically promoted uptake of fruit and vegetables. Staff who worked closely together, and were well informed and actively engaged in the implementation of Hungry for Success, were having a positive impact on food initiatives. In a few schools, poor behaviour and lack of supervision detrimentally affected the atmosphere within the dining room.
7.3 Hungry for Success recommended that improvements to dining rooms, to enhance their atmosphere and ambience and encourage their use as social areas, should be considered as a priority by LAs, and should be taken into account in their wider school estate planning. The report noted the desirability, wherever possible, of provision of a separate dining area. The majority of dining rooms were bright, clean and well maintained. Improvements, including increased service points, blinds, plasma screens and music systems, had been made to the dining rooms in many schools, and a few had benefited from complete refurbishment. Increasing numbers of primary schools had enhanced their dining rooms with examples of pupils’ project work and artwork. One secondary school had used well-developed links with its local church to attract pupils to the dining room and enhance the atmosphere. A volunteer from the church acted as a disc jockey in the dining room each lunchtime and played music requested by pupils. In the majority of secondary schools and a few primary schools inspected, however, dining rooms were too small, and pupils had to cope with cramped and uncomfortable seating. A few primary schools organised two or three sittings for lunch or used classrooms for additional space, to overcome constraints related to the capacity of the dining room. No secondary schools inspected, however, had introduced flexible arrangements for the lunch break to address issues of limited dining capacity. Dining rooms which were either too hot or too cold had a negative impact on pupils’ decisions to use the school meals service. In a few schools, the dining room was in a state of disrepair. A few secondary schools had still to remove branding of products high in sugar and fat from dining room decoration or from vending machines.
Features of good practice: Action to create a pleasant dining environment |
Effective management of the dining environment and enhancing the overall social experience were key aims for one local authority when it commissioned local artists to take up short-term residences in primary schools. Pupils worked alongside the artists to find imaginative ways to improve the environment of dining rooms and related areas. Schools benefited from acquiring original artwork, ranging from murals to ceramics, for display in their dining rooms. Pupils displayed a greater sense of ownership of these areas, and catering and support staff appreciated the improvements to their working environment. |
7.4 In schools where meals were served on moulded plastic trays, the trays proved popular with pupils. In some schools, however, the presentation of food was less attractive as a result of using the moulded trays. Several schools had changed to using colourful china plates to improve the presentation of meals, while a few used plastic plates. Most schools used metal cutlery, which pupils much preferred to the plastic cutlery used in a few.
7.5 Improvements to dining room furniture continued to be made, sometimes using Hungry for Success funding. Many LAs had a phased programme to upgrade dining furniture within their schools. Where facilities for dining were shared or multi-purpose, furniture was quick to clean and easily manoeuvrable. In one school that had purchased round tables, pupils commented that eating lunch had become more sociable as a result. Lack of storage in shared dining rooms still influenced the type of furniture it was possible to provide.
7.6 Some schools had refurbished their servery areas, often installing lower counters in primary schools, which enabled younger pupils to see the food choices more easily. A few had also introduced additional service areas to serve cold food or for pupils to help themselves to salad and drinks. A few LAs were promoting their lunch service by highly visible branding around the servery area. Attractive clearing stations which were easily accessible to all pupils were provided by a few schools.
7.7 The overall quality and presentation of menus in primary schools had improved. The majority of schools displayed their lunch menus at one or more points throughout the school including around the dining room, beside the servery, in classrooms and at the school entrance. Several schools displayed their daily menus illustrated with photographs of the meals, while others displayed plated meals as examples of the food on offer. A few schools displayed menus on their school websites to facilitate discussion of menus by parents and their children. In some schools, teachers discussed the menus in class in the morning, often as part of the collection of meal numbers for that day. A few schools had made innovative use of smart boards and plasma screens for this purpose. A very few schools did not display menus in the dining room or placed menus in locations which could be seen only after meals had been selected.
7.8 The quality, accuracy and accessibility of information about the food and drinks provided in the secondary schools inspected varied considerably. A few schools were providing very good information by:
Too often, however, the information for secondary pupils about food and drink available in school was limited. Daily or weekly menus were not always displayed, or were often unclear. For example, generic menus, which provided information on standard daily items such as baked potatoes and sandwiches, were commonly displayed. However, such menus did not show the main meal choices for each day. Often, menus were displayed only in the dining room, so that only pupils going to the dining room for lunch would be able to find out the choices on offer. Where displays were limited to daily rather than weekly menus, pupils had to attend the dining room daily to find out what was on offer. Weaknesses in menu display also hampered the speed of service as pupils had to ask staff what was available. Information on the price of menu items was also limited in most secondary schools. Pupils felt that they were not able to find out the price of individual items easily, and that price lists were generic and sometimes out of date. They wanted more accurate and accessible information on prices, especially on individual items such as sandwiches and rolls.
7.9 The majority of primary schools were working well to promote school meals and to influence pupils’ food choices. Many cooks organised theme days focused on specific foods, countries, celebrations or events. Pupils were frequently awarded stickers or house points for eating or selecting particular foods. These had greatest impact where the use of stickers was not over frequent. Pupils were positive where incentives including sports vouchers and football tickets were on offer. A few schools had introduced coding to their menus to assist pupils in making healthier choices. The interpretation of the coding was not always clearly understood by pupils or staff and the impact on food selection had not been assessed in all cases. Food sampling proved popular with pupils.
An increasing number of schools used this approach to familiarise pupils with existing menu items. Sometimes catering staff used tasting sessions to gather pupils’ comments on proposed menu items. There were improvements in the presentation of fresh fruit, salads and cooked vegetables which were often more prominent on counters or provided for pupils to serve themselves. Fruit was increasingly provided in ready-to-eat form to encourage uptake. In some schools, limitations of space restricted the scope of these improvements.
7.10 Schools, caterers and LAs used a number of approaches to increase the uptake of school meals, and of healthy choices, in secondary schools. Approaches used included the following.
LAs and schools did not always give sufficient attention to evaluating the success of these approaches. Where initiatives had been reviewed, the evaluations often indicated notable impact in the short-term. However, more attention needed to be given to using sustainable approaches which would have long-term impact.
7.11 Pupils offered a range of reasons for not choosing school meals or making healthy choices. The issues that they raised could be addressed by: