Ofsted says schools making progress on healthy eating

It also finds that in the majority of schools visited, food is attractive, nutritious and well prepared. Many schools have succeeded in increasing the take-up of free school meals by giving better advice and support to parents. But less thought has been given to providing advice to families whose incomes are low but who are not entitled to free school meals. The report, 'Food in schools - Progress in implementing the new standards', shows that some of these parents have to budget carefully to pay for school meals. Families on lower incomes, with a lack of transport, may also be limited to a smaller range of cheap food that is available locally but not sufficiently healthy. Ofsted Director of Education and Care, Patrick Leeson, said: "This Ofsted report shows the encouraging progress schools are making to promote healthy eating, meet nutritional standards and make good school meals affordable. "Children need good food at school to support their progress and achieve high standards of learning." Beverley Baker, LACA Chair says: "It is most satisfying to see that the latest Ofsted Report shows that school caterers are producing nutritious as well as tasty, appealing school meals and that their hard work and commitment to encouraging children to make healthier choices is beginning to pay off. Great progress has been made over the past five years to bring about positive improvements. School meals can make an important contribution to children's lifestyles as well as academic and physical achievement whilst also helping to fight the obesity epidemic. "With this message in mind, we must fight for the Government to maintain school meal funding after 2011. "At a time when family budgets are stretched to the limit, we must also continue to lobby the Government to ensure that, following the outcome of the current pilot schemes, eligibility is extended so that more children defined as living in poverty, can benefit from a free school meal." Ofsted found that the schools it visited adopted a variety of approaches to extending pupils' understanding of nutritious food. These included healthy eating clubs to learn about the importance of a balanced diet. Good schools often also collaborated with local sports clubs to promote physical exercise. The report says many schools were working hard to encourage greater take-up of meals. Successful initiatives include 'meal deals', schemes to book tables to celebrate special events, free meals for new pupils and 'tasting' events for friends and family. School breakfast clubs enabled pupils from poorer families to eat before lessons which helped to improve their attention span and mood in class. An electronic, cashless system for lunches set out parents' allowances more clearly and enabled them to pay more easily. Some schools ran 'themed' days to give pupils practical experiences of handling and preparing food. Several gave children formative experiences working on local farms and allotments or with professional chefs that greatly increased their understanding. The report adds that by working together, schools, local authorities, parents and members of the business community can help more families provide their children with healthy food at low cost. Responding to the report, School Food Trust chief executive Judy Hargadon said: "The aims of good school food are to improve children's health and help them perform at their best, and this report gives us a snapshot of schools using lunchtime to serve up a very clear message about healthy eating to pupils. "Some findings echo our own research about the impact of the new national standards for food in primary schools, which showed that children do have healthier options on their plates now and that the food on offer in dining rooms has fundamentally changed." The full Ofsted report can be accessed at: www.ofsted.gov.uk.