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Transforming school food and drink
Welcome to the Leeds School Meals website.
Eating a healthy school meal will help you achieve your change 4 life goals
NEWS
New! Tips on how to set up a happy healthy breakfast club.
Breakfast clubs are not intended as a replacement of quality family time. However, they can offer an alternative option when, breakfast in another environment is a welcome choice or more convenient. We also know that missing breakfast can reduce the ability to learn. Besides preparing students to learn, a breakfast club can also provide a positive social period to have fun before school and improve attendance.
‘Children who attend are happier, display better behaviours and manage their emotions more suitably. This allows access to improved learning for all.' (Ofsted 2006)
Many schools in Leeds have established healthy and successful breakfast clubs, this summary sheet aims to aid schools and children centres who are planning to introduce or wish to improve their breakfast club.
New! Resource promoting free school meals - Thrilling Filling Food – all yours for FREE
Education Leeds worked with Leeds pupils and community television network, The Life Channel, to create five one-minute long videos to encourage more eligible children and young people to benefit from free school meals. The films are supported with PSHCE lesson plans. For more information go to free school meal page.
New! Drinks Policy Guidance for Schools
The drinks policy guidance aims to encourage children and young people to choose healthier drinks such as water, milk and fluids that provide nutrients to promote hydration prevent tooth decay and improve performance. It is applicable to schools, youth centres, workplace and other health promotion settings and provides a quick and easy guide to improve the quality of drinks brought into schools. For more information please go to the Packed lunch/Drinks page.
New! A Guide on how to get the best meals service for your school from your Council provider
It is recommended that before renewing their Service Level Agreements schools meet with the provider to negotiate a Service Level Agreement that meets the needs of the school. A general guidance document has been produced by the School Meals Strategy Team and Commissioning, Procurement and Business Development to assist PRUs, SILCs, Children’s Centres, Primary and Secondary schools with their negotiations. For more information, go to the Catering Provision page.
New! School Food Trust - Marketing and Promoting school meals
As part of its range of support, the School Food Trust has developed numerous centrally created and nationally available marketing programmes targeting students and parents. A new addition is Marketing and Design Generator (MADGe) an online resource that is pre populated with resources to promote themes and campaigns that schools can use to market school meals, activities and promotions taking place in the school dining room. Schools can download and design their own posters, letters, stickers and even online adverts with fun and exciting themes and designs tailor made for use in their own schools. For more information go to www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk/madge
New! Research findings released
Since May 2006 and the inception of the Leeds school meal strategy, the school meals team have developed a mix of interventions that aim to increase school meal uptake in partnership. To help inform these actions, Education Leeds commissioned three components of research. This research has helped and will continue to inform and support a range of important interventions including the development and implementation of packed lunch policy; a how to increase free school meal toolkit; investment that aim to improve the dining environment / experience; to name a few. These and many more have been informed through pupil and parents voice to ensure we achieve a school food service that meets their needs, and are available on this website.
1. A two year action research programme investigating why many children in Leeds do not take their free school meal. Please go to Free School Meals for more information.
2. A research study of Leeds school meal cooks to gain further understanding by investigating their opinions on barriers and facilitating factors to improve school meals. Please go to Catering Provision page for more information.
3. A survey of Headteachers, investigating their opinions and gathering insights to improve the school meals service.
View more news...
The aim of the website is to:
- Share best practice
- Provide access to useful resources
- Give everyone an opportunity to comment about their school meal and/or dining room experience.
This site is particularly useful for:
- Dinner ladies and/or Dining Room supervisors
- Cooks
- Students
- Health Professionals
- School staff/Governors
- Anyone with an interest in school meals
The team are keen to ensure this site meets your needs, and will be updating the site with new projects and developments regularly, but if you feel you have some ideas for information that would be useful on the site please let us know.
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