Continuous improvement leads to national award - Thomas Fairchild Community School
Case Study: Thomas Fairchild Community School
Region: Shoreditch, East London
Organisation: Primary School
Description:
There are 245 children from over 20 different nationalities at this primary and nursery school and 58% of them get free school meals. The catering is organised by a private company that was set up to service 16 schools, they opted out back in September 2002. This school is in one of the nation’s poorest boroughs, Hackney in East London, but still manages to serve organic food daily. Each meal costs the school 66p and the cost to the pupil is £1.60.
Thomas Fairchild has committed to working with the Food for Life team. The aims were for overall improvement on uptake of school meals that provide a healthier, more varied and nutritious approach to catering. The improvements have been ongoing for some time now, but the school was recognised recently when it picked up this years Times ‘Body & Soul Food Education Award’.
Benefits
The first areas the school worked on starting in 2002 were:
- Surveying children and parents to understand their views on ways in which the school meal service could be improved.
- Improving the quality of key ingredients such as beef, chicken and vegetables. The school began buying organic foods from farms in Norfolk and Berkshire.
- Setting up a fruit and vegetable co-operative for parents of children at the school.
- Setting and working to meet nutritional targets at the school using the Food for Life standards and reducing the levels of processed foods.
Lessons learned during implementation
Each year the school holds an International Food Evening, where parents are invited to bring along food for sharing with other parents. This event was also used to talk to parents about the quality of food in the school meals and how the different cuisines of the children could be incorporated into the daily lunch menus. Now a third of the produce is organic, with halal options and a cosmopolitan menu.
The key to success was re-training the catering staff and, in September 2005, the Headmaster Mr Alasdair Friend gave them a substantial pay rise. This has been possible due to the increased uptake of meals resulting in a profit.
Future developments
If the catering company feels that the Food For Life challenges have been a success at Thomas Fairchild, they have committed to taking the message about local, organic and nutritious food out to the other 15 schools in the group.
Further information
Website: www.thomasfairchild.hackney.sch.uk
Thomas Fairchild Community School
Napier Grove
London N1 7HX
Tel: 020 7253 9469
Page published: 8 December 2005