Best in Class
A scheme designed to recognise best practice across the whole school catering provision.
Brampton Infant School

Cumbria
CA8 1UJ
Tel: 020 8270 4100
Tel/fax: 01697 72570

Email: office@bramptoninf.cumbria.sch.uk


How Brampton Infant School changed it’s catering services

Brampton Infant school is a small school consisting of about 150 pupils aged 3-7yrs and had no facilities to cook lunches on site, so school meals were cooked off the premises and transported to the school.

Delegation of school budgets removed the subsidy on the school meal budget in April 2004, which initiated the change to a catering system to allow children to receive a healthy balanced lunch. As part of an HET funded project and with the help of Cumbria Contract Services, a small kitchen was provided to allow cooking on site.

Ideas and suggestions were taken from the dining room staff, the head, teachers and Cumbria Contract Services on what changes were needed and how they could be achieved. Ideas were then discussed with parents, who were also given a taster session where they and their children tasted new menu options. This Whole School Approach contributed to its success.

Children’s preferences were also taken into account during the trial by the kitchen staff listening to the pupils, and meals were adapted accordingly.

Initial plans started in January 2003, and a new kitchen was installed and service started in September 2003.

Improvements to the catering service

  • Introduction of food produced on site, to replace previous meals delivered from Brampton Junior School, which were high quality nutritionally, but not appealing to children.
  • Chairs were removed from a storage area to provide room for a mini-kitchen, which allowed food to be produced on site (see picture below).
  • Menu choices were reduced to allow a simpler menu that could be produced on site, and still conform to government recommendations.
    Visit http://www.healthedtrust.com//schlmlspolicy.htm
    for further details of recommendations.
  • These changes prevented the school from loosing their school meal service.

As it was in the beginning

As it is now

Brampton Infant School Menu
Day Main course Vegetables/potatoes Sweet
Monday
Breaded fish portion
 Waffles and peas Choc ice
Tuesday Cheese pastry Baked beans Cookie and milk
Wednesday Meatballs and gravy Mash potatoes and diced carrots Iced sponge and custard
Thursday Sausage roll or burger in a roll Smiles, grated carrots Orange fruit jelly
Friday Turkey card suite Roast potatoes, spaghetti numbers & coleslaw Muffin

Jacket potatoes and salad are available daily.

Fresh fruit, yoghurt, fruit juices and cheese & biscuits available daily.

Measuring success:

  • The new school meals are very popular with the children.
  • After the pilot study meal uptake was about 10% higher than it had been in previous years.
  • The results chart illustrates that the new service, starting from scratch, has managed within the first term to match and overtake the meal uptake figures that were recorded for the same time of year under the previous system.
  • The important point to note is that the children are still able to consume a hot meal despite the problems that the school had encountered. The school worked together to ensure that this was achieved.
Where next?
  • Some of the current nursery school children stay at school all day and consume packed lunches, the school would like to start introducing these children to hot meals.
  • During the summer term the school wishes to encourage the nursery school children to consume school meals when they return in the September to start primary school. This will hopefully be achieved by taster sessions of the school menu with parents and children, similar to that carried out when the project began.
Health Education Trust
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enquiries @HealthEdTrust.com