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by David Tebbutt of John Hellins Primary School, Potterspury, Northamptonshire

During my target-setting meeting with the Healthy School co-ordinator, it was suggested to me that we needed to develop a Healthy Snack Policy to gain our Silver Award. We have always thought ourselves to be a ‘Healthy School’ and achieved the Bronze Award in 2000.

I had heard examples of other schools that had tried to implement a similar policy and had to cope with much parental resistance. How were we going to achieve a Healthy Snack Policy without much disharmony?

Having given much thought to it we met as a staff to decide on the best way forward. What did we hope to achieve with this Policy? During this meeting it was stated that it would give the children a greater understanding of a healthy diet, improve what they actually eat, place greater importance in having a good breakfast, reduce litter in the playground and allow us to achieve the Healthy Schools Silver Award.

We felt the ideas of Healthy Snacks should come from the children themselves. We have an active School Council with two representatives from each class. We hold regular meetings to discuss how they feel the school could be further improved. These School Council members then feedback to their classes on the current developments within the school.

During one such meeting I asked them what they would feel about a Healthy Snack Policy. I explained what it would mean and I was met with an instant enthusiasm and an opinion that it would benefit everyone, including the staff. They felt though they would prefer to question the whole school before coming to any firm conclusions. We developed a questionnaire together and the representatives took it back to their respective classes.

There was a resounding response to the suggestions with 96% of the 100 pupils in the school keen that we should have a Healthy Snack Policy. Next was to develop a questionnaire for parents. We sought advice from the Healthy School co-ordinator and a dietician to develop a list of possible snack items. We tried to ensure that we encouraged a balanced diet, not just fruit and vegetables but carbohydrates as well.

The results of the parent questionnaires were a strong consensus in favour of the idea. We amended the snack list (see illustration) in view of some of the responses and spoke to parents who showed misgivings.

As a result the school year of 2002 started off with a new Healthy Snack policy. Staff agreed also to support the policy and leave their chocolate until lunchtime!! A letter was sent out to parents stating the school’s new stance on snacks. We are able to monitor the snacks as members of staff are on duty at playtime and it is quite a rare event where we have to say to a child ‘leave it to lunchtime.’

Children have continued to be enthusiastic about the scheme and have often remarked about how little litter there is now in the playground. Stickers and stamps are often given out to those children who bring to school healthy snacks.

It has proved to be a very rewarding and worthwhile scheme for the school. We feel the importance has been that children now have a greater understanding of healthy diets and the Healthy Schools Silver Award would now just be an additional bonus.

Here are some comments from children within the school about the Healthy Snack Policy.

• I think the idea is excellent. It is making me think about what I am eating.

• I don’t like it at all because I used to eat either chocolate or crisps at playtime.

• I think it is working well. I think it helps children to understand more about healthy diets.

• It’s quite good but sometimes I don’t like what my mum gives me.

• I think it is a really good idea.

• It’s O.K but I am not that keen on fruit and vegetables.