Food and Drink in School Policy

At Hawkhurst CE Primary School we seek to be a healthy school. It is important that we consider all elements of our work to ensure that we promote health awareness in all members of the school community. We can provide a valuable role model to pupils and their families with regard to food and healthy eating patterns.

Background

Hawkhurst Church of England Primary School is located on the western side of the village of Hawkhurst in the Weald of Kent. The Church with which we are associated is the Parish Church of St. Laurence, also within the village. The home backgrounds of the children attending the school are vastly different, with a distinct impact on the levels of attainment and behaviour within each class.

With this in mind, we recognise the role of the school in supporting children’s knowledge and understanding of a healthy diet and lifestyle. It is our very great hope that this will affect the health and well-being of families in our community.

Rationale

At Hawkhurst CE Primary School we seek to be a healthy school. It is important that we consider all elements of our work to ensure that we promote health awareness in all members of the school community. We can provide a valuable role model to pupils and their families with regard to food and healthy eating patterns.

Through effective leadership, the school ethos and the curriculum, all school staff can bring together all elements of the school day to create an environment which supports a healthy lifestyle.

Aim

To ensure that all aspects of food and nutrition in school promote the health and wellbeing of pupils, staff and visitors to our school.

Objectives

The aim of this policy will be met through the following objectives:

• To ensure that we are giving consistent messages about food and health
• To give our pupils the information they need to make healthy choices
• To promote health awareness
• To contribute to the healthy physical development of all members of our school community
• To encourage all children to take part in schemes to encourage healthy eating

Breakfast Club

Breakfast Club operates on a daily basis in the school for all children. We target some children who we know have little or no opportunity for breakfast in the mornings at home.

The food offered is healthy and is consistent with a healthy diet. We provide toast, bread, low fat spread, fruit jam, marmite, yoghurt or fruit smoothies, and low salt and low sugar fortified cereals. Sometimes bacon sandwiches and baked beans are served. Children choose from water, orange juice and apple juice to drink.

Tesco runs a charity called Fair Share and supports the school with donations of bakery goods when there is a surplus on a Monday evening.

Snack

All Foundation Stage children have a break time snack of cut and washed fruit, which is shared in a family setting for all class members. Children are given responsibility for passing the fruit to others and for helping to clear it away. Children under the age of five years old also receive milk for free.

Children in Key Stage 1 are given a break time snack of washed fruit or vegetables. As with the children of Foundation Stage, this is provided through the Free Fruit and Vegetable Scheme.

Children in Key Stage 2 bring a healthy snack for break time. We encourage them to ensure that this is fruit. Snacks which are high in fat or sugar are not permitted (e.g. sweets, chocolate bars, crisps). Children older than five years old can have milk, which parents can purchase through the school.

School Lunches and Packed Lunches

All our school meals are provided by a contracted caterer, who has a healthy food policy as part of their tender to Kent County Council. This includes the use of fresh fruit and vegetables each day as a choice for the children. They provide hot, cold and vegetarian options, which pay regard to nutritional value and healthy options.

Many children bring a packed lunch to school. We regularly include items about the contents of these and we do not allow sweets, chocolate bars or fizzy drinks.

Crisps are permitted in packed lunches on Fridays only.

Water For All

Water is freely available throughout the day to all members of the school community. No water fountains are located inside the toilet blocks. A water fountain is located outside the school building, adjacent to the Year 3 and 4 cloakroom.

Children have access to water throughout the school day.

Class teachers remain conscious of the need for children to consume water during the day as well as taking brain breaks. Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 children are also actively encouraged to drink water at their snack time. Plastic beakers are made available for children.

Food Across the Curriculum

In Foundation Stage, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 there are a number of opportunities for pupils to develop knowledge and understanding of health, including healthy eating patterns and practical skills that are needed to understand where food comes from such as shopping, preparing and cooking food.

Literacy provides children with the opportunity to explore poetry, persuasion, argument and narrative work using food and food related issues as a stimulus, e.g. writing to a company to persuade them to use non-genetically modified foods in children’s food and drink.

Maths can offer the possibility of understanding nutrition labelling, calculating quantities for recipes, weighing and measuring ingredients.

Science provides an opportunity to learn about the types of food available, their nutritional composition, digestion and the function of different nutrients in contributing to health. There is also the opportunity to learn about how the body responds to exercise.

RE provides the opportunity to discuss the role of certain foods in the major religions of the world. Children experience different foods associated with religious festivals.

Computing can afford pupils the opportunity to research food issues using the internet and other electronic sources. Pupils design packaging and adverts to promote healthy food choices.

Food technology, as part of DT, provides the opportunity to learn about where food comes from and apply healthy eating messages through practical work with food, including preparation and cooking.

PSHE and Citizenship encourages young people to take responsibility for their own health and well-being, teaches them how to develop a healthy lifestyle and address issues such as body image. Pupils are able to discuss issues of interest to young people, e.g. advertising, sustainable development.

Music can provide children with knowledge about different properties of cooked and uncooked foods where pulses and grains

Geography provides a focus on the natural world and changing environment, offering the chance to consider the impact our consumer choices have on people across the world who rely on growing food as their source of income. History provides insight into changes in diet and food over time.

Physical Education provides pupils with the opportunity to develop physically and to understand the practical impact of sport, exercise and other physical activity, such as dance, walking and swimming.

School visits provide pupils with activities to enhance their physical development. The Residential Adventure Week for Year 6 provides opportunities to experience a wide range of outdoor activities as wells as sampling new foods. Extra-curricular activities include cookery and gardening clubs from time to time, as well as the opportunity to participate in physical activities.

Partnership with Parents, Carers and Tunbridge Well Borough Council

The partnership between home and school is critical in shaping how children and young people behave, particularly where health is concerned. Each must reinforce the other. This will not always be easy, but our school is well placed to lead by example. Initiatives to develop healthy lifestyles are frequently offered by Tunbridge Wells Borough Council and we endeavor to participate in as many as possible.

Parents and carers are regularly updated on our water and packed lunch policies through newsletters. We ask parents not to send in fizzy drinks and we remind them that only water may be drunk during the school day, except at lunch when children may drink juice or squash, and at break time when the children may drink milk.

During after school events, e.g. school discos, the school will encourage parents and carers to consider the Policy for Food and Drink in the range of refreshments offered for sale to the children.

Role of the Governors

Governors monitor and check that the school’s policy is upheld and can also offer guidance where a member of the body has particular expertise in this area.

Monitoring and Review

The Breakfast Club Supervisor is responsible for ensuring that the food served is in accordance with this policy. Subject Leaders are responsible for the curriculum development of the Policy for Food and Drink. The Senior Leadership Team, and the PSHE Subject Co-ordinator are responsible for supporting colleagues in the delivery of this policy. Kent County Council are responsible for ensuring the quality of the food offered as part of the contract with the caterer.