"So, please, please have a rethink, Mr Gove. Because it doesn't really matter how many A*s you've managed if you've also got scurvy and rickets."
The Guardian, Thursday 4 November 2010
Education secretary Michael Gove should put two and two together before he takes money away from school dinners to improve attainment (Axed free meals pay for Gove's school scheme, 3 November). Research into the benefits of good school food shows a nutritious lunch leads to improvements in pupil behaviour, motivation and ability to learn and achieve, especially for poorer children. If Mr Gove's proposed pupil premium wants to help raise attainment and "close the gap between rich and poor", then that money should be spent on providing good food for every child.
We work with nearly 3,000 schools across the country, putting great food on the school dinner menu and food education in the timetable. Food for Life Partnership schools in disadvantaged areas report an increase in attendance as well as improved behaviour, and meal take-up among participating schools has risen by almost three times the national average.
Since Chestnuts primary school in Haringey, north London, joined the partnership in 2007 there have been far fewer incidents in the playground at lunchtimes, and no exclusions for almost 12 months. The school has experienced improved academic attainment for three consecutive years.
Paul Frost, the headteacher at Cambois first school in Northumberland, has said: "We work in an area where educating children on the importance of food choices and the importance of ensuring the children receive a balanced meal each day cannot be underestimated. It's crucial that we continue to be able to maintain the current provision for the benefit of the children and families we serve."
Libby Grundy
Director, Food for Life Partnership
...but you wont be eligible for todays free school dinner because Mr Gove wants to pay a former City trader for a scheme to help academy schools to improve standards - whatever that means. Sounds suspiciously like a quango to me that wants to promote the market within schools.
It has long been a source of shame for this country that you can be officially under the poverty line and yet not eligible for free school meals. It took the last government long enough to address this. Sadly this current coalition government think the money would be better spent on an endowment fund for getting academies to support other schools. So poor children who can't afford the school meals that their better off friends enjoy will have to go hungry so the government can fund an ideological talking shop? The money that would have been spent on nutritional meals will pay the salary of a former city fund manager?
I have no confidence that this scheme will make the slightest improvement to school. If Mr Gove is serious about driving up school standards he would do well to consider that hungry children find it difficult to learn. But I suppose that this is not a problem anyone in the government has ever faced on a first hand basis. Ofsted have already reported on the fact that many parents simply cannot afford to pay for school meals for all of their children
Please tell me this is a nightmare and I can wake up soon.
Read what the Guardian has to say here.
Click here to look at some amazing pictures of school food. Unbelievable!
Now have a look at the other end of the spectrum. Click here to see some incredibly unappetising unhealthy junk available every day to American children and young people. YUCK
This weekend I am off to an event organised by Slow Food called Terra Madre. I will be meeting up with school dinner campaigners from all over the world. I am especially excited to be meeting Dr Susan Rubins who has been tireless in quest to rescue American school children from poor nutrition.She set up Better School Food Will be taking my laptop, my video and a teenager to record our conversations so watch this space!
Below is a quote taken from The Department for Education press release about yesterdays announcement.
“The Government is committed to ensuring that pupils can eat healthy, nutritious school food. The School Food Trust has developed significant expertise around the school food agenda over the past five years and continues to have an important role to play in supporting schools and local authorities to meet the nutritional standards. As a Community Interest Company, the Trust will continue to be able to play that role and to provide advice to the Government, which is informed by the practical work it does out in the field. It will also have the freedom to sell its services - advice, guidance, research - to local authorities, schools, caterers and others on a commercial basis.
Community Interest Companies (CICS) are limited companies, with special additional features, created for the use of people who want to conduct a business or other activity for community benefit, and not purely for private advantage. This is achieved by a "community interest test" and "asset lock", which ensures that the CIC is established for community purposes and the assets and profits are dedicated to these purposes. Registration of a company as a CIC has to be approved by the Regulator who also has a continuing monitoring and enforcement role.
We expect that the Trust will continue to take forward a number of activities for the Department. The level of future DfE support for the Trust is dependent on the spending review outcome and the tasks SFT are asked to undertake for DfE.”
So I no longer sit on the board of a Quango. Today the government announced that the School Food Trust will lose its "non departmental body" status. The government want the Trust to be "retained" and have have said it will commission its services. It already is a charity and will move toward operating as Community Interest Company.
So what does that mean in English? My interpretation is that it has survived. Fans of feeding junk food to kids will be disappointed. There will be no ripping up of school food standards and a return to the bad old days of turkey twizzlers and the "muck off a truck" as the Soil Association famously once described school food.
My personal response is that I have every confidence the staff of the School Food Trust will do their best to make this work. I am not thrilled that the government see this as charity work and it makes me wonder about their commitment to improving childrens health. The school food revolution is NOT over!
You can see the School Food Trust response here.
