The School Food Plan

The School Food Plan, published in July 2013, aims to further increase the quality and take-up of school meals, develop a whole-school food culture in every school and excite children about good food and cooking so that they can lead healthy lives.

Food education has a higher profile than ever before and is central to the work being undertaken through the School Food Plan. There is a clear focus on wellbeing, healthy eating, food preparation and cooking techniques, understanding where food comes from and understanding ingredients.

The Meads have refocused our curriculum topics to ensure our pupils are getting ‘hands-on’ experience. The children will learn about healthy eating and nutrition, experience activities and use recipes that explore the properties and function of ingredients, have opportunities for tasting food to evaluate taste, texture and smell and learn about where food comes from and seasonality. They will become competent in a range of cooking techniques that allows them to prepare and cook predominately savoury dishes.

Key Stage 1
Pupils should be taught to:

Key Stage 2
Pupils should be taught to:

Use the basic principles of a healthy
and varied diet to prepare dishes.

Understand and apply the basic principles of a healthy and varied diet.

Prepare and cook a variety of predominantly savoury dishes using a range of cooking techniques.

Understand where food comes from.

Understand seasonality, and know where and how a variety of ingredients are grown, reared, caught and processed.

At The Meads Primary School we:

Give responsibility to our Values Ambassadors to be our 'food reps' to encourage children to eat well and make the right choices at mealtimes. As part of their wider roles, they meet on a regular basis to discuss any problems with the food and also to talk about which dishes are most popular. They also meet with a member of the Senior Leadership Team, the Kitchen Manager and the Cooks from our chosen catering partner, and Senior Midday Supervisors as appropriate, to share their thoughts on the menus and suggest changes where necessary. Our ‘food reps’ will be heavily involved in any school meal tendering process.
Offer cooking in the curriculum as well as an after-school activity when possible.
Provide all children with fruit as a healthy mid-morning snack.
Are promoting our own vegetable garden for each year group to grow seasonal vegetables that will then be used to supplement school lunches.
Have a Cashless System – The Meads has a cashless scheme which is adopted by our catering partners. Each child has an electronic account which the parents/carers must 'top up' to pay for school dinners. Parents must register for their children to be given a dinner. It is advised that you register even if your child has a packed lunch for those occasions such as Pizza or Roast days where a dinner may be required.
We use SCOPAY, click the logo below to follow the link to pay for school meals.