Food For Life
Going for Gold.....
Our School's journey towards gaining Food for Life Status
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St Andrew's is a Food for Life Flagship School and an accredited Gold Healthy School. This is best exemplified by our commitment to linking a healthy lifestyle to academic success through our vegetable garden and orchard, regular contact with a local organic farm and our award-winning kitchens. Children participate in regular visits to the farm to observe good practice, nurture their own crops and then prepare them for eating at lunchtimes.
Our journey started several years ago with the school garden created by pupils, parents and staff......
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Gardening Club
The School’s Garden Club has proved to be very successful. Mark Lea, a local organic farmer and parent at the school, introduced interested children to growing their own vegetables. Children in Years 3 and 4 also use the project in their class work.
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Parents invitation to the 'healthy lunchbox' afternoon
Children invited their parents in to design a “healthy lunchbox” using some of the produce.
Children had written to various supermarkets and food companies to supply the variety of healthy produce.
The afternoon ended with a picnic on the lawn.
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Introduction of the 'traffic light' system
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St. Andrew’s has an award-winning kitchen and now operates a “traffic-light” scheme which persuades children to have a protein choice(red), balanced with a carbohydrate choice (yellow) and a vegetable choice (green) at lunchtime. This year Shire Catering, the local authority’s catering service, has given the school permission to use the vegetables from the garden club for use in the school kitchen. So, the children will be able to sow, look after and harvest their own produce knowing that they will be eating first class organically-based vegetables. |
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We are extremely proud of our award winning kitchen staff. |
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Organic Breakfast
The whole school enjoys an Organic Breakfast.
The children enjoyed a healthy breakfast to kick start the day:
Menu
Organic Cereal
Organic Museli Cereal Bars
Fruit
Fruit Juice
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Links with Greenacres Farm
The children and staff of St. Andrew’s C.E. Primary School, Shifnal are delighted to be working in partnership with Mark Lea at Greenacres Farm, Kemberton.
Mark Lea has created a new educational facility to help children understand the process “From Seed to Table”and how vegetables reach our dining tables. Mark and Liz Lea were national runners up in the prestigious Future of Farming Award, nominated for their drive and commitment. Mark's aim has always been to excite children about the food they eat and where it comes from.
Being fit and healthy is an important part of every child's academic and physical well-being, therefore has become a huge part of the future vision of the school. In all areas of development Mark Lea has led discussions, provided appropriate advice, created links between local community farming and the school’s healthy school initiatives, together with developing the school’s eco school bid, attended school meals conferences and work and provided practical guidance and support to the catering service.
Through ongoing visits to the farm, children have taken part in many activities which are linked to the school garden and support areas of the curriculum.
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School Meals Conference September 2007
Former pupils of St Andrews (who had been involved in the project) created a power point and video presentation on the subject of 'from farm to plate', which they delivered to an audience of headteachers at the School Meal Conference.
Mr Daniels (parent) supported the children with creating and editing the video.
Independent Learning Centre
'School leading way with £42,000 Centre' (Bridgnorth Journal)
In March 2008 our school proudly launched its very own independent learning centre, transforming a library into a pioneering 'research centre' for pupils incorporating internet access, interactive whiteboard, art, craft and design area and a commercial food preparation and cooking area.
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Children of all ages can use this facility and the cooking club is proving a huge success!
Food for Life Cooking Bus
To support our ongoing work towards Food for Life status, we were delighted to have the Cooking Bus visit our school in 2008. The Cooking Bus gave the children the opportunity to work with professional cooks, learn about basic hygiene and cook some mouth-watering recipes. Parents were invited to visit the bus.
Jeanette Orrey gave a talk to parents and officially opened our independent learning centre. Jeanette is the cook who worked closely with Jamie Oliver on his School Meals programme and who continues to promote healthy school meals through the Food for Life Initiative and has worked with us throughout the programme.
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Food for Life Cooking Bus
For more information click on www.focusonfood.org
Click on the recipes below for printable recipe cards:
Butternut Basil Bread
Parsnip and Apple Soup
Saag Aloo Tikki
Spicy Salmon Triangles
Rhubarb and Ginger Crumble
Apple and Apricot Filo Parcels
Muesli and Yoghurt Layer
Year 6 Leavers' Meal
As a break in tradition we invited Year 6 children and their parents to an evening meal at school in July. It was an opportunity for the parents to experience one of Mrs Bentley’s (School Cook) famous meals and watch some of the major events that the children have taken part in on the big screen. The aim was to have a family-orientated evening to celebrate the many successes of this year group.
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HRH Prince of Wales awarded:
(From left: Mark Lea Chair of governors,Ann Morley - Deputy Headteacher,Jan Bentley - School Cook and Adrian Marsh - Headteacher)with the Silver Food for Life Award at a ceremony in London in December 2008.
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Primary School Catering Team of the Year Award
We are all delighted – but not surprised - that Jan Bentley, Julie Watton, Gail Barnwell, Many Bird and Sarah Lewis have been named as the “Primary School Catering Team of the Year.” All of us are very proud of the team’s success and very grateful for their skills and hard work.
Their nomination includes the following:
“The catering team…show a commitment above and beyond that normally expected from staff.”
"…(they) cook produce grown within the school and have introduced a traffic-light system persuading pupils to choose balanced food items…”
“They provide special day menus, an annual Leavers Day event, a soup menu for pupils not taking a full school lunch and provide guidance to teaching staff relating to the use of commercial cooking facilities in the new pupil independent learning centre.”
None of this could happen without the team having a total commitment towards providing the best possible food experiences for all children – not just at lunch time but throughout the curriculum. Daily, the team work longer hours than they are expected to do. Whatever the school asks of them, they put themselves out to achieve and I know that all of us – pupils, staff, parents and governors – believe that this, the highest possible accolade, has justly been awarded to Jan and her team.
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(Click Here to track the schools progress)
