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CHAPTER 8: IN-SCHOOL MANAGEMENT OF SCHOOL MEAL PROVISION
8.1 This chapter summarises information on how the school meals service is managed including: how and where food is prepared; numbers of catering staff at the school; supervision in the dining room; training received by catering staff; and the extent to which pupils, parents and staff are consulted about the school meals service. As this research was conducted solely within the school, the research is limited in the extent to which it can comment on the management of the school meals service by the Local Authority.
8.2 Relevant Hungry for Success recommendations include:
Recommendation 8: Schools should consult with pupils on a regular basis on the provision of school meals
Recommendation 13: When education authorities and schools are examining the structure of the school day, the lunchtime experience should be part of that consideration
Recommendation 14: In line with the agreement set out in A Teaching Profession for the 21 st Century, education authorities should consider deploying classroom assistants and dining room assistants to undertake a supervisory role in dining rooms
Recommendation 15: Senior management within schools should strongly support and endorse their school meal provision as part of the whole-child approach
Recommendation 18: Future design, layout and usage, along with other factors such as décor and background music, should be considered by all schools, with significant pupils' input and programmes for change drawn up
Recommendation 22: All schools catering and dining supervisory staff should undertake appropriate training, for example the Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland Food and Health training course (currently under development) as part of their programme of development. Interested parents, carers and teachers should also be encouraged to undertake training in food and health
Preparation of school meals
8.3 In most of the schools, the majority of food was prepared on site. The types of foods cooked or prepared on-site included main meals, soup, sandwiches, salads, sauces, cakes, and occasionally pizza. In a number of schools, snack meals including pizza, burgers and hot dogs, were bought in. Some catering staff commented on the length of time required to prepare foods from scratch, and how this had affected workload. This included preparing cold options such as sandwiches, salads, and individual fruit portions.
8.4 Closer inspection of the recipes did reveal that some foods cooked 'from scratch' often included pre-prepared ingredients. For example, recipes for vegetable or lentil soup often included raw vegetables but also included adding bouillon cubes for flavour, rather than making stock from scratch. However, in some cases soup was made using pre-prepared soup mix with little or no fresh ingredients added.
8.5 Some catering staff said their kitchens were sufficient for their needs and provided all of the equipment they required. At the same time, some cooks expressed the need for more preparation space and chilled storage space, particularly where more food was being prepared from scratch. A number of inadequacies were reported. These included:
- lack of equipment such as steamers to enable fish, for example, to be cooked in a healthier way
- older equipment that was sometimes prone to breaking down
- poor layout and design that caused additional work for staff or made preparation or serving harder
- lack of ventilation in the kitchen
- lack of staff space and locker space
Supervision in the dining room
8.6 A range of staff and pupils supervised school meals at lunchtime. These included: Head Teachers; members of the senior management team; other teaching staff; classroom assistants; catering staff; janitors and senior pupils. These individuals supervised the queues, including the flow of pupils into and out of the dining room and in the eating area, to promote good manners and ensure good behaviour.
8.7 As a general rule, there was more supervision in special and primary schools, for younger children and for those who needed greater assistance. Where the best behaviour was observed in the dining halls, in both primary and secondary schools, this was often because the school had an ethos that encouraged good manners and behaviour. When this was the case, pupils were on occasion observed clearing up after themselves and clearing spills without being prompted, as well as helping to clear the multi purpose dining area at the end of the lunch period.
8.8 Greater levels of supervision were associated with better behaviour, as was the involvement of more senior teaching staff. Conversely where there was little supervision, or when it was primarily undertaken by older pupils or catering staff, rowdy and more chaotic behaviour was often the result.
8.9 Where possible, catering staff in primary schools tried to supervise what pupils were actually eating. For example, some supervisors walked around the tables and encouraged pupils to eat their meals and leave as little waste as possible. In one primary school however, the head cook reported that some parents had requested this, but emphasised the difficulty of doing it when pupils refused to eat vegetables and other healthy options.
Catering staff
Numbers of staff
8.10 The numbers of catering staff varied according to the school roll and whether the kitchen was an output kitchen. In most cases, the numbers of catering staff were considered adequate, although occasionally some head cooks had to work additional hours to keep up to date with management tasks such as bookkeeping, or to be involved in operational tasks rather than managing the kitchen. Additionally, some catering staff had to work extra hours to ensure all their tasks were completed. In one small secondary school, the hours of the head cook and the overall number of catering staff had recently been reduced, and were about to be reduced further as the summer term approached and demand fell.
Training of catering staff
8.11 Most head cooks held City and Guilds qualifications. Occasionally, head cooks in one or two smaller schools were unqualified, instead having gained experience 'on the job'. In one instance, the possibility of gaining qualifications had been discussed with an unqualified head cook when she took up her appointment in a small secondary school, although this had not ultimately happened.
8.12 The extent of other training provided to catering staff varied, though often was not wide-ranging. Most staff had attended health and hygiene courses. Other courses attended by some staff included customer care, health and safety and 'Environmental Institutions'. There were few examples of specific nutrition training being provided. One or two cooks mentioned that they 'knew what was good for you' and had gained this knowledge through experience both in and out of work. One cook did not think knowledge of nutrition would help her in her job day-to-day.
Awareness of changes in response to Hungry for Success
8.13 Implementation of the Hungry for Success recommendations was scheduled to take place in all publicly funded primary and special schools by December 2004 and in all publicly funded secondary schools by December 2006. While most primary school head cooks knew of the changes because some at least have been introduced; the head cook in a special school had only heard of Hungry for Success through her contact with other school cooks. At the time of fieldwork, no changes had been made and she had not heard of whether the council planned to make changes or not in the school.
8.14 Where changes to menus and portion sizes had been introduced (usually in primary schools) head cooks had attended training courses designed to introduce them to the changes. Where changes had not yet been introduced (mainly in secondary schools) knowledge of Hungry for Success was often limited, with head cooks aware that changes would be introduced in the future, but having little knowledge of the detail of what they would involve and how the changes would affect them. Conversely, in one secondary school where the head cook was relatively well informed, she believed most of the recommendations were already in practice and little further change would be required.
8.15 Knowledge of Hungry for Success among other catering staff was generally limited. At times, catering staff were apprehensive, believing the changes might be too prescriptive and limit their ability to provide healthy choices. Others thought it would be difficult to encourage pupils to accept the changes, and that introducing too many changes at once may lead to a drop in school meal uptake.
Consultation
8.16 Within the case study schools, few instances of consultation between local education authorities and schools on the implementation of Hungry for Success were identified. However this is not to say that consultation has not been undertaken by authorities. Clearly research was carried out only among a small number of schools, and not at all among education authorities. One head cook who was new to her post and had not been consulted directly, believed that the menus had been trialled and catering staff had been consulted in some schools within the local authority. Another head cook had made further changes to the new recipes in consultation with the local authority.
8.17 Head Teachers and other teaching staff often complained about the lack of consultations, and felt that Catering Services were too separate from the rest of the school administration. Evidence from one large primary school was that there was little dialogue between teaching and catering staff about food or the dining room environment: Teachers in a special school said they had made suggestions about improving the menus to catering staff, but those changes were not implemented. One Head Teacher felt his ability to influence the service was limited as demonstrated by his lack of involvement in the recent appointment of the head cook:
"I was not consulted about the advert, wasn't involved in the short leeting or the appointment. I had absolutely nothing to do with that" (Head Teacher , secondary school) .
Consultation with pupils
8.18 Pupils were consulted by individual case study schools on matters such as food choices and the dining environment. Catering staff occasionally consulted pupils on particular products. For example, in one school, staff were developing 'fruit smoothies' and intended consulting pupils on the specific flavours. At times, feedback on food choices was gained indirectly. One head cook reported that catering staff listened to comments being made about food and also took note of what was eaten and what was left in order to judge what dishes were popular. Refurbishment of dining areas had prompted consultation with pupils in a few schools. In one, pupils were asked about colour of paint, and in the other, they were consulted on a range of issues related to school meals.
8.19 Where pupil councils existed, these were most often used as a method of consultation. In one case, consultation took place regularly through formal planned meetings. Elsewhere consultation was infrequent, and in at least one case, had not happened for some time. Where there were no pupil councils, there were sometimes intentions to introduce these and it was thought to be useful to have the input of Catering Services into the creation of these groups. The extent to which consultation went beyond the councils often depended on the pupil councils themselves. For example, in one school all pupils had been asked their views on school meals by the pupil council, whereas in another school, pupils not involved with the pupil council said they had not been consulted in any way. Pupil councils on some occasions were proactive in taking suggestions for improvement directly to catering staff.
8.20 As well as qualitative discussion with pupils about levels of consultations, pupils in case study schools were asked in the questionnaire if they had ever been asked for their opinions about school meals before the current research had taken place (see Figure 8.1).
Figure 8.1: Has anyone at school every asked you what you think about school meals? (% pupils)
Base: Primary - 648; Secondary - 1623; Special - 82
Source: case study school pupils' attitudinal questionnaires
8.21 The results indicate that pupil consultation is much more common in primary than secondary schools, although it is most common in special schools. Just under three quarters of pupils (74%) in secondary schools said they had not been asked what they thought about school meals, compared with 54% of primary pupils and 33% of special school pupils. These results confirm the qualitative findings that in primary schools and in secondary schools in particular the level of consultation is not high and could be increased or improved. The most common forms of pupil consultation were with teachers or pupil councils.
8.22 In primary schools, the level of consultation with pupils varied by stage, with older pupils being consulted more than younger pupils. For example, 76% of primary 5 pupils said they had never been consulted about school meals, compared with 48% of primary 6 pupils, and 37% of primary 7 pupils. Around a third (37%) of primary 7 pupils had been asked by a teacher about their opinions of school meals compared with 11% of primary 6 pupils and 6% of primary 5 pupils. Dinner ladies had asked 15% of primary 7 pupils about school meals, compared to 6% of primary 6 pupils and 3% of primary 5 pupils. The older pupils had also been more involved in pupil council consultations, as 18% of primary 7 and 17% of primary 6 pupils had been asked for their opinions by a pupil council as opposed to 5% of primary 5 pupils.
8.23 There were not as many consistent age differences in secondary schools, although it appeared it was more common for S4 pupils rather than other pupils to be consulted (83%).
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