Whole School Food Policy

At Chalfont St. Giles Infant School and Nursery, we recognise the important connection between a healthy diet and a child's ability to learn effectively and achieve high standards in school. We also recognise the role a school can play, as part of the larger community, to promote family health, and sustainable food and farming practices.

We believe that sharing food is a fundamental experience for all people; a primary way to nurture and celebrate our cultural diversity; and an excellent bridge for building friendships, and inter-generational bonds.

  • To improve the health of pupils, staff and their families by helping to influence their eating habits through increasing their knowledge and awareness of food issues, including what constitutes a healthy and environmentally sustainable diet, and hygienic food preparation and storage methods.
  • To increase pupils' knowledge of food production, manufacturing, distribution and marketing practices, and their impact on both health and the environment.
  • To ensure pupils are well nourished at school, and that every pupil has access to safe, tasty, and nutritious food and a safe, easily available water supply during the school day.
  • To ensure that food provision in the school reflects the ethical and medical requirements of staff and pupils e.g. religious, ethnic, vegetarian, medical, and allergenic needs.
  • To make the provision and consumption of food an enjoyable and safe experience.

Methods

  • Encourage a participatory approach to meeting the objectives, through the development of the following:
    • Walk On Wednesday (WOW) initiative
    • Termly Whole School Walks involving all children, staff and any parents who wish to join us
    • Cooking demonstrations and ideas for healthy eating
    • Other ideas and initiatives which involve the parents and the wider community
  • Develop an understanding and ethos within the school of safe, tasty, nutritious, environmentally sustainable food, through both education and example. Food related topics covered in the curriculum include:
    • Art, e.g. observational drawings of food, healthy eating poster design
    • Personal Social and Health Education, e.g. menu planning, nutrition
    • English, e.g. following instructions for making recipes
    • Geography, e.g. what food grows where, transporting food, waste
    • History, e.g. past diets, discoveries
    • Information Technology, e.g. recording results of a food survey
    • Maths, e.g. weights and measures
    • Physical Education, e.g. links between healthy eating and exercise
    • Science, e.g. effects of heat on food, plant growth, nutrition
  • Create an environment, both physically and socially conducive to the enjoyment of safe, tasty, nutritious, environmentally sustainable food.
    • An adequate number of lunchtime supervisors are provided
    • Litter bins and bins for food waste are provided in the lunch hall and outside. These are emptied regularly.
    • Children are encouraged to show good manners and to be polite during lunchtimes. The lunchtime supervisors choose 6 children each week who have behaved particularly well during lunchtime. They receive a certificate from the Head teacher in a special weekly assembly. These children then each get to choose a friend to accompany them and they all sit together on a specially laid table – with table cloth and flowers - for one day.
    • Pupils are always reminded to wash their hands after they have been to the toilet and before they eat any food.

During food technology sessions (small groups of children taking part in a cooking activity led by an adult, the product of which is then shared between the rest of the class) we aim to ensure that a variety of different types of food is made and sampled throughout the children's time at our school.