Dsbm

il.com Improving the School catering provision to increase the uptake of school meals Commentary Belper School is a thriving establishment which has benefitted from major new build works that has increased the school capacity from an original 500 students to today’s 1500 students. The foreseeable future (5 years) is that role numbers will not significantly decline. Our last OFSTED inspection 2006 concluded that the school was Good with some elements of excellent. Formulating the Question The school capacity to provide midday school meals has not increased significantly from when the school was built in 1970 although we now have 1000 more students.. Indeed the dining area itself has not been improved since that time and is a lacking in both natural daylight and modern decoration. Data collected from the LA (appendix 4) clearly shows that Belper School falls well short of the average School meal take up. Child obesity, Eating healthily, and the important part that schools can play in forming and developing students attitudes to diet has been the subject of many recent case studies that focus directly on the schools contribution to student health. ‘Deincourt, a mixed secondary school situated in North Wingfield, on the outskirts of Chesterfield, sits within an economically disadvantaged area, where student attainment on entry is well below the national average. Concerned about the student population at her school with 32.4% free school meal uptake, and 24% on the Special Needs Register (both above the national average) Catering Manager Linda Lunn decided to approach Head teacher Alun Pelleschi to discuss ways in which they could change the lifestyle of the students’. Peter Mc Grath, Derbyshire County Council This case study from and others referenced in the bibliography identify that the school has a major part to play in encouraging healthy eating with innovative menu’s, and that the dining experience is of major importance to the uptake of meals. The objective of this report is to address the Catering issues at the school and provide a pathway to change that will encompass all of the school community. The outcome is to promote a culture of a complete school day spent within the school. Collecting the Data The required data encompasses; • The schools own catering statistics on meal uptake, the school does collect data on the performance of the catering department, although this data leans heavily on accountancy rather than true dietary information. This data is valid since as we know the average meal cost I can, with accuracy, determine the take up of ‘paid for meals’ and general data is available on the take up of ‘free school meals’ since this is monitored at point of purchase. • Comparison (benchmark) data of similar size schools (Appendix 4). The LA is required to collect data from all schools for comparison purposes, and whilst confidential information cannot be provided, the LA did provide comparison data from similar size schools without disclosing the origin of the information. • Results of a customer survey (appendix 3) conducted for Strategic management phase 1: Robert Elks 2009. In the Strategic management module I carried out a survey of all customers, and potential customers to determine what the overview of the current catering provision was, and what changes may be suggested. Analysing the collected data. The information provided by the LEA and detailed in appendix 4, indicates that the ‘Free school meals’ students take up is only 49% putting the school 46th position in as table of 47 schools. Although not as serious the take up of ‘paid meals’ is only 29% ranking the school 27th out of 47. The overall ranking is 33rd. The results of the customer survey indicate that the menu itself is not a large issue, but that the Dining ambience is poor. Therefore delivery of the Catering product should be our main focus. The Finks Seven Change Frame highlighted how the issues that the school will face as it moves towards improving the Catering facilities. Although all seven frames are important factors I have identified that there are three key elements that need to have a greater focus. • The Political Frame shows that the Million meals Project is a government initiative and hence an external driver, but at the school the SLT must take up the challenge of leading this change and make the changes an Internally lead process. • The Cultural Frame naturally follows on from the Political Frame, where success depends on bringing the benefits of school catering to a wide customer/client base. The SLT will need to develop a whole school catering policy which will encompass the changes that are needed and ideally a time schedule so that our Customers / Clients can understand the changes. The improvements should be added to the School improvement plan to add weight to the project and to ensure that it is regularly reviewed with other items. • The Learning Frame has highlighted that after we take up the challenge there is a considerable amount of work to be done, informing and leading the customers to an understanding of the project. To be able to understand where we are now and where we should aspire to be I used the ‘Measures of School improvement’ table as proposed by Scott 1997 (appendix 2). The ‘Setting of Goals’ will require some thought to make sure that the steps that are taken are realistic, whilst there is an end goal, we will only arrive there by taking well thought out smaller steps. Similarly including a suitable monitoring system to evaluate the changes as they are made will be a vital part of the feedback process. The school has a good quality data collection system and all of the required information is available the SBM will be required to provide accurate information at each milestone of the project. Marketing From MSI.4 Marketing Plan: In order to take a comprehensive view, the marketing plan should consider the seven Ps (Kotler and Fox, 1975). Product: is the provision of a service, healthy midday meals for all students. There are some non negotiable aspects to the meals provided as these are dictated by government standards, but imagination in providing different meals is important. The Catering manager will need to be innovative with the menu but much assistance is available from previous case studies. Place: This is reinforcing the view of the school as a whole day experience, and improving the venue as part of the public view of the school a cultural change that will need careful management. Price: The initial pricing could be lowered to attract the students, with some price increase when the delivery of meals in the time frame is proven to be effective. I believe that the saving in cost by buying the larger volumes of food will offset the lower price. Promotion: This needs to be a vibrant delivery of the message that what we are offering is healthy, good value, and has added benefits for all of the school. We need to encompass all strands of school life; I therefore believe that for this project we should have an Advisory Committee Model (Foskett, 1999). Process: Relates to the catering experience delivered to the customer, including the acknowledgment that the student is the customer and deserves the best delivery that we can offer. Training of the catering staff to ‘see’ students as customers will be an overall objective People: Requires input and enthusiasm from the staff overall and the Catering staff in particular to ensure that the vision is transmitted, Students and Parents need to be included in the campaign. Physical: Is developing the environment where school meals are delivered, Developing the ambience of the dining area will be a joint responsibility SLT and Catering manager Conclusions and Findings I was interested to note the comment from Mortimer and Mcbreath, 2003. ‘Resources in themselves do not guarantee improvement but help to convince the staff, parents and students that society believes in the school and is willing to invest. Change has to be carried out by the school itself’. I have applied this to my own thinking and to my evaluation of the problem and possible solution as outlined in the commentary. There is a financial investment to be made; the catering facility cannot be changed without incurring cost. But simply investing the money without supporting this with enthusiasm from the school staff will not in itself generate the ‘feel good’ factor needed to attract the students to use our facility. From Murgatroyd and Morgan, 1992 Chain of customers in schools. Agreement and action from the SLT is the beginning of the process and is the first supplier in the supplier/customer chain, motivation of the staff to accept the SLT plan and be a conduit for information is the second step. Staff engaging with Parents and students to emphasise that the changes are for the overall good is the next important step. Finally for students from lower income families the school needs to make the use of the facility anonymous by adopting a cashless system. Clearly the whole school will be involved in the change. Word Count 1503 Bibliography Peter Mc Grath, Derbyshire County Council, Food Schools trust Changes in lifestyle and diet in a Derbyshire Community School brings students, catering team, and school added success. Foskett, N, 1999 Strategy, external relations and marketing. In D Middlewood and J lumby (eds) Strategic management in schools and colleges, London, Paul Chapman publishing. Fink, D, 1999, confronting complexity: a framework for action, Improving Schools, 1(3), 54–9 Mortimore, P and MacBeath, J, 2003, School Effectiveness and Improvement: the story so far. Scott, W R, 1997, Organisational Effectiveness. In A Harris, N Bennett and M Preedy (eds) Organisational Effectiveness and Improvement in Education, Buckingham, Open University Press Murgatroyd and Morgan, 1992 Total quality management and the school. Websites http://www.ofsted.gov.uk www.foodforlife.org.uk www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk Appendix 1 Finks seven change frame |Frame |Evidence | |The Purpose Frame |Government initiatives are seeking to achieve one million extra school meals throughout the UK. | | |Participation in this imitative is an opportunity to improve our meals delivery, increase the uptake | | |of free school meals, reduce afternoon truancy, and improves student behaviour via healthy eating. | |The Passion Frame |By improving the delivery of school meals more students will have a healthy midday meal, alongside the| | |extra security of students remaining on site at lunch and improved behaviour patterns in afternoon | | |lessons. | |The Political Frame |SLT to create and implement a clear policy for school catering. The policy needs to be far reaching | | |and provide a vision that the whole school can be involved in. Improvement School meals facilities is| | |now a government strategy | |The Structural Frame |Investigate and understand the changes in IT which will complement the physical changes that will be | | |needed. The physical changes need to be carefully planned and consulted on to ensure minimum | | |disruption. | |The Cultural Frame |The Governors and SLT needs to involve the whole school, and parents, in the change process so that | | |ideas are communicated effectively and parents support the Midday meal program. | |The Learning Frame |Staff, students and parents need to be informed of the reasons behind the catering improvements. Staff| | |to be informed via training days, students informed by tutors and school council, parents to be | | |informed via the tutor evenings and the regular ‘Head Teachers’ message | |The Leadership Frame |SLT, Governors, Middle managers to collaborate on a whole school approach to marketing the new midday | | |meals concept. | Appendix 2 Measures of school improvement based on Scott (1997) |Setting the goal |Increasing take up of school meals and free school meals | |Selecting the indicator |Existing level of meals delivered | |Selecting criteria |Increasing numbers of meals delivered & Increasing the numbers of free school meals | | |delivered. | |Setting the standard |Increase uptake from existing to 50% by July 2010 | |Sampling activity |SBM to produce weekly data | |Comparing standard with sample |Improvement displayed on notice boards for overall take up | |Action |Celebrate achievements through marketing to ensure continued support | Appendix 3 Results of discussions with Teaching Staff, Students and Catering staff 1) The school does not currently have a strategic plan for the Catering. 2) Students who do wish to take dinners complain that they queue for so long that they waste their break time, and so do not take up the opportunity. 3) There is a very low uptake of school meals by the teaching and support staff. Evidence from my survey suggests that the reasons are excessive queuing (as for students) and the lack of privacy from students! 4) The cold food server and hot food server are not in the same place; this is not an ideal situation as extra staffs are required for roles which are doubled up, such as cash tills etc. 5) The Hot server has only 3 serving points which is insufficient for student numbers 6) The hall doubles as both a dining area and a Drama teaching space, therefore it is difficult for the timetable to schedule an extra long lunchtime to enable students to dine over a extended period reducing queues 7) Students are not allowed to leave the site during lunch, but part of the site is a public space and cannot be fenced off. Students who do not wish to take up meals simply walk off site to local shops. This deprives the school of turnover and completely negates any ‘in school’ activity. | | | | | | | |Information supplied to Belper School Benchmarking Information from E Grant | | | | | | | |School Name |School Role |% Take up of Paid Meals |% Take up of Free meals |% take up of School meals in 2008 / 2009 | | | |in 2008/2009 |in 2008 / 2009 | | | | | | | | |School C |1300 - 1650 |16 |67 |21 * | |School B |1300 - 1650 |27 |63 |28 | |Belper School and Sixth form centre |1472 |29 |49 |31 | |School H |1300 - 1650 |27 |64 |31 | |School F |1300 - 1650 |31 |69 |31 | |School D |1300 - 1650 |33 |59 |34 | |School I |1300 - 1650 |34 |71 |36 | |School E |1300 - 1650 |54 |68 |54 | |School A |1300 - 1650 |58 |75 |59 | |School G |1300 - 1650 |74 |66 |74 ** | | | | | | | |Belper School and Sixth form Centre | |27th out of 47 |46th out of 47 |33rd out of 47 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |* 2nd lowest of 47 secondary schools in Derbyshire | | | | | | | | | | | |** Highest of all 47 secondary schools in Derbyshire | Appendix 4