Schools need to consider Head, Heart, Hand and Health in all they do and there’s no better place to start than with what they eat.
It’s been 15 years sinceJamie Oliver’s campaign to revolutionise school meals but he must have been proud about the MBE awarded to Marcus Rashford this month. TV chefs, franchise restaurants and Turkey Twizzlers may come and go but school food remains high on the national agenda.
This is hardly surprising. Research always confirms the link between healthy food choices and better self-esteem, increased resilience and enhanced emotional well-being. It’s common sense then that nutrition should lie at the heart of the curriculum. Darren Castleman, chef at GreatBallard recently joined the team and is excited by the school’s pupil centred mission. “We are reviewing our offering to meet the 4H approach. If there are worries we can meet each child to discuss how to help. We can use cookery lessons to introduce new foods or encourage them to grow the very things they think they hate. We want to reduce anxiety and change the relationship children have with food by focussing not just on “what”they eat but “why” they eat it”.
Jamie’s plans included teaching children to cook and, while it is fantastic to see food technology on the primary curriculum, it remains under-resourced and undervalued in this ageof SATs and testing. Most secondary pupils learn little about nutrition and gain almost no practical cooking experience in school. At the age when they need to understand their bodies and diets the most, the teaching of cookery shrinks back to being a hobby rather than a key life skill. And the picture is even grimmer when it comes to growing food. Despite compelling evidence and plenty of local enthusiasm it still fails to merit inclusion in the national curriculum.
Thankfully some schools are putting mental and physical well-being at the top of their agenda. GreatBallard “Grow Club” are cultivating winter salads, vegetables and wheatgrass, which will all be served up for lunch. Classes forage in the woods and cookery is taught right through to Year 8. With the school taking pupils into Year 9 in September 2021, Great Ballard are keen that young people see the connections between what they eat and where it comes from.Headmaster, Mr Matt King explains: “It shouldn’t matter what options students take at GCSE or the careers they aspire to, learning to feed themselves and to live healthy, sustainable lives is as important as anything else they learn in school. Growing, cooking and sharing food is very much part of our community ethos. We want to make sure all our students learn about nutrition and realise the impact it has on their well-being. We recognise this subject’s value, not just for its creativity, but for its contribution to health and fitness.”
It’s a move that Head ofPE, Becki Lendrum, welcomes. “In too many schools the quality of sport is measured by results and trophies, by the number of county players and regional titles. Schools talk about “sport for all” but too often celebrate only the few. We want sport to be more inclusive than that and to emphasise its connection with our pupils’ health and habits.It’s our ambition that no young person leaves the school hating sport and that everyone finds their own way to exercise and enjoy the benefits”. Every senior pupil will have their own wellness plan; nutrition and mental health will be taught alongside a personal fitness programme and pupils will get to swim, circuit train, mountain bike, run and hike alongside the usual range of team sports.
Jamie Oliver’s dream may yet be alive.The next generation will inherit a world of food related problems ranging from rising obesity to malnutrition and from unsustainable farming to climate change. It is clear anew direction is required. As so often, the answer lies with education and it is time to start teaching our children how to sow the seeds for a healthier future.