Policies and Guidance

 

Childhood Obesity Strategy

Published in August 2016, Childhood Obesity: A Plan for Action lays out plans to reduce England’s rate of obesity in children, as well as encouraging the industry to cut down the amount of sugar in food and drinks. It also outlines plans to encourage primary school particularly to eat more healthily and become more physically active.

 

School Food Plan

The School Food Plan was published by the Department for Education in July 2013, giving guidance for all aspects of food within the school environment. It’s an agreed plan from a range of partners that makes 17 recommendations to help head teachers deliver the best quality food in school, in addition to how children learn about food. From the School Food Plan, we now have Universal Infant Free School Meals, for all Reception, Year One and Year Two children, as well as compulsory cooking in the national curriculum. There is also the School Food Standards which came into force from January 2015 for all local authority maintained schools and academies who converted outside of the window of September 2010-June 2014. For those schools who converted to academy status within this period can pledge their commitment to the standards via the School food Plan website. The standards transformed the quality and provision of school meals.

 

Useful Documents

Whole School Food Policy

Developing a Whole School Food Policy can be a great way of structuring your school's approach to food, as well as evidencing your commitment to it. A policy can help staff, children, and parents understand the school's approach to food and what is expected from everyone. Do you have a policy that needs updating? Or do you need one but don't know where to begin? Download our example template here.

 

Healthy Lunch and Snack Policy

Developing a Healthy Lunch and Snack Policy is a good way of structuring your approach to lunches and snacks, particularly those which are brought in to school from home. A Healthy Lunch and Snack Policy is a great way of evidencing your commitment to ensuring healthy eating, and is a requirement of both the SUGAR SMART certificate and the Food in Schools Award. If you need to create a policy or update yours, you can download an example template here.

 

Let's do lunch!

Sometimes it is hard to ensure that healthy food is consistently brought into school. We have developed Let's do lunch!, a short but effective tool in creating varied, healthy, and tasty lunches that can be used by everyone.