Head teacher blog 18th January 2019

I have been thinking about food a lot this week. On Tuesday we had an interesting day with a researcher working on behalf of Public Health England who is doing a food case study on our school prior to a consultation on changes to School Food Standards. This is such a broad issue about which people have strongly-held, very personal opinions.  There are all sorts of practical, health, environmental, financial, and animal welfare considerations to take into account.

Food is certainly a tricky area to give leadership on: school council blamed me personally for macaroni cheese being taken off the most recent menu rota!  I am told that our children spoke eloquently and enthusiastically with the researcher about school meals and the work we do around food: the science and PSHE lessons, the cooking curriculum, school farm and food stalls. I need to engage more regularly with the children,  their families and staff on these issues and work together to make further improvements. It seems clear to me that there need to be very significant changes to diets for health and environmental reasons; every month it seems that there is another report by scientists highlighting the role of modern agriculture and dietary choices in climate change and species loss.  What are we individually and collectively going to do about it?