St James in Elstead and West Byfleet Junior School in Woking have been chosen as Flagship schools for The Food for Life Partnership Mark. These schools will be working closely with the Food for Life Partnership to enable them to showcase best practice within their region, hosting visits to share their experiences and ideas for the future.

The Mark will assess the achievements of schools in transforming food culture and will build on existing requirements of the Healthy Schools' program, Every Child Matters, and the new DFES standards for school food. It will also encourage schools to work on increasing the availability of healthy and sustainable food in their community.

They wish to demonstrate that food provision can be nutritious, good for the environment and enjoyed by pupils. This will be done by re-connecting pupil's staff and the community with where their food comes from and develop much needed cooking skills and links to local farms.

What does this means to our two schools?

Each school is to develop their School Food Policy to ensure a healthy and more positive food culture in the school.

To look into the possibility of using more locally sourced foods and organic ingredients.

The Food for Life Cooking Bus will spend a week at each school, teaching staff and students a range of cooking skills. The Catering Managers will have the opportunity to spend some time at the training college set up by Jeanette Orry who advises the government and School Food Trust on food in schools.

Garden Organic will develop organic vegetable gardening projects. Some of this produce will be cook and served in the school kitchen. Workshops will give pupils, parents, staff and community members the opportunity to learn how to design plant and maintain a garden or allotment that can supply a diverse range of produce.

Visits to local farms for pupils and staff will be arranged to give a greater understanding of food provenance, seasonality and the principles of organic farming.

What has happened so far?

School Nutrition Action Groups (SNAG) groups have been created at both schools and have started to meet every few weeks to look at all aspects of food and growing. One of the main aims is to try to encourage more children to have a school lunch.

A conference has been set in June so that all the flagship schools in the South East can meet up and share good practice and new ideas.

So watch this space as we inform you of the various plans and ideas that are implemented to encourage more children to eat a nutritious school lunch.