SILVER criteria & guidance
Food Leadership and School Food Culture
Food quality and provenance
(delivered in partnership with our caterer)
Food education
Community and Partnerships
Food Leadership and School Food Culture
Our governors have signed off a school food policy with a timetable for action
One of the tasks of the School Nutrition Action Group (SNAG) or equivalent will be to work towards developing a whole school food policy. A truly whole school approach will include commitments relating to food leadership, food quality & provenance, food education and food culture & community involvement.
The policy outlines the commitment of the school to making food quality and education a central priority. A truly whole school approach will include commitments on food leadership, food quality & provenance, food education and food culture & community involvement. Ensuring full engagement by pupils, parents and carers, catering staff and the whole school community has proved to be the most effective way of making school health interventions that last. A whole school food policy is a shared, evolving document that ensures that healthy and sustainable eating messages are consistently championed through the example set by the school and the wider community. The support and involvement of Governors will send a clear signal about the priority being given to food issues in the school. School governing bodies can also be very effective in bringing the school together with parents to maximise support and involvement.
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Developing a food policy
(pdf, 171KB)
Develop a whole school food policy through your SNAG, outlining your commitment to making food quality and education a central priority.
Getting started
By ensuring engagement from the whole school community, including pupils, parents, carers and catering staff, you are more likely to develop a long-lasting approach. Support from your school governing body is essential.
A whole school food policy is a shared, evolving document that ensures healthy and sustainable eating messages are consistently championed through the example set by your school and the wider community.
We give lunchtime a clear priority in our school day, and timetabling clashes are avoided
Make healthy eating a priority and ensure that timetabling allows all your pupils time to sit down to eat.
Getting started
Encourage your pupils to sit down for long enough to have an opportunity for social interaction and good digestion. Pupils involved in extra-curricular activities should also have an alternative eating time.
We ensure take up of school meals by pupils registered for free school meals is 90% or higher, and we are taking action to raise general school meal take up
It is important for all your pupils to have good food at lunchtime in school to enable them to concentrate on learning in afternoon lessons. Free school meal take up is measured by taking the average percentage of pupils registered for free school meals that are taking them over the current half term or term.
Note: This criterion does not apply to sixth forms.
Getting started
If you haven’t already, enrol with the School Food Trust Million Meals campaign for ideas on how to increase your school meal take up. Your SNAG, pupils and catering staff could also generate some ideas.
St James Junior School in Whitehaven works hard to ensure that all of their pupils eligible for a free school meal take up the opportunity and their take up is currently 100%. The school publishes the information regarding qualifying criteria in the newsletter each term and provides the information in the enrolment pack for new starters.
We have made sure that key teachers or others have skills needed to lead gardening and cooking activities and ensure basic food hygiene
Carry out a food skills audit to identify whether any of your teachers or community members need training to enable them to lead cooking or growing activities in your school with confidence.
Develop a training schedule to meet these needs.
Getting started
Good training and resources will give your teaching staff and others confidence in their roles. With cooking in particular, it is important to consider whether teachers or other volunteers possess the skills and knowledge to teach skills safely. Careful precautions and simple techniques can ensure that all cooking activities, including knife skills, can be conducted safely.
Twerton Infant School dedicated two of their INSET days to food safety and hygiene training. All staff attended a course run by their local authority and now possess certificates showing they have passed a test in basic food hygiene. Any new staff will also be given the opportunity to attend a training course.
Cookingskills
- Training in teaching cooking
- Training in food hygiene - Institute of Environmental Health
- Focus on Food Campaign
Growing skills
- Garden Organic Teaching Zone – getting started
- National Curriculum links for organic gardening
- Gardening skills: Teacher’s guides
- Training courses at Garden Organic
- Royal Horticultural Society Continuous Professional Development courses
We work with parents to discourage unhealthy snacks or lunch box contents
A study by Leeds University which was commissioned by the Food Standards Agency revealed that if the nutritional standards set for school meals were applied to packed lunches only 1% would comply. Only one in five packed lunches contained any vegetables or salad and about half included an item of fruit.
Actively seek the support of parents for a healthy snack or lunch box campaign in your school. Unhealthy lunch boxes or brought-in snacks undermine what you are trying to achieve in transforming your school food culture.
Getting started
One way to tackle this is to ask parents and pupils to suggest and agree shared principles for a healthy lunchbox. Try holding healthy lunchbox competitions and assemblies, or even practical workshops looking at affordability.
Once a set of shared principles is agreed, this could also be applied to snacks and drinks provided by your school outside lunchtime.
Oakmeadow CE Primary and Nursery School in Shropshire got fellow pupils to act as lunch box monitors giving out stars to pupils who had a healthy lunch box. Pupils were given cards to display their stars and take home, along with healthy lunch box ideas for parents. Over the period of two terms lunch boxes got progressively healthier and children learnt useful lessons about healthy food.
We invite parents and/or community groups into our school to eat with our pupils
Invite parents or community groups to have lunch at your school at least once a term.
Getting started
You can send your invite in the form of a direct letter or a notice in your school newsletter or on your website.
At St Peter’s Primary School in East Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, this occasion is used as the basis for a project that links citizenship and PSHE. Year 5 pupils write to a senior citizen penpal to discuss healthy eating and food preferences. The pupils then plan and help their school cook prepare a healthy meal to serve to their pen pals, and the resulting feast has become an annual event.
We don’t use flight trays
Use melamine, plastic or china plates and bowls instead of flight trays. Plastic flight trays may be practical and efficient for caterers but they do not encourage children and young people to develop social skills.
Note: Exemptions to this rule may apply in the case of pupils with special needs or very young pupils (ie aged four and under). The use of disposable plates does not meet our criteria.
Getting started
Melamine plates and bowls offer a light, easily cleaned and practical alternative.
For more on this issue, see our briefing From flight trays to good food culture.
Lydgate Infant School in Sheffield has 348 pupils and switched from flight trays to plates. The school had anticipated the carrying of plates to be a problem and that queuing might be slower, however, neither was an issue. Washing up took longer so extra time had to be provided in the kitchen. Lunchtime staff also needed to alter practices to ensure that changes to general systems such as placing cutlery and water on tables worked.
Food quality and provenance
(delivered in partnership with our caterer)
We include a range of locally sourced items on our menu
Your caterer should serve items produced (or made with ingredients produced) in the region or adjacent county from at least two of the following categories each week at any one time:
- Fruit
- Vegetables
- Dairy and eggs
- Meat (sausages and burgers can be counted if the meat comes from named farms in the region or adjacent county)
- Fish (fish can be counted if it comes from day boats based in the region or adjacent county)
- Bread (bread can be counted if it is baked in the region or adjacent county)
Highlight these items as ‘local’ or ‘from [the region or county]’ on or under the menu, with the caveat ‘subject to availability’ or ‘when in season’.
Note: Be clear where an ingredient is local rather than a whole dish. For instance, say ‘Shepherd’s pie with local lamb’ not ‘Local lamb shepherd’s pie’.
Getting started
You will probably need to have more than two different locally sourced items on the menu over the year to allow for supply interruptions when some items are not in season. Record any occasions when fewer than two local items are served each week due to a supply interruption – this is fine as long as the interruption is shorter than one month.
For practical guidance on sourcing local food, see our briefing How to source local and organic ingredients, available at www.foodforlife.org.uk
Eastwood Comprehensive in Nottinghamshire has all its meat and eggs supplied by a local farm. The farm is within walking distance and all the animals are outdoor reared. It is the same farm that the school uses for its farm links programme and the farmer was once a pupil at the school. Last spring some pupils were able to take part in lambing and calving. They ‘adopted’ a lamb and a calf and visited regularly to watch them grow and then accompanied them to the abattoir.
We include a range of certified organic or MSC-certified items on our menu
According to the Government, organic farming tends to deliver greater biodiversity, less pollution, less carbon dioxide emissions, better animal welfare and more local economic activity. The Sustainable Development Commission describes organic farming as the ‘gold standard’ for sustainable food.
Your caterer should serve certified organic (or Marine Stewardship Council certified in the case of fish) items from at least two of the following categories on the menu each week at any one time:
- Fruit
- Vegetables
- Dairy and eggs
- Meat
- Fish (fish can be counted if it is organically farmed or MSC-certified wild fish)
- Bread
- Dry goods
Highlight these items as organic or MSC on or under the menu, with the caveat ‘subject to availability’ or ‘when in season’.
Note: Be clear where an ingredient is organic rather than a whole dish. For instance, say ‘Fish pie with organic salmon’ not ‘Organic salmon fish pie’.
Getting started
You may need to have more than two organic or MSC items on the menu over the year to allow for supply interruptions when items are not in season. Record any occasions when fewer than two local items are served each week due to a supply interruption – this is fine as long as the interruption is shorter than one month.
We use poultry, eggs and pork that are produced in line with standards set for the Freedom Food scheme as a welfare minimum or we make sure that at least 10% of our ingredients are from a certified organic source, including organic animal products, and we will reduce the amount of poultry and pork we serve.
Your caterer may source chicken or eggs from free range producers without Freedom Food certification and still comply with this requirement. They may also source pork, bacon, ham and sausages from outdoor-reared or outdoor-bred pigs without Freedom Food certification. Freedom Food is an assurance scheme devised and monitored by the RSPCA with the specific intent of providing assurance of higher animal welfare standards. It is not the same as free range, as some indoor systems are allowed under the Freedom Food standards, though these must have higher standards (e.g. lower stocking densities and environmental enrichments) than under baseline farm assurance.
For chicken meat or eggs to be called ‘free range’, it must be produced to standards laid down by EU law which specifies that the chickens are provided with access to open-air runs. There is no requirement for an annual inspection, but the Egg Marketing Inspectorate and Trading Standards ensure that any meat or eggs marketed as free range are actually free range. We would encourage caterers to ask for the RSPCA’s Freedom Food certification to guarantee an annual inspection of the farm system. For pigs there is no legal definition of ‘free range’ and different farms use this phrase to mean different things. The RSPCA and the British Pig Executive are currently working on clearer definitions for free range pork.
The majority of pigs in the UK are housed indoors, many on concrete floors. Farrowing crates that are used to confine the sow before and after she gives birth to her piglets are widely considered to be of serious welfare concern. The RSPCA’s Freedom Food certification is phasing out the use of farrowing crates and currently restricts the length of time the sow can be confined in one. You might also see the terms ‘outdoor bred’ and ‘outdoor reared’. In ‘outdoor reared’ systems the sows and their piglets spend their lives outside. More common is the term ‘outdoor bred’ where sows are kept outdoors and farrowing crates are not used. However, after the piglets are weaned they will be kept indoors to be reared for meat. Some indoor systems involve keeping the pigs on
concrete or bare slats, so if you are sourcing ‘outdoor bred’ pork products you should also specify a ‘straw-based’ system to ensure that piglets live in welfare-friendly environments.
Alternatively you may opt to spend 10% of your ingredient spend over a menu rotation on certified organic ingredients. To comply, you will need to be serving certified organic meat, eggs or dairy products and an item from another of the following categories on the menu each week: fruit, vegetables, fish, bread or dry goods. If you select this alternative option then you must also produce and implement an action plan to reduce the amount of poultry and pork you serve (See the food quality and provenance gold section for further details on the background to this requirement).
We don’t serve fish that is on the Marine Conservation Society ‘Fish to Avoid’ list
Overfishing has caused one-third of all fishing stocks worldwide to collapse, and scientists are warning that if current trends continue all fish stocks worldwide will collapse within 50 years. Many thousands of dolphins, turtles and albatross are also caught by large drift
nets or baited hooks.
Getting started
The Marine Conservation Society ‘Fish to Avoid’ list is available at www.fishonline.org. Fish to avoid includes Atlantic cod, skate and haddock. To be really sure, you can buy fish certified sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council, which can currently be supplied by Brakes or major supermarkets.
We display information about the origins of the fresh produce we use
Display the names of the farms and/or local food businesses that supply locally produced fruit, vegetables, meat or dairy products for your school meals, and feature them on your menus, blackboards, flyers, website or newsletters. This will help your pupils and parents identify with and feel proud of your school food sourcing policy. Highlight when produce grown in the school garden is used in your school menu too.
We make sure that at least one product on our menu or in vending machines meets Fairtrade standards
Fairtrade standards, as guaranteed by the Fairtrade Mark, ensure that disadvantaged producers in the developing world are getting a better deal. Producer organisations receive a minimum price that covers the cost of sustainable production and an extra premium that is invested in social or
economic development projects.
Getting started
Fairtrade products that can be easily included on your school menu or in vending machines include bananas, pineapples, rice, quinoa, fruit juice, nuts and snacks, tea and coffee.
Food education
We have established a cooking club and our pupils are cooking with seasonal, local and organic ingredients
Encourage your school cooking club to use recipes that highlight what is in season each term. Ensure that your pupils are cooking with local and organic ingredients at least once a term.
Getting started
A school cooking club is an excellent way for your school to reinforce the learning from cooking classes in extracurricular time. You can also support learning about food provenance and sustainability, organic growing and farm links by sourcing in season fruit and vegetables, and some local and organic ingredients. Why not make use of produce grown by pupils in the school garden?
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Guidance on running a Silver cooking club
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Cooking skills in schools: Shopping and advance preparation
(pdf, 144KB) -
What's cooking?: FSA guide to setting up a cooking club
(pdf, 1MB)
We ensure pupils in our garden group and/or a class are growing fruit, vegetables and herbs organically
An organic growing area in your school grounds or in the vicinity is a fantastic interactive classroom that can support all curriculum areas.
Getting started
The wider the range of produce grown by your pupils, the more likely it is that they will find a range of fruit and vegetables that they feel motivated to prepare, cook and eat. By giving pupils the opportunity to decide what they would like to grow you will encourage active participation. Your pupils can contribute to the gardening team in lots of different ways, such as by investigating the benefits of organic growing and composting for their health and the environment.
Each class at Haydonleigh Primary School in Wiltshire is given a one square metre plot to grow herbs. They have expanded their gardening activities and transformed a larger piece of land into a mini orchard, wildflower meadow, and 14 vegetable plots with a polytunnel.
We have produce from our school garden available at least once a term for pupils to eat or cook with
Get your school kitchen, cooking club and/or one or more classes to use the produce grown in your school garden in cooking activities at least once a term, using seasonal recipes.
Getting started
Eating fruit and vegetables that you have grown yourself is a wholly different experience to eating fruit and vegetables that have been served up by others. Making school garden produce available for your pupils to taste and cook with is a great way to give them more of an appetite for healthy fresh produce. Signs and labels can be used to inform the whole school that freshly harvested produce is part of the school lunch that day. Note: It is important to ensure basic food hygiene rules are observed.
Crondall Primary School in Hampshire makes the best use of their garden produce by sing it regularly during cooking lessons, the cooking club and lunches, and the excess is sold in the village shop to help fund cooking activities.
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Cooking skills in schools: Risk Assessment Pro forma
(pdf, 176KB)
Our pupils explore the ethical and environmental issues around food choices and this is linked to changes in our school meals
Over 30% of our climate impact as consumers is due to the production, transport and processing of the food we buy and eat. Topics such as food miles, animal welfare can be used as crosscurricular project work for year groups. This work can also be linked to school meal changes and farm visits.
Getting started
Encourage your pupils to consider how, as consumers, they can make choices that will lessen this impact. Farming also raises a series of important ethical issues that encompass the welfare of animals and a fair deal for food producers. Resources for teachers to support discussion of these issues are available at www.foodforlife.org.uk
Coppice Farm Primary School in Nottingham holds a Fairtrade Week each year, linked with their curriculum work on a school in Africa with which they are connected. Pupils spend the week researching fairtrade issues, cooking with Fairtrade products, and in 2009 they designed, decorated and sewed Fairtrade reusable shopping bags. A newsletter keeps parents informed of what the children have been doing, and at the end of the week there is an assembly to which parents and the local community are invited to share their produce.
One or more year groups keep in touch with a local farm throughout the year.
Farm visits should be part of a year-round link with a local farm in which farmers keep your pupils updated on what’s happening on the farm. Make arrangements for small groups of pupils to visit the farm at different times of the year.
Smaller group visits throughout the year enable pupils to talk at length with the farmer, get a closer look round the farm and begin to understand the yearly cycle of work on farms.
Getting started
Pupils who visit the farm can report back to the rest of the school – during an assembly perhaps, or by making a display in school. You could communicate with the farmer regularly by email or invite him/her to your school as a guest speaker or to join in your food events for your school community. A school picnic or harvest festival held at the farm would provide an opportunity to bring larger numbers of pupils and community members to the farm.
Docking School
in
Norfolk
consulted on what they would like a visit to an organic farm to include. This was an extremely useful process, highlighting their interest in the people working on the farm and a desire to get a feel for daily life on the farm. Pupils wanted to get involved with practical activities, learn new skills and help the farmer.
They did research prior to their visits, with each of the three participating groups watching a film about animal welfare, finding out about one kind of farm animal, and writing interview questions for one of the farm staff. This meant that they were really engaged and interested in the visit and it had a real sense of purpose.
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Advice on setting up a farm links programme
(pdf, 148KB) -
Cooking skills in schools: Basic knife skills
(pdf, 146KB)
- Case Study: Docking Primary
- www.soilassociation.org/farmvisits
- www.yearoffoodandfarming.org.uk
- www.farmsforteachers.org.uk
- www.farmgarden.org.uk/atf – for information on CEVAS
- www.face-online.org.uk
- www.teachernet.gov.uk/growingschools/
- www.teachernet.gov.uk/learningoutsidetheclassroom
We organise at least one annual visit to or from small local food businesses
We know that many children and young people feel little connection with the ‘story of food’ or with he people who work to produce and process it. Seeing everyday foods such as sausages, pasta, bread, cheese or pressed fruit juice being made in front of them will be a memorable experience.
If your visits involve a small group of pupils they could present their findings back to their class or year group in a lesson or assembly.
Getting started
Small local businesses such as bakers, market stall holders, cheese makers, butchers and farm shops often welcome the opportunity to make links with your school and to demonstrate what they do. If sending all pupils is impractical you could invite them into school to do a presentation, for example in an assembly.
St Peter’s Primary School in Nottingham organises for pupil and parent groups to visit Gonalston Farm Shop. This local business sources local beef, pork, lamb, chicken and a variety of fish for the lunches at St Peter’s. The shop also supplies the school with its own sausages and beef burgers that are made on site.
Key Stage 2 pupils have benefited in many ways from this direct link with Gonalston; visiting the shop for tasting sessions, ranging from seasonal fruit and vegetables to handmade sausages. Alongside tasting sessions, younger pupils have been able to see sausages being made and meat cuts being prepared by the butcher.
Headteacher David Maddison has found that: “Having a genuine relationship with a local farm shop improves the children’s knowledge of where food comes from, who produces it and some of the processes by which it is made. This motivates them to eat with more understanding and, in some cases, more daring!”
Community and Partnerships
We hold events to involve parents and/or the wider community in growing and cooking activities
In addition to holding an annual foodthemed event, create at least two occasions in which parents and/or the wider community can get involved with cooking and growing. This will give your pupils the opportunity to celebrate their achievements and share the benefits with the wider community, inspiring them to get involved in cooking and growing activities. It may be that you can integrate cooking and growing with existing school activities such as parents evening, Christmas celebrations or sports days.
Getting started
Events can include all sorts of activities, from taster sessions at parents’ evenings and ‘open days’ hosted by your cooking or gardening clubs to cooking demonstrations by local chefs.
Pupils at Devonshire Primary School in London grow their own herbs in window boxes. They organised an event for families to make and plant window boxes for home.
Read the briefing below to find out more about this issue.
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Community food events menu
(pdf, 168KB)
We actively encourage our pupils and their parents to grow and cook their own produce at home
Growing fruit and vegetables and cooking at home can be rewarding for all involved. It is also an affordable way for families to have a variety of fresh fruit and vegetables available to them to count towards their five-a-day.
Encourage your pupils to get involved with their families in cooking and growing at home through simple projects for evenings or holidays, or by providing recipes and seeds or seedlings for pupils to take home.
Getting started
You could involve pupils in cooking projects by encouraging them to try out simple recipes at home with their parents, using affordable or school supplied ingredients; they could then bring in photographs or the dish itself to school the following day. Growing projects could involve taking seeds home to germinate, and bringing the seedlings back into school to plant out in pots or in your school garden.
St Andrew’s in Shifnal suggests keeping things simple and starting small; however, pupils’ efforts in this school were such a success that a purposely small start soon snowballed.
Headteacher Adrian Marsh says: “Children started a seed diary; they grew the seeds at home and reported back on their progress. Many parents are now growing all kinds of vegetables they wouldn’t have had the confidence to before. Of course, they wanted to know what they could do with the produce, so the logical next step was to provide recipes, and this grew into holding community cooking sessions.”
Our pupils share Food for Life Partnership learning with local schools, the wider community and other partners
Support and encourage your pupils to share their learning around cooking, growing, farming and food choices. It is a very powerful experience and helps develop important leadership skills.
Getting started
This may involve:
At a Continuous Professional Development day for secondary school teachers in Wakefield on sustainable food and farm visits, students at St Wilfrid’s Catholic High School gave a presentation about their recent farm visits. The science teacher involved in organising the farm visits gave a presentation about how the day was organised and how the farm links fit into the school curriculum. The teacher and students also discussed the wider Food for Life Partnership work that has been taking place at their school.
Lee Dawson, a member of the SNAG, said: “Since my school got involved with the Food for Life Partnership, I have learnt so much about where food comes from and how it is produced. I now understand and appreciate what a good food culture is – not just whether the food I eat is healthy or not, but also where it comes from and its impact on the environment. I’ve had some great opportunities to speak about our school, food and the Food for Life Partnership and that has been really beneficial for my personal development. I’ve gained a lot of confidence through public speaking.”
Get in touch
If you would like to learn more about the Food for Life Partnership or have any questions, please contact us.