Parents Menu
Healthy Schools & Menus
Our School Story - Great Easton Primary
Our smaller than average rural Primary school serves the Five parishes of Chickney, Tilty, Broxted, Little Easton and Great Easton.
Our Health and Well-being priority was to increase the number of children who can make healthier food choices.
As a staff we discussed snack time. Children were running around eating, the playground was littered with packets, and half-eaten food was strewn on the ground. Many children were choosing to leave snacks uneaten so that they could play instead. The SHEU survey was showing that a higher than county average number of children were saying that they did not eat breakfast. Half of those who completed the SHEU also said that they did not eat enough fruit. After discussion with staff and children during class council/school council sessions it was agreed that snacks and water would be taken inside the classroom. By doing this children monitor each other regarding “healthy snacks” and teachers too can keep a close check on children’s choices. Children say they prefer to sit down in the classroom to enjoy a café-style environment to eat their snacks. The playground is virtually litter-free too.
As a school we decided together to provide a greater range of school meals. School dinners are incredibly popular – especially the roasts on a Thursday! Meals cost £2.30. Parents and family are welcome to come and try our delicious lunches any day of the week – just pre-book in the office. This is a particularly lovely way to celebrate birthdays!
The introduction of ‘KidsClub’ has been popular with both children and parents.
Run by members of staff, it provides a Breakfast and After School club every day. Children are closely supervised and have a wonderful time! Breakfast Club – 8:00am – 8:40am (when children can go into class) to include a healthy breakfast – £4.00
After-School Club – has been broken up into three sessions:
- Early – 3:15pm – 4:15pm – £4.00
- Mid – 3:15pm – 5:15pm – £8.00
- Late – 3:15pm – 6:15pm – £12.00
Both Mid & Late sessions can include a healthy snack at an additional cost of £1:50.
Drinks will be made available for all sessions. Ad-hoc bookings can be made via Schnappy or by contacting the school office.
We also try to provide a crèche during “Open” evenings too! This gives more parents the opportunity to discuss their child’s progress with their teacher.
Our targeted outcome focussed on KS2 girls who, according to the SHEU survey, wanted to lose weight. We addressed this by introducing a cross country club for staff and pupils. Additional sports were introduced, to appeal to girls as well as boys; hockey and netball, as well as encouraging both boys and girls to take part in dodgeball. Our present cohort of KS 2 girls are prepared to participate in all sports and are good swimmers, gymnasts, dancers as well as good role models for the younger children. Next SHEU results hopefully will reflect this.
We are very lucky to have amazing school grounds and our Gardening Club enjoy growing flowers and herbs, but we would like to extend our Healthy school work to make greater improvements. Our next action plan will focus on using our grounds to deliver more learning outdoors by utilising better, what we have. A RHS representative worked alongside staff and children to highlight areas we could improve. Projects will include the involvement of children, staff, parents, grandparents, and members of the community.
Our School Council parents, children and staff are all involved in setting each term’s menus – the current menu is available below.
