The School Food Plan has continued the work of Jamie Oliver and is changing the face of food in our schools. There are the three main outcomes;

  • Free School Meals are compulsory for every child  in the first three years of school from September 2014.
  • New school food standards are mandatory from January 2015.
  • The subject of Cooking and Nutrition  is a compulsory part of the new National Curriculum for all children up to the age of 14 from September 2014.

Food competences have been set out as a framework of core skills and knowledge for children and young people 5-16 years as part of the new curriculum subject. These form essential building blocks so schools can provide a consistent set of food skills and knowledge.

As part of this new national curriculum from September 2014 all pupils in  Key Stage 2 of primary must “understand seasonality, and know where and how a variety of ingredients are grown, reared, caught and processed“.

In Key Stage 3 of secondary this is extended and they must “understand the source, seasonality and characteristics of a broad range of ingredients that are grown, reared, caught and processed”.

In March this year Ofsted inspectors announced that they would be focusing on the food being served in school, but more importantly the way that food is used to support the behaviour, ethos and culture of the school.   Ofsted explained they will be taking a whole school approach to the inspection, as the new subject forms part of the actual inspection framework.

Partnership work supports three core strategies within Devon

Health & Wellbeing

Supporting strategy themes of focus on family, healthy lifestyles, social capital and building communities. Our work also aligning  with two key strategy principles of 1) focus on improving health and wellbeing for individuals and communities. 2) supports joint working where it makes sense to do so.

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Naturally healthy

Complimenting the core aim of Natural Devon to: ‘ensure that everyone in Devon has the opportunity and the confidence to be ‘naturally healthy’ in order to improve their health and wellbeing’

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Feeding Devon’s Future

Supporting two of the key strands form the Feeding Devon’s Future strategic report: 1) Sustaining local food resources and community links, including a reappraisal of land-use, employment and food skills. 2) Linking people and land to promote food education and activity through schools, community and self help projects.

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