Pupils rejecting Jamie Oliver school dinners
Wednesday, 03 Oct 2007 11:41
Despite a national campaign launched in 2005 to increase healthy eating schools, Ofsted warn children still prefer burgers and chips.
Take-up of school meals has fallen into decline since the Jamie Oliver inspired healthier menus were launched.
School inspectors found take-up of school dinners had fallen in nearly-three quarters of schools visited, with pupils blaming long queues for sit-down meals and rising costs.
Pupils also told Ofsted inspectors they preferred unhealthy options such as chips and burgers, even though awareness of healthy eating had improved.
In 19 of the 27 schools visited by Ofsted, take-up of school meals fell by between nine and 25 per cent.
Their report, published today, said the reasons for the decline were "complex". But it urged schools to identify the factors driving children out of canteens and to act on them.
Reasons cited included the rising cost of meals, lack of consultation with pupils and parents and poor marketing of new menus. Many pupils also complained about new dining rooms and said they spent too long in queues.
The report warned: "If this trend continues the impact of the government's food policies will have limited effect. This will be particularly the case for children from more vulnerable families."
The schools department insisted they were committed to a long-term improvement in children's nutrition.
Children's minister Kevin Brennan said: "Cutting childhood obesity and unhealthy eating needs the backing of every local authority, school, teacher and parent in England.
"That's why I want them to consider Ofsted's report very seriously to further improve children's eating habits."
The Liberal Democrats warned last month that school meals had gone into decline following the healthy eating drive. It blamed the government for implementing the scheme too quickly.
Schools and children spokesman David Laws said today: "There is no point in having healthy meals if nobody is eating them. The government's worthy aspiration of healthy meals has backfired because of inadequate funding and rushing their changes."
The changes were brought in in 2005 and place limits on the amount of deep fried, high fat and processed food that can be served to school children.