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Students should be banned from leaving school premises at lunchtime to stop them eating junk food, the new head of the School Food Trust said.
Rob Rees, a Michelin-starred chef and consultant said that schoolchildren should be enticed into eating inside school as opposed to indulging in unhealthy fast food options available outside.
“I would like headteachers to have a policy of no one being offsite during lunchtime,” he said in an article in the Independent newspaper.
“Schools that have done this have found improvements in behaviour in the afternoon," said Rees, who replaced Prue Leith as chairman of the trust, an arm’s length governmental body overseeing healthy school meals.
However Chris Davies of the National Primary Headteachers' Association criticised Rees’s approach reportedly saying “shutting the school gates…is a step too far.” In the same Independent newspaper article, he asserted that this would place added pressure to staff ultimately leading to “disgruntled parents and children complaining about their civil rights.”
A spokesperson for School Food Trust told FM World that his comments were a confirmation of a stay-onsite policy that has been favoured by the trust for a couple years.
Research carried out by the Trust found 90 per cent of parents thought schools should adopt a stay on site policy, with 67 per cent agreeing that children would eat more healthily if they were not allowed to leave school at lunch time.
But the trust warned such a policy must be part or a wider strategy and also may not be suitable for all schools.
A written statement from the trust said that a it may not be physically practical.
“It may not be suitable for all schools, for example, where there is no physical barrier to the school site itself and there is no possibility of installing one.”
Rees’ appointment was made by Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families.
Rees was appointed chairman on 1 February and was awarded an MBE for services to the food industry in 2005. He runs a food tour and cookery training business, The Cotswold Chef.
In addition, Rees is chief executive of a consultancy, the Wiggly Worm charity, which uses food projects to help and rehabilitate vulnerable and disadvantaged people.
Rees is a founding member of the School Food Trust Board in 2005 and is also a non-executive director of Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust, is a board member for Visit England and a former board member of the Food Standards Agency.
The School Food Trust is an independent body charged with transforming school food and food skills. It was set up as non-departmental public body in 2005 with £15m of funding from the then Department for Education and Skills, which became the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF).
In April 2007 the School Food Trust was registered as a charity.
The trust has produced a guide, available on its website, for schools considering the stay-on-site option. Case studies are also available.
This article was also featured on http://www.fm-world.co.uk |
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