Food for Life
What is Food for Life?
Food for Life brings schools, nurseries, hospitals and care homes, and their surrounding communities together around the core ethos of healthy, tasty and sustainable food. The programme is about more than just food on the plate; it considers where food comes from and how it’s grown, cooked and experienced.
The School Award takes a whole school approach that means we will grow our own food; organise trips to farms; source food from local producers; set up school farmers’ markets; hold community food events; provide cooking and growing clubs for pupils and their families; serve freshly prepared, well-sourced meals and provide an attractive dining environment so lunchtimes are a positive feature of the school day. You can find out more information about the Food for Life award at foodforlife.org.uk as well as recipe's by Jamie Oliver who has been a big part of the food for life campaign.
We achieved our Bronze Food for Life Award in 2017-this was achieved in record time.
Gardening Calendars
Year 3/4 and 5/6 were asked to create a gardening calendar to say when to plant seeds and when to harvest them. This we will use when we plant organically next year.
Harvesting Onions
We cleared out and weeded the planters, also harvesting the spring onions. We then prepared the buckets to grow the early potatoes in. Other areas were treated in the same way and 'Coronation Wild Flowers' were planted to encourage the bees and insects.
Grow your own potatoes! Summer 2023
As part of our work with the Soil Association, Gaudi class have been thinking about planting potatoes. We will be observing carefully, as we wait for them to grow.
National Roast Dinner Day November 9th 2022
Cook and Share Month 2022
Thought that I would like to share some simple recipes with you as it is Cook and Share month within school.
Our amazing new dining hall tables all ready to go for lunches this year. The children are really enjoying the transformation.
Easter 2022
Year 5/6 spent some of their time making Easter cards for Church Mead Court. They were very well received by the warden and then distributed to all the residents. We do hope you enjoyed receiving a 'little ray of sunshine' through the well-wishes of St Mary's children.
The Peter Melchett Award
Finalists
I'm proud to say that through all our hard work we came runners up in this award.
It was a rewarding experience which showcased our school and all that we achieve in the Food For Life programme. Against other schools, we show what is possible even though we do not have any grass!
I am so pleased that we had the opportunity to take part.
A huge thankyou to all at the Soil Association and Food For Life team, that helped and guided us through our application and presentation.
Pancake Race 1st March 2022
Today, 40 children from Foundation to Year 6, took part in Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council's 11th Pancake Race. Everyone had great fun taking part. Well done to Jack who was our Junior winner. He was able to take home a fabulous trophy and all participants took home a medal.
Well done everyone.
Thankyou HBBC for organising this successful event.
Eat Them To Defeat Them Parent Pack
Planting a Mini Forest
Planting is a huge part of the gardening experiences that we offer at St Mary's. On Wednesday 26th January we joined members of Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council to plant nearly 100 trees of 4 different varieties. This led to conversations about how old the lime trees were surrounding the plot and how long these trees were going to take to grow. Thankyou HBBC for inviting us.
Christmas Dinner 2021
Year 5/6 children enjoying being outside planting flower and garlic bulbs ready for next year.
St Mary's School meals are provided by Educaterers, a silver award standard meal provider. We work very closely with them to ensure that the meals that are provided are nutritious and tasty.
Children are able to speak with the Head and Deputy Boys and Girls if they have any ideas or issues with the lunches so we are always giving the best quality we can. We value all children's contributions.
Cooking at home as part of the homework challenges in year 5/6. This Viking stew looks delicious.
Foundation enjoyed preparing and making apple crumble using chopping and 'rubbing in' skills.
The Peter Melchett Award 2021
I am proud to announce that we have reached the final of the Peter Melchett award. We are one of three finalists in the whole of the country. It is a great accolade to reach this point.
Peter Melchett was a policy director of the Soil Association and a true champion of the organic movement.
After a recent presentation, via 'teams', to showcase St Mary's, we now await to see what the result will be. Fingers crossed it will be a positive one.
Growing is going well at St Mary's. We have had 2 new planters to join the rest. Children sorted and cleared out the planters and then prepared the soil ready for planting.
July 2021
We are pleased to announce that we have achieved our Food For Life Silver award at long last. I would like to thank everyone in the school and Hinckley community that have helped us to achieve this award.
Intergenerational Links - Bringing our school and community together through a range of different activities. This is supported by the Food For Life Programme.
Farm Visits: Clifton-Upon-Dunsmore
Part of the Food For Life programme is for children to understand where food comes from; the journey of food from the farm to the table.
We, at St Mary's, make sure that every child has an opportunity to visit a farm. While they are there, they find out about seasonality, talk about the crops being grown, farm diversificaion, natural habitats, bees and pollination, cattle rearing and daily life on the farm.
Meeting the cows is always a happy occasion!
Food Revolution day - Friday 19th May 2018
Children, Parents, staff and the mayor enjoyed taking part in our 2nd Food Revolution Day where we enjoyed making lots of healthy salads. Children made fruit salad, rainbow salad, rice salad, pasta salad and bread rolls. one of the highlights of the day for the children was making a smoothie on the smoothie bike. Children also spent time talking to members of the school community about healthy eating, highlighting the amount of sugar that was in the everyday foods we eat.
International Food Day 2018
Children, in their lessons today, spent time learning about different countries and the different foods they consume. The children enjoyed making some of the foods and drinks that came from their selected country and produced some fantastic Maths and Writing linked to the day. Most countries were researched from Jamaica to Australia to Italy and it is safe to say both children and staff discovered many new recipes/ foods we had never come across before!
The School Nutrition Action Group (SNAG Group)
The SNAG group consists of representatives from the whole school community including pupils, parents, staff, governors, lunchtime supervisors and local community group members. They meet approximately once a term to discuss objectives for the school relating to food for life and well-being of pupils.
They are responsible for running special events in school and competitions and highlighting the importance of living healthily and protecting the environment. The potting event and recycling competitions are our first events and we will keep you updated of news and events as they are arranged. We would like to encourage as many people across our whole school community to join us in reaching our objectives and we feel our children will benefit greatly from the experiences they will have academically and socially and will equip them with vital life skills for the future.
Potting Event:
Our potting day was a huge success and was enjoyed by children, parents and staff! There were approximately 500 seeds planted on that day and we are beginning to see some huge plants already. We would like to thank all those who attended and here are some pictures from the day.
Parents Lunches
Parent Lunches 2018-2019
Monday 5th November - Yrs 1-6
Tuesday 11th December -Foundation only
Tuesday 9th April - Yrs 1-6
Thursday 4th July - Yrs 1-6
Look out for information in your child's book bag which will be coming out soon in the new academic year.
Everyone in school has now had the opportunity to dine with their parents in our new look dining hall. Some of the new features added included table cloths, flowers and cutlery holders on the table. We have also introduced a salad kart, new dessert bar and waste trolleys and got rid of the old style flight trays. We have also provided more information about healthy eating and food provenance. This has made the atmosphere a lot more enjoyable for pupils as well as promoting their independence. The salad cart is very popular with the pupils and we have already included foods that have been grown in our own garden.
The Gardeners
The gardeners are a group of about 15 children that work closely with the SNAG group to grow food that is needed either in the school hall, for events or for cooking in the classroom. in 2017 we spent time clearing up the courtyard to create a space for the children to use as a garden. Since then the gardeners have been growing lots of different vegetables and herbs, some of which have be eaten at lunchtime, some in cookery lessons in class and the gardeners also made soup for the whole school.
The gardeners became very interested in healthy living and have spent time talking to children, parents and staff about how much sugar and fat is in the everyday food we all eat. They have made it their aim to influence others further to make healthy choices and have many events planned to encourage this. The gardeners have spent time talking to children and parents about their lunch box choices and are challenging everyone to make the swap from crisps and chocolate bars to fruit, vegetables and healthy snacks
Mushroom Growing
Over the past few weeks, Mrs Hammonds in the office has been in charge of spawning the mushrooms and keeping them warm, fed and watered to encourage them to grow.
This careful nurturing has resulted in the first mushroom growing to 12½ cm in diameter and 13½cm in length. This has now been picked and will be on the salad cart shortly.
