Pictured Children Owen Bushell, Charlotte Mrakham, Ryan Lindley with Jane Wright, (Head Cook), Civic Mayor Ros Jones, Lynne Paradine (Headteacher) and Lesley Cairns (SFT)

Doncaster school wins £5,000 prize for healthy dinners

4th February 2010, 8:25am

Bentley New Village Primary School in Doncaster has been awarded a £5,000 cheque in recognition of its work to promote healthy school lunches.

Civic Mayor for Doncaster, Ros Jones joined the pupils for a special assembly to name New Village as the School Food Trust's 'Million Meals School of the Month'.

Head teacher Lynne Paradine said: 'We have worked incredibly hard to focus our efforts on improving the health of our pupils through healthy school meals. The catering team have shown incredible innovation and more and more, the kitchen staff are 'coming out of the kitchen' and into the classroom to make learning about food fun."

The school encourages its pupils to grow their own vegetables and has set up popular after school clubs, the Cookery Club and the Garden Gang. The school was particularly praised for its work in getting the wider community involved in teaching children about nutrition. Pupils regularly get the opportunity to meet adult role models who owe their successes to a healthy lifestyle.

Paradine continued: "We hope to continue our efforts to increase the take up of school meals by using the prize money to buy new tables and re-decorate our school canteen to make it more appealing for the children and continue encouraging them to eat healthy school meals."

Rob Rees, chair of the School Food Trust, added: "Congratulations to Bentley New Village Primary School. They have worked incredibly hard to involve the whole community in improving their school meals and their pupils' knowledge of food with fantastic results. They thoroughly deserve it."

Related Articles:

• 14 Dec 2010 - New scheme to make free school lunches more available in Leeds launches today
• 04 Jan 2010 - Trust calls for January sales on school dinners
• 16 Dec 2009 - School meals in North Somerset join January sales
• 24 Nov 2009 - Essex school dinners get cashless payment systems

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