Whitchurch Primary School – National Healthy Schools

Contents

- National Healthy Schools Award
- Healthy Lunchbox
- Child Survey Report (must read)
- Kid’s Shopping Guide
- Children’s Food Preparation Area - Update
- Children’s Recipes

National Healthy Schools Award

At the end of last term our school achieved the new ‘National Healthy Schools Award’ which will be presented to the children and staff towards the end of November at a special assembly. The award is given in recognition of the school’s focus on promoting a healthy lifestyle for our community.

The key outcomes for our school through achieving National Healthy School status are in the following areas

- PHSE (Personal, Health and Social Education)
- Healthy Eating
- Physical Activity
- Emotional Health and Wellbeing

After a discussion with the School Council, the School’s Nutrition Action Group (SNAG) and the staff part of our continuing programme of promoting healthy eating it has been decided that every Friday will be a ‘ healthy lunchbox ’ day.

What is a ‘Healthy Lunchbox?

There has been some discussion amongst children, parents and staff about what constitutes a ‘healthy’ or ‘balanced’ lunchbox.

A daily balanced diet should include the five main food groups

- Fruit and vegetables 30% *
- Bread, other cereals and potatoes 30% *
- Meat, fish and alternatives 15%*
- Food containing fat, food and drinks containing sugar 10% *
- Milk and dairy foods 15% *

*approximate amounts

A healthy lunchbox may not have all of the groups represented because it is only a part of what should be a balanced daily food intake.
 
So for our purposes when we look for a health lunchbox we are primarily looking for a lunchbox that promotes health by being devoid of a preponderance of ‘unhealthy’ foods (for instance a bar of chocolate or foodstuffs containing a lot of salt). We want to educate our children to be health conscious when making choices about what they eat and how they exercise. For instance most children are aware of the ‘five portions of fruit a day’ campaign and need to be encouraged to subscribe to it.

Below you will found the outline of a recent report which makes a strong case for the association between diet and both academic and social behaviour. It’s worth reading.

Child Survey Report

BRITAIN'S BIGGEST EVER SURVEY OF OVER 10,000 CHILDREN REVEALS FOODS THAT MAKE CHILDREN SMART, OR STUPID

The Food for the Brain children's survey sponsored by Organix compares food intake with behaviour, academic performance and health. The Food For The Brain Foundation, sponsored by Organix, today releases the results of the largest ever children's nutrition and diet survey undertaken on over 10,000 British school children aged between 6 – 16 years old, comparing aspects of their diet with their behaviour, academic performance, SAT scores and overall health. The results, which found a significant association between diet, behaviour and SAT scores, show the shocking state of children's diet and mental health in Britain with more than 1 in 3 suffering from attention or concentration problems and mood swings or tantrums, with almost half having constant sugar cravings.

The survey was conducted between September 2006 and July 2007 with parents completing a free on-line questionnaire on their children. Participants were recruited partly through media coverage in national publications, an email sent to all UK public sector schools, and partly self-selected by visiting the website www.foodforthebrain.org.
 
Key findings:

- Average intake of dark green vegetables (high in folate) is 1 serving a week
- Average intake of seeds / nuts high in essential fats is half a serving a week
- Average sugar servings in or added to food and drinks is 3.5 a day
- Children who eat diets high in fried food, takeaways or foods cooked in hot fat are three times more likely to be badly behaved
- Children who eat vegetables, oily fish, nuts and seeds do best at school
- Children with better diets have 11% higher SAT scores
 
Best and Worst Foods - The survey found that the best foods for behaviour are fruit and vegetables with high consumers of both twice as likely to be well behaved. The worst foods are fried and / or takeaway foods, processed food, ready meals and sugar. A massive 44% of children who eat this type of junk food most days suffer from bad behaviour, compared with only 16% of children who never eat fried or takeaway food having poor behaviour.
 
The best foods for parental rating of good academic performance are raw nuts and seeds with high consumers twice as likely to have good academic performance. The best foods for good SAT scores are dark green leafy vegetables, oily fish and water. The worst foods are processed and ready meals. High dairy consumers also had slightly lower SAT scores. Almost half (45%) of children frequently or always crave sweet foods and of those 44% frequently or always have poor attention or lose concentration, 39% have poor memory and 37% have frequent mood swings or tantrums.

The table below shows the difference in overall health, behaviour and academic performance SAT scores between high and low consumers of different food groups.

Head of the study and director of Food for the Brain, Patrick Holford, Visiting Professor of Mental Health and Nutrition at the University of Teesside comments: "The brain is 60% fat. Children who eat good fats, from raw nuts, seeds and oily fish, double their chances of high academic performance. Children who eat damaged fats, in fried food and takeaways, are twice as badly behaved, as well as performing badly at school. In a sense these fats make your brain thicker, less responsive, and they appear to make children thicker too.
 
Many children in our survey are like jetfighters - they refuel on the move going from one sugary food or drink to another. The association between high sugar intake and bad behaviour is very strong."

Test your child

Parents can check their own child's diet and receive free 'food for the brain' advice by completing an on-line questionnaire at www.foodforthebrain.org.

Smart food for smart kids shopping guide

Parents can also download the Food for the Brain Foundation's Smart Food For Smart Kids Shopping Guide, www.foodforthebrain.org for the free download. This guide is designed to help parents throughout the UK make the right food choices to help improve their children's brain function, behaviour and intelligence. A copy of the guide is kept in the school foyer.

Food For The Brain Smart Kid’s Shopping Guide

Lunch Box ideas

- Wholemeal pita pocket or corn tortilla wraps

- Wholegrain bagels

- Nairn’s oat cakes

- Brown basmati rice (to make a rice and mixed bean salad)

- Tins of beans e.g. kidney/borlotti/cannelloni beans

- Sliced chicken or turkey

- Tins of salmon, mackerel and sardines

- Smoked salmon or mackerel

- Eggs for hard boiling using omega 3-rich Columbus eggs

- Cottage or cream cheese

- Guacamole

- Small pots of hummus

- Natural yoghurt

- Lettuce, watercress, beetroot, tomatoes, red onion, red peppers

- Carrots (for grating and adding to sandwiches, pitta pockets)

- Vegetables (cut into sticks for dipping) such as carrots, cucumber, peppers,
cherry tomatoes, baby corn, celery, broccoli and radishes.

FOOD FOR THE BRAIN

Healthy breakfasts, packed lunches and snacks.

To help maintain your child’s concentration and energy levels there are three golden rules. If you follow them, you won’t go far wrong:

Avoid too much sugar (found in biscuits, sweets and fizzy drinks) and eat low GL foods like porridge oats, brown rice and wholewheat pasta.

Eat essential brain-boosting fats found in oily fish like salmon, sardines and mackerel as well as pumpkin seeds.

Eat more fruits and vegetables, packed with IQ boosting vitamins and minerals.

Healthy snack options instead of crisps

- Nairn’s Oat Bakes available in cheese , tomato, garlic and basil or lemon & black pepper.

- Clearspring pumpkin seeds, or roasted snack mix (be careful of choking risk with children under 5)

- Plain pop corn instead of biscuits, sweets and chocolate

- Nairn’s Oat Biscuits available in Mixed Berries, Fruit and Spice or Stem Ginger

Put these foods into your shopping basket

Breakfast ideas

Low sugar cereals such as Whole Earth cornflakes or Whole Earth “Perfect Balance”

Oat porridge such as Whole Earth Porridge Oats.

Organic cow’s milk, soya or rice milk.

Warburton’s Wholegrain or “All in One” bread or Village Bakery rye and gluten free breads .

Nairn’s oatcakes

Meridian nut butter

No added sugar fruit spreads such as Meridian

Low sugar/salt baked beans such as Whole Earth

Eggs fortified with omega 3 such as Columbus eggs

Mushrooms, tomatoes (for grilling)

Low sugar tomato Ketchup e.g Meridian Tomato Ketchup

Fruit - to eat fresh or in a smoothie (try berries, plums, apricots, bananas, apples and pears)

Natural yoghurt

Sesame, flax, pumpkin, sunflower and hemp seeds (for grinding and adding to smoothies, porridge and cereal)

Xylitol instead of sugar

Fruitus Bars

Villages Bakery 4 Seed Bars

Small pots fromage frais or yoghurt(sweetened with fruit, not sugar)

Fresh fruit (berries, apple, pear, peach, plum)

Dried fruits e.g dried apricots

Instead of deserts

Instead of ice cream make lollies made with fruit juice

For cakes and desserts

Use xylitol or Meridian Apple and Blackcurrent concentrate instead of sugar

Instead of sugary drinks

Fruity/herbal teas

Fresh apple or orange juice half diluted with water

Sugar-free fruit squash such as Meridian Apple and Blackcurrant concentrate diluted with water

Fruit smoothies (or make your own with fresh fruit, natural yoghurt, diluted with water, apple juice or milk)

FOOD FOR THE BRAIN

www.foodforthebrain.org

The Food for the Brain Foundation is a registered charity no. 1116438

Chef in School

At the end of 2008 we employed a chef to come into school and work with each class, as well as enjoying these sessions the children were able to make their own food and taste new things. Below you will find copies of the recipes which you may wish to try at home.

Food Preparation Area

The children’s response to the chef sessions through their school council was so positive that it made us decide to move forward our plans to develop a dedicated food preparation / cookery area where children will be able to prepare and cook food on a regular basis.

The school has been successful in a bid for matched funding from the Local Authority which raised an additional £5000.00 by Easter 2008. The Friends Of Whitchurch also kindly donated all fund raising towards the project until completion. The new food preparation / cookery area was officially opened in November 2008.

Other Issues

In November 2008 Parent line Plus now have a new web site for parents concerned about bullying. This is funded by the DCSF. The web address is  www.besomeonetotell.org.uk