CATERERS at Eldene Primary School are improving the experience for pupils receiving school dinners, with training from Jamie Oliver’s own inspiration.

Catering manager Dean Fry and business manager Samantha Wells have been involved with the Food for Life Partnership and a programme co-ordinated by Swindon Council which puts staff in front of Jeanette Orrey, the dinner lady behind Oliver’s national campaign.

The pair have attended four sessions with Jeanette at Swindon Academy, with one more to come. The sessions revolve around improving the quality of food offered in school kitchens and how to increase their uptake.

The training is all part of an ongoing drive at Eldene to expand its school meals operation and improve what is on offer to the 80 children eating free school dinners. The school says that, for many, it is their only cooked meal of the day because they come from poorer backgrounds.

This week is National School Meals Week, with schools across the nation hoping to provide one free meal before the weekend, with an aim of signing more parents up long-term.

Dean said: “We serve around 80 free school meals here each day and [for many] this is their only hot meal of the day.

“There is a stigma surrounding children and their parents claiming free school meals, so there may well be more children out there eligible, who aren’t claiming.”

The school charges £2 per meal per day and has recently increased the uptake of hot dinners, with more than 50 per cent of all lunches eaten at the school each week cooked in the kitchen.

Further expansion planned – as a part of the Food for Life partnership, a national initiative, the school is working towards a bronze award, which celebrates a whole school approach to food, as opposed to simply serving food for one hour each day.

On the training with Jeanette Orrey, Samantha Wells said: “It’s been very helpful and great to talk to other catering managers from around Swindon and find out what they are doing in their schools.

“Jeanette is very knowledgeable and has told us how we should look to bring in changes.

“There is a significant focus on the dining room experience for the pupils, beyond the food.”

One of the enterprising ideas from catering manager Dean has been to change the kitchen’s status to a children’s restaurant, which pupils are voting on a name for.

“We have asked the children to name our restaurant. That’s the way we run it now; that’s how important the children are to the decisions we make,” he said.

“The children are also due to come up with a menu, which we will, of course, balance out.”