Surrey Square Junior School & Surrey Square Infants School

Awarded Food for Life Flagship Community status - one of six London schools (2008)

An inner-London school serving a disadvantaged area, the motto for Surrey Square Junior School is 'sharing in success'. In under a year, with the help of Eagle Solutions Services, the schools set up their own in-house catering service and achieved a higher standard of food, as well as gaining the prestigious Flagship Community status. Not content with that achievement, the school is now aiming for the Food for Life Gold Mark for good food culture.

Eagle Solutions Services (ESSL) worked closely with the schools to assess what was needed, collate information and support the transition to an in-house service. A cook was immediately put in place to ensure a good standard of food whilst a 'cook-manager' was recruited to run the kitchen. Eagle Solutions Services then assisted in planning the menus, involving the whole school in choosing dishes and making sure they were in accordance with Food Based Nutritional Standards. The next task is to update the kitchen equipment.

Kelly Rowles, the Junior School Business Manager and line manager for the kitchen (which also serves the Infant School on the same site) remarks that "The children enjoy their food now and take an interest in the menus we plan. Even the staff have shown appreciation and all full-time staff and many of the support staff now eat lunch with the children. Eagle Solutions Services could not have been more helpful in achieving this change."

In the Infant and Nursery school, the Foundation Stage children benefit from the social interaction encouraged through the introduction of a 'family service'. Barbara Burrows, the Infant school headteacher, says, "The family service has been introduced very successfully through the advice and support provided by Eagle Solutions Services."

Summing up, Junior school headteacher Liz Robinson says, "We used to have lots of complaints about school meals, but now these are rare. What is more, now we have Flagship Community status, we have a higher profile and access to many other resources, including funding; we also have numerous opportunities for networking with other organisations and sharing good practice."