Teach Secondary Issue 13.4

“ Howdifficult is it to bake a potato? ” That was the unusual question posed by an angry headteacher onX (formerly Twitter) inMarch this year, despairing at the ‘completely unacceptable’ quality of school meals served at his secondary school (see bit.ly/ts134-MB1) . In a subsequent letter to parents, JasonAshley, head of Redbridge Community School in Southampton, criticised the shrinking portions and rising costs of the school dinners served to his students, adding that he had no control whatsoever over the private company, Chartwells, that had been contracted to supply the meals. In response, Chartwells apologised for what it suggested had been a brief, atypical lapse in its standards of service – to whichAshley expressed his lack of trust in the company tomend its culinary ways. Stark contrasts Ultimately, however, Ashley is powerless. Under the terms of the private finance initiative (PFI) contract agreed on the school’s behalf by Southampton Council, a separate management company is responsible for recruiting specialist service providers for a range of needs at the school, including catering. That wasn’t the end of the story, though. Soon after, it was revealed that the company delivering those unappealing beige meals to Southampton state school students was also supplying top private schools with a very different menu. According to the DailyMail , Chartwell Independent – a separate wing of the same company – offers an array of nutritious and delicious food to privately educated students, including a a ‘soul bowl’ concept that lets students pick “ Froma wide array of healthy proteins, fresh vegetables and carbohydrates ” (see bit.ly/ts134-MB2 ). At another private school in Cambridge, the company’s offering extends to “ Southern-fried oyster mushrooms, sushi andmoules marinières. ” Given all this, it’s hard to disagree with food campaigner Andy Jolley, who was quoted in the Mail ’s coverage as saying “ The gourmet food served to the elites in private schools is in stark contrast to the ultra-processed, mass- produced food that’s cooked to a budget. ” Jolley further observed that given how school lunches could be “The only hot meal some children will have, it’s simply not good enough.” Unbreakable terms This depressing story highlights several deep problems within our society – not least the seemingly unstoppable rise of cheap, often ultra-processed foods that are easy to buy or assemble and immediately appealing to the palate, but which perpetuate the ongoing issue of childhood obesity, particularly among the poor. Nearly two decades ago, chef Jamie Oliver tried drawing attention to the issue with his documentary series Jamie’s School Dinners , which vividly showed how school really is often the only chance many children have to experience fresh, well-cooked, truly tasty food. At the time, Oliver’s crusade made clear the limitations of relying on enlightened entrepreneurs to resolve deep-rooted issues across public services and society at large. They tend tomake a big initial splash, and can sometimes bring about a short-lived difference, but will rarely shift the underlying culture. In this case, we can look to the often overlooked, but seemingly unbreakable terms of PFI contracts which, it would seem, hold a far greater power over children’s diets than the widely- publicised culinary activismof popular media personalities. The profitmotive The story also illustrates the many dimensions of educational inequality. Walking through a small Midlands town recently, I noticed an art gallery at the end of a row of Georgian shop fronts. It was a space entirely devoted to the display (and sale) of artworks by children attending the local private school, where fees nudge £30,000 per year. The rich, it seems, don’t just get more beautiful buildings, smaller classes, greater extracurricular opportunities and chances tomarket their work – they’re also far better fed. Understandably, JasonAshley is in favour of bringing his school’s catering back in-house. He wants to see good, old fashioned catering staff serving up delicious, hand-cookedmeals that can whet the appetites – and culinary interests – of those depending on that one dailymeal for their nutritional needs. However, so long as the profit motive sits at the heart of our children’s school dinner experiences, we can expect those who have the least to be fed the least well, thus continuing the spiral of inequality and deprivation that so bedevils our country. Recent media reports concerning shoddy school dinners speak to far wider issues that relate to outsourcing in schools, general nutrition, and above all, class and educational inequality... Melissa Benn Melissa Benn (@Melissa_Benn) is the author of Life Lessons: The Case for a National Education Service , and is a Visiting Professor at York St John university 19 teachwire.net/secondary S C H O O L O F T H O U G H T