CASE STUDY: MAKING LUNCHTIME A POSITIVE SHARED EXPERIENCE

The team at Tattershall Primary School in Lincoln is committed to encouraging children to behave well at the table, eat their meals nicely and to help with the clearing up – as they would at home. And they have come up with a fun and creative way to do this – a raffle ticketing system.

Each Midday Supervisor has a book of raffle tickets in their apron pocket. If a child is helpful, eats well, shows good manners or is kind to their friends, they are given a raffle ticket to put in their table’s collection. At the end of lunch, the Year 6s count all the tickets and on Friday, they add up the week’s numbers and take them to Mrs Richardson, the headteacher, who announces which table has earnt the most tickets that week. The winners all get extra playtime.

As well as this, when the children have finished their meals, regardless of time, they all stay sitting together at the table until the end of lunch. This stops them from rushing their meals to get out to play. Each table also has their own dustpan and brush and cloth and the children all help to clear up before they can go out to play. It really is a team effort.  Together these small changes add up to something really significant and make school lunches about so much more than just food, it becomes a shared experience with friends and a time to connect.