College offers free fruit to every pupil (From Gazette Series)

College offers free fruit to every pupil

IMPROVING diet and concentration, that is the theory behind one school's new policy of free fruit for all pupils.

The Vale of Berkeley College has recently started an initiative offering each pupil in the school a free piece of fruit at morning registration and a free meal at lunch.

The school received almost £2,000 last November as part of a Government initiative to encourage healthy meals in school.

According to headteacher Aidan Farrell, the school had already implemented a change of menu in early 2005 so decided so use the cash to pay for free meals and fruit.

Mr Farrell said: "The quality of food had already improved dramatically so instead of paying for an advertising campaign to encourage healthy eating we thought it more sensible to provide each year group with a free meal."

The free meal and fruit works on a rota system with each pupil benefiting from the initiative once every few weeks.

Mr Farrell believes offering the healthier food for free is a step towards changing children's perceptions of food.

He said: "The whole point is to encourage the children to try something different, the healthy option.

"It's great seeing the pupils eating apples, oranges and even passion fruit instead of tucking into a packet of crisps."

Since the school started providing healthy alternatives to the children teachers at the college believe pupils' concentration has improved.

Mr Farrell said: "It is a difficult thing to measure but it certainly hasn't had a detrimental affect on the pupils.

"Not that we have ever had problems with behaviour but afternoons do appear to be a little calmer than this time last year."

The school will only be able to provide the free fruit and free meal while the funding lasts. Mr Farrell said he hoped that once the money had run out pupils would make their own decision to opt for a healthy meal or snack.

He said: "It may only be a short term scheme but we hope that it will have a long term effect on our pupil's eating habits."