Table 'monitors' boost school meals uptake by 40%

East Renfrewshire Council introduced the updated monitors at Calderwood Lodge Primary School in Newlands and said the monitors take orders from pupils at the tables, write the orders down on eco-friendly, wipe-clean menu cards, and help promote healthy dishes. The monitors then collect the food from the staff at Scotland's only Kosher school kitchen and serve the youngsters at their seats. Dubbed 'family meals' by catering staff, as each table works as a sit-down family meal with the same children each day, and with the monitor acting as 'parent', the new system has banished lunchtime queues and upped the number taking lunch from 60 to 100. Calderwood Lodge's head teacher Christine Haughney said: "We were asked by council caterers to trial the new system as a pilot and started after the October week break. The results have been astonishing. "Uptake has soared and pupils are learning social skills sitting at the table as well as our monitors using waiting skills, which include food promotion, handling and communication. This has boosted our healthy eating agenda enormously. Our dining hall is a very happy place and pupils are directly involved in choosing and bringing the meals to the tables." East Renfrewshire's school catering manager, Loraine Lawrie said: "We decided to test out changing how we serve school meals. Queues have long been a barrier to uptake and frankly aren't welcoming to the children. "The pilot at Calderwood Lodge has shown that the new system works and that, above all, youngsters enjoy their meals much more in a more sociable setting with cutlery on the table and food served to them so that uptake climbs. "In the catering industry today there can't be many places in which you can sit down to table service for just £1.50 for a hot, healthy and nutritious three-course meal. We're now planning to roll out this approach to our other primaries starting later this year, with Thornliebank."