Is your school canteen promoting a wellbeing healthy environment?

Is your school canteen promoting a wellbeing healthy environment?

Currently more than half of all primary school children miss out on a healthy school meal, many for reasons of poverty.

A positive impact the school canteen has on its students is by providing them with free school meals. They have been shown to not only improve their health but help tackle health inequalities and remove the poverty trap.

The Government actively promotes health and wellbeing here, which positively impacts on families and supports schools in giving them ideas about how to value the importance of wellbeing amongst students.

Did you know currently more than half of all primary school children miss out on a healthy school meal?

With the growing need for free school meals, even more so in this current climate, you may need to re-consider the facilities you have in place.

Do they meet all requirements and do you have the facilities to help provide extra school meals for the children inside and outside term times?

The school canteen is a great place to promote the enjoyment of healthy eating.

For those students who use the canteen regularly, the food purchased makes a significant contribution to their total food intake and nutrition.

Therefore, it makes sense to ensure the best food possible is available to enhance their ability to learn and take in the information presented to them in class.

For students who don’t use the school canteen regularly, it still plays an important educational and modelling role for healthy eating habits.

At first glance the humble school canteen might be overlooked within the school interiors but, on reflection, most people would agree that the canteen is one of the most important parts of school life playing an indispensable role in the life and central to the functioning of a school.

School canteens also have a large impact on school life in the support of teaching through proper nutrition and health practices; including the provision of special dietary requirements for some students and staff.

The school canteen also plays an important role within the broader school environment – that of reinforcing knowledge, skills and behaviours about healthy eating and lifestyle which are taught in the classroom.

Food provided at school has a considerable influence on the development of schools have a duty to feed students and staff properly.

Canteen administrators must ensure that school canteens meet National Standards for food preparation, storage, hygiene and safety.

Many schools lost their canteens in the last few years to create more classroom space. Now schools are bringing the breakout space back, for social interaction and “time out”.

The school canteen can be a pleasant space which contributes to the development of students and reflects a positive school environment.  That is why we should never underestimate the impact school interior design can have a significant impact on the students.

The interior design of a school canteen requires an understanding of the key factors of its environment.  A setting which lends itself to noisy social interaction, a hub, often the heart of the school. This must be carefully considered when undertaking a school refurbishment.

Bring this communal school space to life in a functional yet visually appealing way using great school interior design ideas, introducing trends and elements of fun, including chill out booths with acoustic properties, bench tables with accompanying stools, linear lighting, acoustic panels and soft seating.

We need also to ensure all school furniture is presentable as well as durable and matches the interior palette and the school’s brand identity where required. School canteen furniture should be hard-wearing and suitable for high volume traffic.

School canteen environments play host to a high volume of occupancy with students and teachers occupying these communal spaces five days per week.

Furniture for schools, whether its chairs for classrooms, desks for reception areas or school canteen or breakout areas needs to be robust, easy to move, easy to clean, made to last and hard wearing and still look great.

From style and material to colours and sizes, there is a range of key factors to consider to ensure the final selection of school furniture is suitable for this high traffic and often multi-functional space.

Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford has campaigned tirelessly to end child food poverty.

Following his petition, in which he collected more than a million signatures, the UK Government extended free school meals to eligible children during the summer holidays and beyond.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson personally phoned the England striker to tell him that his efforts had resulted in £396 million of support to provide free school meals not only this Christmas but next Easter and the summer holidays in 2021 too.

He was awarded an MBE for improving the lives of nearly 1.7 million children since June 2020.

Here at Rap Interiors, we are passionate about creating learning environments that inspire students to fulfil their potential and achieve their goals.

We take great pride in helping to sow the seeds for a successful future and have done so for countless schools and higher education institutions.

With a wealth of design, refurbishment and fit-out experience in schools, academies, colleges and universities, you can count on us to create an environment that staff and students will love.

Not only do our education and school interior design schemes help to engage students through their aesthetic appeal, but they are also guaranteed to be safe, practical and durable.