Healthy Eating
Promoting Healthy Eating at St Damian’s
St Damian’s promotes healthy eating to all pupils. This starts in the school dining room where a range of healthy meals and snacks are available on a daily basis for pupils to choose from. The school dining has held the NHS Food 4 Life certificate for a number of years , this award shows that the staff have a strong understanding of nutritional and oral health, this award is reapplied for on a biannual basis and St Damian’s achieves the standard each time through the hard work and determination of the lunchtime staff to provide high quality, nutritious food for pupils. The dining room produces a three-week menu, offering a variety of foods to encourage children to have a varied palate. St Damian’s does not have vending machines. This prevents pupils from choosing unhealthy snacks.
The Cooking & Nutrition Curriculum
The Creative Technology Faculty supports the school’s drive for healthy eating. Every child at KS3 follows the Cooking and Nutrition curriculum. These bespoke lessons focus on nutrients, educate on function, source, excess and deficiency in the diet. This allows pupils to have the knowledge to make informed decisions about their food choices. Pupils are also taught about diet and health focusing on common diet-related diseases again children are taught about each disease including risk factors, what happens to the body and how each disease can be prevented and treated.
Pupils are taught a range of cooking skills which can be applied to a variety of healthy recipes which will be continued into adulthood. To further complement the Cooking and Nutrition curriculum relating to healthy eating pupils, PSHE and Science focus on diet and the importance of good nutrition.
