Behaviour and Discipline in Schools

Memorandum submitted by Food For Life Partnership

Summary  

1. The Food for Life Partnership has evidence and experience to show that healthy school food, a good school food culture and facilities to encourage pupils’ participation in horticulture and cookery are effective preventative measures to address challenging behaviour in schools.

2. The evidence linking poor nutrition with b ehavioural problems is strong. Poor nutrition and, frequently, problematic behaviour affect disadvantaged pupils most of all . Conversely, g ood school food has been shown to improve attendance, concentration and behaviour and therefore to i ncrease pupils ’ motivation and ability to learn. Horticulture improves participants’ sense of wellbeing and food growing encourages children to eat more fresh fruit and vegetables, improving their physical and mental health. Food education is also a simple and effective way to assist parents to address their children’s behaviour. A healthy school meal service , coupled with a whole school approach to food and nutrition education , can reduce behavioural problems in schools and equip pupils with the skills and knowledge to maintain their good mental health and behaviour throughout their adult life.

Recommendations for government  

3. We recommend that the government creates policy that will :

· Promote a ‘whole school approach’ to good food and food culture .

· Improve access to good food for disadvantaged children.

· Encourage food growing in schools.

· Train the right staff and improve their understanding of food and mental health.

· Educate pupils on the importance of a healthy diet for controlled behaviour.

· Involve parents and families in food education.

· Spend school capital on the facilities schools need to provide good food and increase take-up of school lunch.

· Increase the evidence base linking good food and good behaviour in schools .

The Food for Life Partnership: an introduction  

4. The Food for Life Partnership is a network of schools and communities across England committed to transforming food culture. At FFLP schools great food is matched by food education, cooking lessons, on-site food growing and improvements to the dining area. We currently work with over 2,500 schools in England and more than 200,000 meals are served to Food for Life standards daily.

5. The Food for Life Partnership is funded by the Big Lottery Fund and led by the Soil Association, bringing together the practical expertise of the Focus on Food Campaign, Garden Organic and the Health Education Trust.

· The Soil Association is the UK's leading environmental charity promoting sustainable, organic farming and championing human health.

· The Focus on Food Campaign is the leading food education support programme for teaching cooking in the UK’s primary and secondary schools.

· Garden Organic is the UK’s leading organic growing charity dedicated to researching and promoting organic gardening, farming and food

· The Health Education Trust is the national charity dedicated to initiating and supporting work with children and young adults to encourage the growth of healthy lifestyles.

6. FFLP takes a ‘whole school’ approach to decision-making, involving catering staff, teachers, families and the pupils themselves; promoting personal responsibility and ownership at every stage. Headteachers report that this approach brings improvements in attendance, behaviour, attentiveness in class and attainment, benefits that are also demonstrated by research into food in schools [1] and the link between diet and behaviour [2] (see Appendix A for FFLP case studies).

Scope of our submission  

7. Our expertise is in food, so our response will confined to commentary on school food and nutrition as a successful early intervention on pupils’ mental and physical health and its effects on behaviour. We will not be commenting on matters of discipline, and we recognise that good food is not a panacea but is at its most effective as part of a package of measures to address behaviour in schools. However, we firmly assert that improving the quality and availability of food in schools, as well as the culture that encourages children to eat the food on offer, will help address the following of the Education Committee’s concerns:

· How to support and reinforce positive behaviour in schools ,

· Approaches taken by schools and local authorities to address challenging behaviour ,

· Ways of engaging parents and carers in managing their c hildren’s challenging behaviour,

· Links between atte ndance and behaviour in schools.

8. In this submission to the Education Committee we will be drawing on our experience working in 2,500 schools in England, and an extensive body of evidence linking nutrition with mental health and behaviour and good school food with improved nutrition for the pupils to eat it, particularly poorer pupils. We are also supported in our assertions by the three professional advisory bodies that support the Partnership; our Caterers’ Circle, Cooks’ Network and the Educators’ Panel of head teachers.

9. For more information about the Food for Life Partnership see: www.foodforlife.org.uk

Submission of evidence:
g ood food promote s good behaviour in schools  

10. The body of evidence linking poor nutrition with behavioural problems is substantial and increasing. All of the evidence from research into the benefits of good school meals indicates improvements in pupil health, behaviour, motivation and ability to learn and achieve. A healthy lunch and breakfast has been shown to improve attendance, behaviour and concentration. A pleasant dining experience at lunchtime improves social skills, and the efficiency brought by having enough seats or short queuing times encourages pupils to stay and eat the food. In turn, a secure customer base will promote the economic viability of the catering service and allow a virtuous circle of continued improvement to school meals, pupil health, behaviour and achievement.

Food, nutrition and behaviour  

11. The brain is one of the largest organs in the body and, like our hearts, livers and other organs, it is affected by what we eat and drink. Despite the large number and generally good quality of the research studies scientific understanding of these links is far from complete, but it is clear that our diets affect how our brains are made and how they work throughout our lives.  One report proposes that the changes to the food system seen in the past century may be partly responsible for the rise in mental health and behavioural problems at the same time, and its analysis of the research indicates that this diet is fuelling not only obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and some cancers, but may also be contributing to rising rates of mental ill-health and anti-social behaviour [1] .

12. What is good for our body is good for our mind. The combination of nutrients that is most commonly associated with good mental health and well-being is, of course, the same type of healthy balanced diet that is widely recommended to keep our body healthy and reduce our risk of becoming obese or suffering heart disease, strokes, a range of cancers, diabetes and a number of digestive disorders and conditions. This healthy diet includes a combination of polyunsaturated fats, minerals and vitamins, and limits saturated fat, sugar and certain food additives and agricultural chemicals. There are some particularly important nutrients for brain development and function, such as polyunsaturated fatty acids (particularly the "omega three" types found in oily fish and some plants), but they can only work properly if a wide range of other nutrients are also available in the right amounts and in proportion to each other [2] .

13. An excess of unhealthy, high fat and sugar foods with insufficient healthy foods to counter their effects encourage s feelings of irritability, anxiety , confusi on, depression or poor memory. A h ealthy diet , however, can contribute to steady moods, better concentration and good general wellbeing [3] . These effects are critical for pupils’ success at school and in society, but much of the population is unaware of the connection between unhealthy food products and poor mental health, and even more are unaware of the effect o f healthy foods on our mood and feelings and subsequent behaviour [4] . In the gen e ral population, b rown or wholegrain starchy carbohydrates, fruit and vegetables and oily fish are linked to improved mood and increased ability to control impulsive problem behaviour. Conversely, a diet including an excess of sugar, white starchy carbohydrates and/or caffeine (as well as alcohol and cigarettes) can contribute to a roller coaster blood sugar level, leading to mood swings and inability to control violent or impulsive behaviour. To encourage good mood and controlled behaviour people should try to keep their blood sugar on an even keel, which is why regular breakfast ( preferably featuring whole grain bread or oats, which release their energy slowly), healthy snacks and a nu tritious lunch are so important for pupils’ behaviour and concentration as well as physical health .

14. The evidence linking nutrition with behavioural problems is strong. The seminal study by Bernard Gesch at HM Young Offenders Institute Aylesbury in 1996-7, for instance, found a 26% reduction in the rate of recorded disciplinary incidents and up to a 37% reduction in the rate of serious behavioural offences, including violence, committed at the jail among the group of young prisoners receiving nutritional supplements [5] . (Because of the nature of controlled studies, with their need for double-blind conditions, it is often difficult or impossible to test food itself. Therefore, supplements are often used as a replacement). Moreover, separate studies have found the same results [6] . Another recent study links high consumption of processed foods to depression [7] .

15. Evidence linking horticulture with improved wellbeing has found a diverse range of beneficial behavioural outcomes that are likely to influence pupils’ time at school, including lower rates of crime, lower incidence of aggression, greater ability to cope with poverty, better life functioning, greater life satisfaction, and reduced attention deficit symptoms [8] . Allowing children to grow food can also encourage increased consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables, potentially improving both physical health and pupils’ ability and inclination to learn [9] . Gardening is also exercise, even for the least athletically inclined, and physical activity has been shown to increase the b rain ’s production of ‘happy’ hormones like serotonin and endorphins, which improve feeling s of wellbeing and motivation. Our experience at Food for Life Partnership schools is that children develop self-esteem in learning to grow their own food and learn to take responsibility for their own actions. This is particularly true in the case of disadvantaged pupils, who frequently display the most problematic behaviour.

16. Meanwhile, at FFLP schools a calm and sociable dining environment teaches children social skills, and prepares them to be receptive in afternoon classes. FFLP schools in disadvantaged areas also report an increase in attendance , as well as improved behaviour (Please see Appendix A for examples of schools in which staff report and improvement in behaviour after parti c ipation in the FFLP programme) .

Food and behaviour in schools  

17. A number of published studies have shown that hungry children behave worse in school, registering reductions in fighting and absence and increased attention when meals are provided. [1] More specifically, two studies have found that school children who received supplements of essential fatty acids showed less aggression, compared with controls, when they were placed under stress. [2] The School Food Trust has shown that pupils in primary and secondary schools behave significantly better in class and remain more "on task" in the afternoon after a nutritious lunch [3] .

18. A majority of the studies investigated during the 2006 Food Standards Agency systematic review of nutrition and pupils’ performance noted good evidence that eating breakfast is beneficial to the performance and behaviour of school children [4] . Schools that have breakfast clubs also report improved behaviour in the classroom. Two studies found that individuals who ate something for breakfast every day reported better mental well being than those who had erratic morning routines. [5] Immediate benefits include improved memory [6] and a sense of calm under challenging conditions.

19. Various studies link deficiencies in particular vitamins or minerals with problematic behaviour [7] . For instance, the mineral zinc is associated with levels of serotonin, a ‘feel good’ hormone, and low concentrations of both zinc and serotonin metabolites have been shown to be associated with violence [8] . A majority of children (more than 80% in some age groups) consume less than the population daily Reference Nutrient Intake (RNI) of zinc and at least 10% would be considered deficient in zinc. [9]

20. The links between diet and depression, particularly in adolescents, are becoming increasingly recognised. Although there is as yet no unequivocal evidence of cause and effect, populations who eat the largest quantities of oily fish report significantly lowers rates of depression, and people who suffer from depression have reduced levels of omega-3 fatty acids in their blood and other body tissues. [10] One study of depression in adolescence concluded: "improving understanding of the role of diet in mental health and promotion of appropriate dietary practices could significantly reduce the personal and social impact of depression in young people." [11]

How food in schools contributes to children’s nutrition  

21. Reflecting a commonly held belief, a recent long-term study has confirmed that adolescent behaviour and mental health may have deteriorated significantly and measurably over the past 25 years. [1] Many researchers (along with parents, teachers and campaigners) have suggested that the changes in nutrition provided in school and at home over that period may be a contributory factor [2] .

22. Until Jamie Oliver’s School Dinners campaign, central Government made no funding available for school lunches except to cover the approximate cost of pupils’ free school meals (FSMs). Compulsory competitive tendering by local authorities in the absence of mandatory food standards created a situation in which school meal providers were under pressure to deliver least-cost solutions at the expense of nutrition and quality. Kitchen and dining room infrastructure suffered chronic underinvestment and in many situations the facilities disappeared altogether. The FSMs themselves were commonly reduced to a ‘brown bag’ of sandwiches of indeterminate nutritional quality. (The chart below illustrates the decline in school meal take-up in relation to changes in school and family policy over the same period).

Source: School Food Trust

23. Few children have a perfectly healthy diet in the UK , but poor nutrition affects disadvantaged pupils most of all. While many young children may be consuming too much energy and becoming overweight or obese ( t he UK already has the highest rate of childhood obesity [3] in Europe ) , many children, whatever their energy intake, are also malnourished; i.e. they are not meeting daily vitamin and mineral requirements. [4] As Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families Tim Loughton acknowledged in the Commons, "free school meals have an important role to play in addressing poverty and inequality... [they] often represent the only nutritious meal in some children’s day" [5] .

24. For all children, the mandatory nutrient-based standards that are now in place in primary and secondary schools (if schools adhere to them) will provide pupils with a healthy balanced meal, going a significant way to providing a healthy diet overall, and for some pupils providing the majority of a child’s daily nutrition.

25. Although Free School Meals are available in all schools for the worst-off children, without a supportive school food culture many children are stigmatised for taking FSMs. Additionally, without adequate take-up from the rest of the school a hot school meal service is not viable. Schools are not obliged by law to provide anything more than FSMs and a cold sandwich can pass for a meal. Decline in the lunch service means children eligible for FSMs may miss out on a freshly-cooked hot lunch and all the nutritional benefits that entails.

26. We know that in FFLP schools the quality of the school meal and dining experience encourage more children from all backgrounds to eat a healthy lunch, in turn supporting a financially viable lunch service. At FFLP schools, great food is matched by food education, cooking lessons, on-site food growing, visits to local farms and improvements to the dining area. From enrolment with the programme to receiving their Bronze, Silver or Gold award (less than two years), meal take-up in participating schools increases on average by 23%, with our best practice schools reporting take-up of over 80%. The national average increase in take-up this year was 2.1% in primaries and 0.8% in secondaries [6] . A whole school approach, integrating food into all aspects of school life, is the most effective way to achieve take-up and its benefits for the good mental and physical health of the school population, particularly disadvantaged pupils (please see Appendix B for examples of FFLP schools where this whole school approach has dramatically increased take-up).

27. School Food Trust research [7] has shown that school meals are now consistently more nutritious than packed lunches. This is of particular concern for children from lower-income families, whose packed lunches contained more fat, salt and sugar and less fruit and vegetables than children from wealthier backgrounds . The Trust’s recent report into children’s eating habits found that children are more likely to try new foods during school lunch or cookery classes, in the supportive environment of their peers, than they are at home [8] . This suggests that school food is instrumental in encouraging children to eat a balanced diet, with implications for their mental wellbeing and behaviour. Parents know that they cannot maintain their children’s good food habits if they are not supported by schools. Standards at school must also set a model for the food outside of the school day.

28. Finally, involving parents and families in school lunch and food education has considerable scope to extend the benefits of healthy food and to help parents to understand and address their children’s behaviour. At Food for Life Partnership schools we encourage the participation of the whole school community, including families and local residents, spreading the benefits of healthy food and food skills. For instance the Vine Inter-Church Primary School, a multicultural school in the deprived area of Cambourne, Cambridgeshire, has an innovative approach to promoting the health of the whole school community: their ‘Healthy Food Days’ invite parents and grandparents to join the children for a healthy lunch and are always exceptionally well attended.

29. Families need the knowledge and skills to make informed food choices and by promoting a whole school approach to diet and physical and mental health Government can ensure that they have them. The majority of adults in the UK have passed through UK schools: there is no other as advantageous an occasion to influence the population’s food skills, knowledge, health and behaviour.

R ecommendations for action by the Government  

30. We recommend that the government creates policy that will :

· Promote a ‘whole school approach’ to good food and food culture . The Department for Education (DfE) should promote to all schools the Food for Life Partnership’s demonstrably successful ‘whole school’ model of good food, food culture and education. This not only addresses the quality of food available in schools, but also encourages take-up of the school lunch; ensuring the good food is eaten and the lunch service remains economically viable.

· Improve access to good food for disadvantaged children. Every child eligible for Free School Meals should be eligible for a free breakfast, and the DfE should provide additional funding (perhaps as part of the Pupil Premium) to assist schools to set up healthy breakfast clubs. Breakfast clubs, FSM and other healthy food incentives should be used as a first resort for pupils with nascent behavioural issues, as a preventative measure and before (or as well as) punishment. The DfE should promote stay-on-site policies for pupils with challenging behaviour, or for the whole school population, as part of its guidance for spending the Pupil Premium.

· Encourage food growing in schools: Food growing should be a part of the curriculum and funding should be made available for schools to install gardens and run after-school gardening clubs. Produce from the garden should contribute to the school lunch menu and children displaying problematic behaviour could be encouraged to participate in growing, as a means of encouraging take-up of a healthy lunch. (Schools should, however, avoid using the garden as a punishment or otherwise stigmatising participation in food growing). The DfE should encourage schools to use any existing garden space to grow food. Plans for new schools should include space to grow food.

· Train the right staff and improve their understanding of food and mental health. School nurses, Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education staff, cooks and lunchtime supervisors should receive basic nutrition training, linking food to mental health. There is currently no requirement for school catering staff to receive nutrition training of any kind. Schools with an external catering provider should be encouraged to make basic nutrition training for staff a requirement of their catering contract, and those schools who provide lunch in-house should be encouraged to use the Dedicated Schools Grant to fund food skills training for their staff. When the government provides guidance for schools on spending the Pupil Premium, nutrition and food skills training for staff should be one of the recommendations.

· Educate pupils on the importance of a healthy diet for controlled behaviour. Although many schools now promote healthy eating as part of PSHE, few explicitly link diet with mood, behaviour and academic performance. In addition to educating pupils in basic nutrition, school should also teach the skills in cookery and food growing to enable students to make responsible food choices for themselves and their future families. Teaching students about food and mental health can also provide motivation to eat healthily, as mood and behaviour are more immediate issues for the majority of young people than diet-related health.

· Involve parents and families in food education. Parents and families should be invited to join the children for a healthy school lunch and to take part in nutrition education programmes linking diet and mental health, especially the parents of children with behavioural issues. The decline in cookery and food skills is now well documented, and many parents no longer have the knowledge to pass these vital skills to their children. FFLP schools find that frequently parents learn healthy food skills from their children. This issue is particularly significant for parents from disadvantaged backgrounds.

· Spend school capital on the facilities school need to provide good food and increase take-up of school lunch. School capital funds should be spent on installing and maintaining kitchens capable of producing freshly-prepared meals and providing adequate dining facilities. No new schools should be built without kitchens and dining facilities capable of accommodating the whole school population. Capital funding should be made available for schools to renovate or maintain existing facilities, as unpleasant or inadequate dining facilities are one of the main reasons students choose to leave the school at lunchtime, frequently eating unhealthy food from the ‘school fringe’ instead of a nutritious lunch.

· Increase the evidence base linking good food and good behaviour in schools . The School Food Trust, or equivalent, should further research the effects of specific nutrition and food education interventions on problematic behaviour in schools. The evidence base linking diet, mental health and behaviour is strong, and some studies have investigated pupils’ behaviour in class after participating in breakfast clubs or eating a healthy lunch. There is scope to investigate the benefits of food growing, nutrition education and increased access to healthy food to pupils’ problematic behaviour.

September 2010

Appendix A : examples of schools in which staff report and improvement
in behaviour after participation in the FFLP programme  

Better behaviour in class and record attendance for disadvantaged children

"The change in the children’s behaviour when we changed the food from processed to freshly prepared and organic was incredible! They’re much happier and more attentive in class now. Over 72% of the children now have school meals and even those who previously refused to eat vegetables are trying (and enjoying) them for the very first time".

Louise Rosen, Headteacher at St John the Baptist School in Hackney, East London, where attendance is hitting its highest ever levels at an average of 96%, with many classes now reaching 100%.

Chestnuts’ Primary, Haningey, London

Chestnut's Primary School is a Food For Life Partnership flagship school in Haringey, north London, and provide children with the opportunity to grow, harvest and cook their own food at school. Cal Shaw, the head teacher, is convinced that healthy school meals and the participatory food culture have played a significant part in the improved behaviour of pupils.

"When I took over as Headteacher in September 2004 the children’s behaviour was incredibly challenging. In fact, many of the children lacked any kind of boundaries."

Many teaching days at Chestnut's were lost through exclusions, and playground incidents were a daily occurrence. However, since bringing catering in-house and becoming part of the Food for Life Partnership, exclusions have fallen dramatically with none in the last 12 months and Ms. Shaw notes: ""Immediately, the school noticed a big difference in the quality of the food and the children’s behaviour….Now it is very rare to see fights in the playground."

Good manners at lunchtime helps behaviour in the afternoon

Cowes Primary School on the Isle of Wight has a large dinner hall that got very noisy at lunchtime, discouraging some pupils from taking school lunch. As part of the Food for Life Partnership programme, pupils and teachers worked together to solve the problem. They came up with rules that called for good manners, good behaviour, taking responsibility and respecting others at mealtimes . Staff interacted with the children more and marks were awarded for the table with the children behaving the best. All of these minor but important changes to the dining experience have created a more sociable and pleasant atmosphere in the dining hall, making it a nicer and calmer experience for the pupils to eat their lunch. S choo l lunch take -up increased and staff reported calmer, more attentive pupils in afternoon classes.

Appendix B: examples of FFLP schools where a whole school
approach has significantly increased meal take-up  

Crondall Primary School: a ‘whole school’ approach to take-up success

At Crondall Primary School in Hampshire food has become as important a part of the school day as science or reading, and it shows: their school meal take-up has gone up from 52.6% take-up in 2008 (when the school enrolled with FFLP) to 72.8% in 2010, an increase of 20.2%. Head teacher Megan Robinson feels that it is because the school values food so highly and uses it to teach the school day that the children themselves want to eat the school lunch.

The children themselves are involved in making decisions about what is served at lunch and grown in the school garden through the School Nutrition Action Group, which also has representatives from the local village and the children’s parents. Parents and members of the local community regularly join the school for lunch, when the children take visitors on a tour of the school kitchen and allotment. Mrs Robinson makes sure the school is always well represented in the parish magazine and the cook contributes a recipe to the school’s newsletter. All this means that parents and families are reassured about the school’s commitment to their children’s food.

At lunchtime, every pupil has a role to play. The oldest pupils help serve and Year Five are charged with helping Reception to choose food and finish their plate. The school has raised funding to invest in a permanent cookery room (which they will rent to the local community for food education classes) and children grow some produce for the lunch menu on the school allotment, making food a central part of the school day and reaping benefits in increased take-up.

Eden Foodservice, Croydon : Financial benefits of ‘whole school’ approach

Caterer Eden Foodservice employed a new member of staff to make sure their cooks maintained the Food for Life quality standard, and to promote the FFLP model to other schools served by Eden in the London borough of Croydon. They did so because they saw the immediate benefit of the FFLP programme to food quality and the financial return of the ‘FFLP effect’ on take-up.

Operations Manager Michael Calder explains that taking part in FFLP "gives the children a purpose to have a school meal". The ‘whole school’ approach to health promotion and food education engages the children and gives them a reason to choose a healthy school lunch over other available options.

Eden Foodservice saw the immediate effects that FFLP had on the quality of food they served, and in turn the take-up of school meals, over as little as 2 ½ school terms. This justified the expense of promotion for one of their existing cooks, Suzanne Martin at Atwood Primary, whom they employed to support other Croydon schools to enrol with the FFLP.

Mr Calder is adamant that they have achieved their success with a straightforward approach to raising food quality and good service and an honest promotion of the food provenance to parents. Children will not be fooled by low quality food. Parent engagement has been key; over 32,000 flyers are sent home every time the menu changes. A cashless system in the dining hall to reduce queuing times and shield Free School Meals pupils from stigma have also contributed to an improved experience for all.

Charter’s school, Ascot, Berkshire

"The School Food Trust warns that all the time, money and effort that has been invested since 2005 in transforming school food is at risk of being wasted unless school canteens work efficiently and are appealing environments for children.

Charters has seen the number of pupils regularly eating a hot dinner at lunchtime increase from less than half in 2006 to somewhere between 60% and 70% now. But, Vanessa Stroud, business manager at the 1,600 pupil school stresses, the food at Charters is only part of the explanation for the big jump in the number of children opting to eat in the canteen. Changes in the dining area itself and in the organisation of the school day have been just as important, she says. In 2004, the school introduced staggered lunchbreaks to help its 250-capacity canteen cope with the number of pupils who even then wanted a hot lunch. Thus there are now three half-hour slots for lunch, starting at 11am. That's earlier than in most schools, but a necessity if Charters is to satisfy demand.

Charters has also spent about £50,000 over the last five years, improving both its canteen and its kitchen. Replacing old tables with new folding tables and realigning the seating layout means the canteen now has the capacity to feed 300 pupils during each lunch sitting, while new ovens have speeded up food preparation" [1] .