Better pay leads to greater take-up

A primary school that increased the salaries of its catering staff has doubled the number of pupils who eat school meals rather than packed lunches

Ray Woodward, head teacher of Swanland Primary school in Humberside, started running his school's catering last September.

He immediately raised his head cook's salary from £4.70 to £6.30 an hour, while catering assistants received a £1 increase from £4.20 to £5.20.

Woodward said: "You can imagine the sort of morale I have in my kitchen now. It is one of the major reasons for improvements which have led to the greater uptake in school meals."

Just 100 pupils out of 370 used to eat school meals. Now this figure is 200.

The increased numbers have also meant the school has made more money from its catering. It intends to invest this in developing the kitchens.