IN THE past year, Scotland’s schools have led the charge in improving nutritional standards. They have embraced a groundbreaking drive to improve the health of pupils by paying for better ingredients.

In 2003, the Scottish Executive committed itself to the Hungry for Success programme and spent £63.5 million over three years to promote better school meals and more exercise for its 730,000 pupils.

With seven million pupils in England, the Government in Westminster would need to spend more than £200 million a year for an equivalent programme.

Kirsteen McCartney, head teacher at Hurlford primary school near Kilmarnock, welcomed the reform but said that it was had not been easy.

“The older they are, the harder it is to get them to change,” she said. “They still remember the fishfingers and hot dogs, although they do get light chips once a week. But the younger ones are now more likely to sit down to meat and two veg than they were before.”

It was unpopular at first, among parents as well as the 265 pupils. But after inviting parents to a tasting, the number of pupils taking school meals increased and now half the pupils do. Meals cost 72p, about 10p more than the average for East Ayrshire primary schools, but many ingredients are organic and sourced locally.

Robin Gourlay, who is in charge of school meal provision in East Ayrshire, said the biggest problem is changing attitudes among parents.

“For the first time, we now have second- and third-generation parents who have not been brought up on real food,” he said. “So basically we are educating the parents as much as the children.”

By the end of 2006, the extra funding should mean that all food in Scotland’s schools meets a national standard.

In North Lanarkshire the cost per child of providing school meals has gone up by 27p to 77p in secondary schools. This is already about 13p more than is spent in most of England’s schools.

A recent survey of Scolarest meals, served by 2,000 schools in England, revealed that each contained just 29 per cent of the recommended level of vitamin C for a healthy immune system and 77 per cent of the fibre for good digestive health.

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