More children eating at Sussex's schools

Primary and secondary schools across the county have reported an increase in take-up of their dinners, although they are still short of the national average.

The increase, revealed yesterday by the School Food Trust, was welcomed by ministers who said it would improve children’s behaviour in the classroom.

The national average was 44.1% for primary schools and 37.6% in secondary schools.

In Brighton and Hove’s 160 primary schools, take-up increased to 35.2% from 34.2% the previous year while East Sussex saw a rise from 32.4% to 33%.

A Brighton and Hove City Council spokeswoman said she believed the increase was down to good marketing and good work between the councils and the schools. Meals cost £2.10 a day and the price will not be going up in September.

She said: “The menus are on the council website and can be seen in advance by parents. We also have a school meals co-ordinator who help schools to make lunch hours more accessible by staggering them.

“Quite a few parents have been writing in and saying they want to switch to school meals.”

East Sussex County Council said it was pleased with the increase and that school meals guaranteed children two of their five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, as well as being good value for money.

The sharpest increase in take-up was in West Sussex, which increased from 14% to 21.9%. The current price is £2.10 for a meal which will go up by 5p in September.

A West Sussex County Council spokesman said: “We will continue to work very closely with our school meals providers to promote and encourage the range of healthy, nutritious and tasty meals that are being offered.”

In secondary schools, there were increases to 34.2 per cent in East Sussex and 27.7 per cent in West Sussex, although no figures were available for Brighton and Hove.

The figures include both paid-for and free meals, and come after the average cost of a meal rose by 5p last year to £1.93.