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‘Plug school dining halls into internet and MTV’
Minister praises £350,000 canteen wooing pupils off takeaways
INTERNET café-style canteens should replace traditional school dinner halls in an attempt to encourage children to eat healthier lunches, a government minister has argued.
Schools minister Parmjit Dhanda said headteachers should be considering how to make dinner halls more inviting to teenagers, possibly by showing music videos on screens and offering computers where they can log onto the internet.
Speaking during a visit to Camden last Wednesday, he said that, if pupils could be convinced that it is better to eat in school, they were more likely to choose healthy meals rather than going to greasy takeaways elsewhere.
Acland Burghley School in Tufnell Park has a recently-completed £350,000 lunch room, which has an internet section with computer screens and keyboards that can be wiped clean if food or drinks are spilt over them.
Mr Dhanda, who at 35 is one of the government’s youngest ministers, told the New Journal: “What Acland Burghley does well is not just taking heed of the new school standards for food but also doing an exceptional job ensuring the dining area is attractive.”
He used the school as a case study when making the same point at a recent conference of headteachers and governors. Mr Dhanda said that plasma TV screens showing music television – “not everyone’s idea of a good environment in which to eat”, he conceded – were attractive to teenagers.
Acland Burghley has not gone as far as to pump out MTV during lunch hours. It involved schoolchildren in the design of the canteen, known as The Hub, at the Burghley Road school.
Pupils’ research included a visit to see how McDonald’s laid out its restaurants, but the school does not sell burgers and chips, offering healthy alternatives instead.
Acland Burghley headteacher Michael Shew said that more pupils had been drawn to the canteen since its refurbishment. But he had reservations about MTV in canteens. “Having music per se in a canteen is okay, but having MTV up there, you’re straying into the idea that school is becoming a social club,” he said. “The line where school is a place of learning and the social life outside of school becomes blurred.
“Computers are part of learning, while MTV is a step too far. Background music is one thing but MTV’s going that step into the world beyond school.”
He believed the canteen’s increased popularity was due to the fact that the design was led by students working with designers. “If you give people decent and comfortable surroundings they’ll respond to that,” he added.
Conservative education chief Councillor Andrew Mennear conceded this week that some Camden schools needed improved lunch halls. He said that some refurbishment at other schools would be included in the eagerly-anticipated £200 million government funding package. |
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