Step 6. Develop a school action plan
After the training day participants will return to their schools,
fired up with ideas and ready to start the process of engaging with
other members of the school community and action planning. A relatively
easy way for the coordinator to assess where the schools are at
at the beginning of the project is to ask them to complete a simple
questionnaire such as the one in section G, ‘Questionnaire;
Initial assessment’.
Make sure you visit each school in your project to agree the action
plan with them shortly after the training day. See the Grab 5! Action
Pack for a sample action plan table, ideas for different activities,
suggestions on implementation and useful contacts. Keep a copy of
the schools’ plans for your own records. If a school already
has an action plan and method that works, for example from the local
Healthy Schools scheme that it is involved in, encourage them to
use that.
Remind schools that a starting point is to consult with the whole
school community and to set up an action group. Suggestions on how
schools can do this are detailed in the Grab 5! Action Pack.
Schools will also need to be continually reminded that the project
needs to be implemented as a whole school project, i.e. incorporated
into the school development plan, supportive of other work (you
don't expect them to duplicate work) and linked in with curriculum
work (refer them to the Grab 5! Curriculum Pack). Remember that,
ultimately, the aim is for each school to adopt a school food policy
(see the publication, A model school food policy).
"In the future, as a school, we are looking
at adopting a food policy and
the work that has been done with Grab 5! will prove invaluable in
this."
school coordinator
It is worth noting that, while setting up an action group, developing
a food policy and adopting a whole school approach is the ideal,
not all schools will do this. However, if you are the coordinator
you have the important role of convincing them of the benefits of
working towards these aims as well as facilitating the process.
You can for example talk at staff meetings and governors' meetings,
work through the model food policy with them, and suggest ways the
project can be linked to the curriculum.
"It taught me a lot about planning. Keep
it simple and very tight,
that's the way to go really."
a school coordinator
Visit the schools each term specifically to have a review meeting
and go over their action plans. In order to keep a record of schools'
progress keep a note of all your school visits. The questionnaire,
‘Reviewing progress’ in section G, may be a useful way
to monitor how each school is progressing.
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