The Dining Programme
At Saint Theo's, pupils will sit down to meals in a dining hall area. They will select from a smorgasbord style menu, utilising appropriate cutlery and crockery. They will engage with their teachers and with each other in conversation and learn proper deportment and etiquette at meals. Parents will be invited to attend meals, for a small donation, and we will encourage them to get to know each other, catch up with their children and their children's teachers on an ongoing basis.
Meals will include:
There will be a charge each term for the dining programme based on the cost of food, kitchen equipment and staffing requirements.
Meals will include:
- Breakfast before school
- Morning Tea
- Lunch
- Afternoon Tea
- Supper for Boarders
- Occasional Formal Dinners
There will be a charge each term for the dining programme based on the cost of food, kitchen equipment and staffing requirements.
Why a Dining Programme?
Why are we suggesting having sit-down meals as opposed to a school canteen?
What we are intending to offer is not something that generally ever happens in Australian schools, outside a boarding context, but it is something we want to provide as part of our educational offering. There are several reasons for this:
What we are intending to offer is not something that generally ever happens in Australian schools, outside a boarding context, but it is something we want to provide as part of our educational offering. There are several reasons for this:
- First, the pragmatic aspect. In most schools, parents pay for the canteen food. So one way or another, the actual cost of food will be around the same.Canteen food tends also to produce a lot of litter around schools, encouraging vermin and creating unsightly rubbish everywhere. By making meals a part of the regular school programme, rather than being outsourced to a separate company, we can maintain control and purchasing power over the whole meals arrangement.
- Second, the social aspect. One of the things that makes us human is that we don't just eat, we dine. In Australian schools, food consumption is removed from conversation, good manners, the table, cutlery and deportment. Australian students are forced to make-do in the playground. In this way, plastic packaging, and disposable containers are multiplied and the environment suffers in its ecosystems and from sustainability, but also from the aesthetic ugliness of littering. We seek to change that culture. We believe that children should sit down and share meals together with their parents and teachers. They should dine rather than just eat. Our meals programme would provide opportunities for the staff to interact with pupils outside the classroom and to model good etiquette and conversational skills. This experience is commonplace in British and European schools, and to a lesser extent in North American schools. Children will also participate in the washing up, giving them a sense of service, working together and following rosters. Part of the larger plan is to have a series of formal evening dinners with staff, parents and students, inviting guest speakers and extending the enrichment into the community.
- Thirdly, the health aspect. We will provide a balanced and healthy selection of meals, taking into account the various dietary requirements of the children. It also ensures that pupils are getting enough food to satisfy their hunger and give them sufficient energy for the daily round of physical activities. Good eating habits must start young and they can be ruined in the young very quickly. Australian schools have had a poor record in this regard, and continue to offer food that is not conducive either to healthy habits or to sound behavioural patterns.
- Fourthly, the educational aspect. We want pedagogy to continue outside the classroom environment. Teachers, parents and children, and guests, sitting down at meals together means the opportunity to extend the learning culture, to exchange ideas, to think around different subjects. Being a Catholic school, having a meals programme means we can tailor food offerings to the liturgical and physical seasons, building up Catholic traditions, such as fish on Fridays, fasting on Ember Days, and feasting on Solemnities, so that more shape is given to the cycles of the Church Year. We see recent health trends reflecting in a secular way such differentiation of diet. Overall, from an educational point of view, the quality of food in school canteens can vary widely affecting negatively the educational offering. Anecdotally, we hear teachers from other schools complaining about how much sugar increases hyperactivity, especially in the latter parts of the day. Such a great deal of sugary food being consumed is detrimental to the long-term health of the children. Kids eating lollies and drinking soft drinks affects their academic performance and their behaviour in negative ways. We want the children to eat healthily and well, and be able to maintain their calm at all times, so that when they are back at home they remain alert and responsive rather than having a post-sugar crash.
- Lastly, parental involvement. Parents are invited to the meal times, especially the before-school breakfast and the afternoon tea. We want parents to be able to catch up with their kids, without worrying about meal preparation times. Parents can afterwards attend Mattins, Mass or Evensong, and get involved in activities as much or as little as they want, but the opportunity will be there for you to be incorporated into the programme, because you are, as the Catholic Church teaches, the primary educators of your children. We also want the parents to know each other, since they form an essential part of the school community.