Nursery World - Enabling Environments: Transitions

One nursery is replicating the primary school lunch experience to help children adjust more easily to the change. Nicole Weinstein explains.

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One of the most daunting moments for a child when they start primary school is entering the lunch hall. It is likely to be bigger than what they were used to at nursery, and noisier and more chaotic. Although some schools will help settle the children into the experience by taking them to lunch earlier than the rest of the school, having to learn a new system for getting food into their hungry tummies might be the last thing a child can cope with after their minds are overloaded with new information about teachers, new pegs, where the toilet is and how to navigate around the big, new building they find themselves in.

This is why teachers at Alyth Kindergarten in north west London decided to work with parents to put steps in place to prepare children for how lunches are served at the feeder schools. This evolved out of a conversation I had with a nursery teacher, Rozanne Singer, one day when we were speaking about the transition to big school and how at least one of the feeder schools had a buffet-style lunch. We spoke about all the skills that were needed before the food actually gets into the children's stomachs - finding a place to sit down, waiting to go up to get food, carrying the tray, asking for what they want, using utensils to eat and serving themselves.

Rozanne says, 'We did some research into it and, based on our knowledge of various systems and menus, we came up with a menu for the last six weeks of term, which the parents agreed to provide for one day a week. Because we don't have the facility to cater on-site, we've had to rely on the support of parents to provide and prepare some food in advance. For example, on the weeks that we are doing pasta, the parents cook it in the morning and bring it in and we reheat it in the microwave. The rest of the food is prepared by the children at the nursery.'

SOCIAL SKILLS

The venture has been very well received by parents, teachers and children. Instead of their usual packed lunch, the children are now enjoying a whole new social side to eating at nursery, as they eat the same foods as their friends and talk about how they grated their own cheese, washed and chopped their own tomatoes or cucumber or spread the butter on to their own sandwich.

When it is time for lunch, the children carefully carry their plates to the buffet, table by table, and confidently express what they would like with their pasta - tuna or cheese - and if they would like it on the side or on top. On returning to their tables they pour their milk or water and pass the plate of vegetables round to each other. Once everyone at their table has finished, they clear the leftovers into the bin and put their plates in the sink. They then get their bowls and pass round the large tub of yoghurt, carefully putting some in each of their bowls.

Rozanne explains, 'They are getting so much out of this. I can see their confidence growing as they master new tasks like walking with a plate of food or grating cheese for the first time. It's great for nurturing their independence and even if the system is not exactly the same as at their new school, they are learning skills that they can take with them. None of this would be possible without the incredible support from parents, who are catering for 20 children each week, and the members of staff who sit and eat with them.'

I have co-ordinated a menu with another mum, Mandy Diamond, and everyone has been so enthusiastic about it, even bringing in a new taste or texture for the children to try each week - pomegranates, sugar snap peas, cinnamon sticks to smell and herbs to taste.

The project is going from strength to strength. Mums of fussy eaters have reported that their child has tried and enjoyed a food that they would not eat at home, children are coming home keen to talk about the food that they prepared and the staff are animated by the results they are seeing. My son came home yesterday and took the Philadelphia out of the fridge and started to spread it on his bread, confidently declaring, 'I can do this myself now'.