Food Week Finale

Food Week success!

After the excitement of snails on Tuesday, the week certainly got better and better! On Wednesday, we concentrated on recipes closer to home. Sausages were the theme and for the morning tastings, the three sausages included Lincolnshire, which proved popular amongst quite a few of our boarders! Sausage 2 was a Scottish sausage which included Haggis, and a traditional 6 Nations Pork sausage for sausage 3. You could hear and see the children enjoying their sausage surprises! Mrs Northcott and the staff certainly enjoyed a few too! For lunch, the children voted on Cumberland sausage, mashed potato and vegetables for main course and traditional scones, jam and cream for dessert. Again, a popular day and we look forward to seeing which sausages will be added to the menu in the future.

On Thursday, the country theme was China. The morning tastings were prepared and ready to go for breaktime. The children enjoyed voting on Chinese spring rolls with a variety of dips. These included Dip 1: Hoi Sin, Dip 2: Sweet Chilli and Dip 3: Sweet and Sour which certainly had a kick! This proved popular, particularly at the end of the morning tastings when Head boy Nick P, and prefect Louis H enjoyed rather a few more Spring Rolls! At lunchtime, the dining hall was presented with Chinese dragons floating in the ceiling, Chinese lanterns and Chicken Chou Mein to eat with Prawn Crackers. For Dessert, the children tasted lychees with lemon sorbet. It was super to see a lot of pupils trying the lychees and actually surprising themselves. They liked them! Well done to all our pupils for tasting and trying.

For afternoon tea, the children had cheese and mango sandwiches, lemon, sunflower seed and poppy seed cookie along with a fruit smoothie. Again, it was lovely to see the atmosphere hotting up in the dining room as the children were discussing their thoughts on afternoon tea and ensuring that their voting forms were filled out correctly and accurately.

On Friday, the final theme for National School Meals Week was Caribbean day. Due to the Remembrance Service, the Caribbean tastings took place during afternoon tea which allowed the children to concentrate on the service and conduct themselves appropriately, which they did superbly. For lunch, the children enjoyed Jerk Chicken with Fresh pineapple, rice and peas. For Dessert, it was pineapple upside-down cake. The voting’s took place for a final time and the children were geared up for afternoon tea! Mrs Northcott, the superb catering staff and supporting parents, Mrs Nieper, Mrs Tarbett and Mrs Khazenifar were determined to ensure that National School Meals Week was to be remembered! In the dining hall, the Caribbean music was playing, the Caribbean fruit was ready to be tasted along with afternoon tea to be served. The selection of fruit tastings included: Fruit 1 - watermelon, Fruit 2 – Papaya, Fruit 3 – Starfruit and Fruit 4 – pineapple and all this was accompanied by a yoghurt dip and Caribbean fruit puree dip. For sandwiches and cookie, the children enjoyed egg and cress, rocky road cookie with a difference and fresh fruit cocktail. The atmosphere was electric! At one stage Mrs Northcott had the whole school dancing to the music, our super parents wearing flower garlands all serving the cocktails and fruit, the only missing factor was the crystal blue water and a beach! However, the heat in the dining hall certainly reached high temperatures and comments such as“ this is THE BEST AFTERNOON TEA EVER” was recorded on several voting slips!

A huge thank you to the catering team for their hard work particularly over the past week, all the added extra’s on top of a busy working week has been greatly appreciated! My personal thanks must go to our fabulous parents, Mrs Bedford, Mrs Todd, Mrs Harrison, Mrs Nieper, Mrs Khazenifar, Mrs Carter, Mrs Tarbatt and Mrs Thompson( Head matron), Mrs Seddon ( School Nurse and Houseparent of Hillcrest) and Miss Cooper for their support over the week with preparation and delivery of the tastings and lunchtime votings. I would like to thank the staff for supporting the event and enjoying the tastings and votings over the week. Mr Watt – thank you for tasting the snails, I know that you were a bit hesitant but the children enjoyed watching you try! Thanks must again go to Mrs Stubley for behind the scenes support and ensuring that the week got off to a flying start! Mrs Greatorex, I thank you for your administration support throughout the week, the voting and results could not have been collated without your support. Finally, A huge thank you and a big WELL DONE must go to all our pupils from nursery to year 8 for tasting and voting throughout the week. The week has been a huge success and that has been down to you for trying, enjoying and for being so enthusiastic. My personal thanks to my prefect team – you were absolutely brilliant! Nick P ( Head Boy), Georgina H ( Head girl) along with Prefects Jessica R-S, Arabella H, Annie G-P, Ella N, Ed S, Louis H and Elliot T.

Look out for the results in the forthcoming week……

Thank you
Michelle Northcott