Springfield youngsters promote healthy eating before Christmas

​Members of the pupil parliament at Springfield Primary in Sunbury-on-Thames could be casting a critical eye over the contents of their Christmas dinners this year following their recent trip to the local branch of Tesco to investigate healthy eating.

​The students were conducting research into what goes into a balanced diet and how to encourage healthy eating options amongst their fellow pupils.  During the trip, they were shown around the shop both behind the scenes  and out front, had food health labelling explained to them and also found time to try plenty of the options on offer.

The following day, they presented their research findings back to the rest of the school at a special assembly.

“The pupil parliament wants to review lunch box policy and come up with its own recipe book, so this was a great opportunity to learn more about both of those topics,” said teacher Liane Burbage, who took the children on the trip.

“We contacted Tesco who were happy to have us visit, and the children really learnt a lot about it, including how much sugar there is in their everyday diet, and how easy it is to make sugar swaps to address that.”

The pupil parliament plays an active role in decision making at Springfield, which is a member of the GLF Schools multi-academy trust. Each class has two representatives, with meeting taking place fortnightly and being involved discussions on topics such as teaching and learning within the school, and also well-being projects including matters such as environmental policy and charity projects.

“It’s great to see how much the pupils care about the parliament, and how they use it as an opportunity to learn and if necessary introduce change to the school,” added Ms Burbage. “It will be interesting to see how many of the healthy eating lessons from this trip they remember and share with others over the Christmas holidays!”.