Eat Right Stay Bright initiative

Eat Right Stay Bright (ERSB)

This is delivered to schools in West Sussex as part of the school meal contract with Chartwells. It aims to increase uptake of the school meals and impact upon obesity rates and the attainment gap between the most advantaged and disadvantaged. It is a Fun in to Food programme tackling nutrition education with a whole school approach.

The first year of the programme in West Sussex has seen 32 schools engage with ERSB with 68 different workshop sessions run. Twelve schools have had repeat visits. Approx 1,904 children have taken part in the workshops and parent events have also been held 57 times.

Feedback from the workshops in one school is below.

Reception Teacher – ‘We in particular had a very positive experience for one boy who has an issue with eating that comes with associated health issues. He was happy to try some of the fruit and salad that he previously has not wanted to try. As a whole class we were very proud of this achievement and he received a 'wow' moment certificate to take home to his mum with photos of what he had done that day. We feel he was happy to try these foods as it was done in a relaxed and fun manner. He has now been a little more willing to try more new foods in class at snack time.’

Reception Teacher – ‘The children had a lovely time with yourself and your colleague learning about healthy eating and the opportunity for some food tasting. This was a lovely experience for the children to try a variety of fruit or salad that they may not have tried before.’ -

Year 2 Teacher – ‘It’d be wonderful to have you in again for a different topic with the children. I know that many in my class do struggle to eat the vegetables but they also only know about the typical vegetables. They wouldn’t know what a rhubarb is for example and it seems such a shame.’

Parent – ‘I’m actually really surprised that these contain that much sugar. Why is it allowed? My husband will be horrififed.

The Eat Right Stay Right workshops in West Sussex support the county’s sugar reduction programme.

Year 5 Pupil– ‘I think I eat too much chocolate after Easter I want to try stopping eating it but I will have all my easter eggs’. After discussion with the ERSB coordinator and classmates the child opted to try giving up chocolate for lent.

Year 5 Teacher–‘It’s great to teach them all about what can happen later on in life with heart disease and diabetes. They often just think about the effect on their teeth because it’s something they can physically see and probably have seen on children their age.’

Year 6 Pupil– ‘My dad drinks this quite a lot (Monster Energy Drink) and it’s twice the amount of sugar he’s allowed. I’m going to tell him’.

Year 5 Pupil– ‘You said tomato ketchup was really sugary; is it worse than these drinks?’ ERSB coordinator encouraged the pupil to look at the labels of his bottle at home.. 

Teaching Assistant– ‘I have one of those milkshakes in my fridge. I might throw it out now’. Future conversations with TA revealed the children reminded the TA to throw out the drink.

Living Streets deliver Walk Once a Week programmes in schools in West Sussex. They have a list of schools to target, that fit with the West Sussex Strategic development sites, plus public health priority areas. Five out of 10 new primary schools are enrolled to WOW, the year-round walk to school challenge all of which are on the targeted list of expanding schools, or have works scheduled. Four of these schools have launched and are using Travel Tracker to log their daily journeys to school.

Three street audits are planned, 2 of them with Parklands Residents Association in Chichester, a large housing estate with around 1,500 residences, on the edge of the city centre with 2 primary schools, a secondary school, an NHS doctors surgery and a parade of shops within its boundary. We will run 2 audits, at different times of year, and are talking to Bishop Luffa School, Parklands Community Primary and Central School about their potential involvement in the audit process. We hope to simultaneously involve residents around the estate who will undertake their own ‘street scale surveys’ to ensure that the audit process is as inclusive and holistic as possible. The Residents Association will then be able to map the results to inform priorities for the estate. This will be a trial approach for Living Streets and will be very interesting to see the outcomes and how it can evolve.