Primary ASD Food Survey July 2020

Dear Parents/Carers,

We want to ensure that when your child returns to school, we can offer them meals that they will enjoy in order to function at their best throughout the school day.

We understand that for some children with autism or children that are on the autism pathway, food and eating can be an area of difficulty. To be able to best support your child and his needs, please take the time to complete the ‘Food Preferences’ survey. It should only take around 5 minutes to complete.

This can be done in the following ways:

• Online on our website or twitter page – The password to access this survey has bee sent to you
• Filling out the survey attached and return to the school, addressed to ‘Jessica Webb, Jammie Dodgers Teacher, Millgate School’

When completing, please be as specific as possible to the preferences of your child. For example, they may like pasta but only without sauce. For the final question, please include any further details you think would be beneficial for us to know. This may include a dislike to particular textures, dislike foods touching on the plate or specific flavours of items.

Please complete the survey by 6pm on July 3^rd 2020 in order to give us time to process the data and make arrangements for the Autumn Term.

We look forward to hearing from you and seeing you after the Summer holidays.

Thank you,

Jessica Webb

Primary Teacher

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/KGRNMPR

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An example of a whole school change as a result of student council suggestions and discussions

Students had made complaints that they felt that the school menu was no longer varied or good enough quality compared to what they were used to.  They mentioned, in particular, the food in the evening in the Residential, "It seems to be just frozen type food, ie. fish fingers, beans and chips, sausage, beans and chips."  The students said the food was boring and that they wanted something tastier and homemade.

Students, therefore, discussed the type of food they would like to see produced daily within the school.  PP and AM said they would like a Chinese day or chicken day.  LS wanted a pulled pork day.  They all agreed that macaroni cheese should be on offer along with pasta bake and roast dinners every week. Stew and dumplings on a rotation was also discussed.  The attached two week menu was put in place by all of the students contributing and discussing which foods they wanted, on which days and why. The following puddings were also considered to be students’ favourites and they requested that they could be available across the week: chocolate cake, lemon drizzle cake, cheesecake crumble and custard as well as puddings that were easier for them to take with them, such as biscuits.  Students were very clear that they did not want brownies to be on offer every day!

Student Council Suggested Menu