Good Practice Case Study

Essendon CofE Primary School

School No: 560

Promoting Health

Years 3 and 4 pupils took part in a smoothie taster session organised by Louise Shuttleworth Hertfordshire's School Fruit Advisor in May 2005. The aim of Louise's post is to work with schools to promote a healthy and balanced diet and lifestyle.

Making Smoothies

Louise talked to the pupils about healthy and unhealthy foods, how many portions of fruit and vegetables we should be eating a day and most importantly what is a portion and what types of fruit and vegetables are important. It is significant to remember that a portion does not have to be only fresh but can be frozen, tinned, dried and 10per cent juice.

The children chopped up and tasted a large amount of bananas, kiwi, raspberries, mango, grapes and strawberries available that afternoon. Louise says that "the interesting thing is that all the children tried the fruit, even those that were not keen to start with. Some had a little taste and were surprised to realise that they did actually like the fruit. It is important for the children to feel relaxed about trying different foods and to know that if they don't like the fruit that is fine. As long as they have had a go they can then make an informed choice."

They then went on to making smoothies, which went down very well. The children loved to see the fruit being blended and changed into a healthy and fun drink. They had previously invited their parents/carers to come in at the end of the session to taste the results of their hard work. It was hard to say who enjoyed the drinks the most - the parents or the children but they were all amazed to realise that their drinks contained several portions from their Five a day quota.

The taster session went down so well that Louise will return to the school in July to work with the Year 5/6 class.

Louise can be contacted on louise.shuttleworth@hertscc.gov.uk

Session Outline:

• Fruit washed and peeled before session except the bananas and one of every other fruit to show children what it looks like before it is peeled and cut. It is useful to have a classroom assistant who can help finish off the cutting of fruit to save time.
• Explain rules - sensible when using the knives, no touching of the sharp adult knife, everyone to taste / have a try, if they don't like it just sensibly put it in the bin, no noises, no fuss, no funny faces.
• Discuss with the children what a healthy diet is, what we mean by five portions and what counts towards a portion.
• Ask the children first what the fruit is (some will be easy to recognise other harder), show the whole fruit. Pass round the bowls with the prepared fruit in, getting the children to taste the fruit.
• Once all fruit has been tasted discuss what they like best and why. Discuss what they don't like and why.
• Give children a chopping board, banana and knife. Ask them to peel and cut the banana and taste one small bit. The rest is to be used in the smoothies.
• Work out what flavour smoothies they want to make. Louise has two smoothie makers so can make two types.
• Invite the children to bring over the ingredients and mix in the smoothie maker.

Some of the children's comments

"I really enjoyed making smoothies and they were very nice. I liked all of them and couldn't say which was tastier"  

"I liked the smoothies, when will you be coming back and thank you again"  

"My favourite was the kiwi and banana. They were really yummy. My favourite fruit was the kiwi fruit"

"Thank you for making smoothie with us. The mango, banana and raspberry was my favourite. I had a lot of fun"

"I loved making smoothies, I liked all of the smoothies. It was amazing how the machines work".  

"My favourite fruit is the banana I enjoyed chopping it up"