School catering services

Tender description

Barnes Primary School wishes to tender a school meals catering contract, commencing 1.9.2016, for 5 years' duration with the ability for the school to terminate the contract at its sole option at the end of the 3rd or 4th year. Whilst the School prioritises value for money as a key objective of the competitive tender process, the governing body is not obliged to accept the lowest price. The appointment of a school meals provider is a major decision for our governing body. Our aim is to secure outstanding provision for all our pupils in every aspect of their school experience. Indeed our school motto is ‘Expect More’. We expect more of all our pupils but, as a result, they expect more of us — and also of external providers involved with the school. We believe that a catering contract should be about so much more than putting food on plates at lunchtime. The school is committed to finding a highly effective, efficient and imaginative company that will provide exceptional quality and visually exciting school meals, but that will also work in partnership with us to address the link between food and education, helping the pupils plan our thriving allotments, teaching them about the journey from seed to plate and supporting initiatives such as cookery clubs and food education for both pupils and parents. At Barnes Primary School, we place emphasis on the 3 Ls: learning, love and laughter. As well as delivering a high-quality nutritional intake with fresh, seasonal menus, we want the school meals provider to work with us to fulfil expectations with regards to these 3 pledges. We want pupils learning about food, loving eating the food they are served and for the school halls to be filled with laughter as pupils enjoy the whole dining experience. We see this as a highly important part of the children's education and their school day. Barnes Primary School is a split site school located in Barnes, London, SW13 0QQ. We are a thriving, oversubscribed 2 form entry primary school with a nursery. The school was judged as Outstanding when it was last inspected by Ofsted in June 2008. We currently have 515 pupils across our 2 sites, including 78 in the Nursery. 26 pupils on roll qualify for Free School Meals at the present time. There are additionally 70 teaching and support staff on-site. The school year is made up of 195 days, 5 of which are used for continued professional development for staff, so the school is open to pupils for 190 days per annum. Our school comprises 2 buildings: Early Years Foundation Stage/Key Stage 1 for 3 to 7 year olds and Key Stage 2 for 7 to 11 year olds. The buildings are on opposite sides of Cross Street with the school gates being approximately 100 metres apart. Each of the buildings has its own kitchen and dining areas. Our school kitchens are properly equipped to enable food to be stored, prepared and cooked daily from fresh ingredients. The school outsourced from the Borough-wide catering contract 5 years ago and school meals are now freshly cooked on-site and are of gold menu standard with 5 fresh salads and 1 fresh bread available daily and an additional soup and sandwich bar available twice a week. The value of the current contract is approximately 150 000 GBP per annum. Over the current contract, school meal uptake has risen to nearly 80 %:98 % in Reception, Y1 and Y2 who are eligible for Universal Free School Meals; and 78 % in KS2. It is our aim to increase uptake further during this next phase of our school meals journey.