Cornerstone Dining Club

Our dining service sits at the heart of the school day. It is a family-dining experience that allows children of all ages to come together to enjoy a high-quality meal, expertly cooked by one of our fully qualified chefs. Our whole-school food culture promotes neighbourliness and community spirit, we find that this is great way for children to develop essential social skills that are rooted in friendship, respect and kindness.

A Family Dining Experience

Across the Trust we have implemented a dining club service which has enabled us to drastically reduce the cost of our school dinners for children across the school. We believe that eating in school should be a pleasurable experience: time spent sharing good food with peers and teachers.

We have reduced the cost of a school meal by means of an upfront payment covering each day in a half or whole term. A school dinner can be purchased for the reduced cost of £2 per day rather than the average cost of £2.50 in other schools. This is a saving of £2.50 a week or £95 over the school year! This is only financially viable if enough families sign up.

We are pleased to be working in partnership with a company called Goosemoor Food Service (formerly known as Dart Fresh) to offer the children a menu that uses far more locally sourced ingredients:

“Goosemoor EduCatering is a Devon based family business bringing a fresh approach to school food, serving up local and affordable excellence into the dining hall. The ethos is simple: exciting child-led menus with only the finest fresh ingredients, grown and sourced locally wherever possible, meaning low food miles and a lower carbon footprint. Be it the beef and lamb from Dartmoor, or the cabbages and cauliflowers from Braunton, provenance is more important than ever, helping us all towards a more sustainable future.”

We have always strived to offer a nutritionally balanced meal, and it is good to know that with this partnership we will also be offering the additional benefit of greater sustainability.

The school food standards

• Help children develop healthy eating habits.
• Ensure that they get the energy and nutrition they need across the whole school day.
• Cook food that looks good and tastes delicious.
• Talk to the children about what is on offer and recommend dishes.
• Eliminate queuing.
• Serve the food in a pleasant environment where they can eat with their friends.
• Provide a wide range of foods across the week including a variety of fruits, vegetables, grains, pulses or types of meat and fish.
• Use fresh, sustainable and locally-sourced ingredients
• Talk to them about what they are eating.

The School Dining Club has become a national case study and is featured on the School Food Plan website where there is information and examples of good practice www.schoolfoodplan.com

Meet our Chefs

These meals are prepared by our fully qualified chefs Steve Barlow (Broadclyst), Karl Davies (Westclyst), George Rolstone (Monkerton) and Jane Jordan (Yeo Valley), all of whom have many years of experience in the catering industry. The service is headed up by our Head Chef, Steve Hodge. 

Our Head Chef

Steve Hodge

Steve, our head chef, has over 24 years experience. He trained at Exeter Catering College and has worked at Exeter University and the Officers’ Mess at Lympstone. He has cooked for many dignitaries and Royals.

Steven Barlow

Oliver Powrie

George Rolstone

Karl Davies

Jane Jordan