• Understand what a balanced diet is and how to apply it to their lives
• Become familiar with healthy foods and ingredients and the necessary skills to prepare healthy meals and snacks
• Learn about the waste produced by food and its packaging and how to reduce it by recycling, composting and re-using
• Promote healthy eating and waste reduction awareness throughout the school
• Participate in school-based initiatives such as fruit tuck shops, cookery clubs, recycling schemes in conjunction with local agencies, e.g. Health Authority
• Share their learning with their parents/carers and together act to improve diet and reduce waste in their daily lives.

• The children - Small Change is most relevant to Years 3 - 5, though the programme can be adapted for use with infants.
• The whole family unit in terms of improved health and hopefully improvements in family financial management
• The wider community in terms of community participation
• The environment due to increases in recycling and increased awareness of food, energy and transport issues

• One teacher from each participating school acting as a link teacher between the school and the project. This teacher attends a training day to gain awareness of the project content and process.
• A teacher resource folder, providing background information and describing curriculum links is provided for each teacher. Each folder contains pupil worksheets, explanations of the core activities and suggestions for extension activities.
• Each pupil receives a folder containing all the worksheets required for successful implementation and evaluation of the project. Teachers can build on this as they wish.
• An introductory session from the project, introducing all the key themes and taking the pressure off the teacher. Visits by local professionals, such as health promotion specialists and recycling officers can be arranged.
• The involvement of parents through competitions, events, information sheets and links between local community initiatives and the school.
• Activities for pupils to perform at home, that may involve parental involvement. This encourages the transferral of pupil learning from the classroom to the home and is rewarded through stickers.
• Pupils sharing their knowledge with the whole school community. The Small Change classwork therefore needs to be focused on some final output, e.g. an assembly, a prominent display or a performance etc.
• The establishment of a School Action Team (SAT), if schools wish. A SAT brings together volunteers from across the whole school community, including pupils, teachers, parents, governors, kitchen staff, site manager and non teaching staff. The SAT explores environmental issues from a whole-school perspective, assessing what improvements can be made and raising awareness of the project aims. The Small Change Programme Manager offers support and training for schools wishing to set up a SAT. The SAT was a successful element of the Small Change pilot project in the North West and activities organised included setting up an aluminium can recycling scheme and organising a Walk to School Day.
• Working closely with a Council Officer who helps to develop links and stimulate contact with local community groups and initiatives. The Officer has the responsibility for organising support from relevant council departments. Two successful links made in the North West pilot study were pupils putting on a performance about healthy eating to a local factory, and pupils working with the local authority Energy Officer and Age Concern to raise pensioners awareness of fuel efficiency.

• Displays of children's work around the school
• The establishment of an inter-agency group to support the school's implementation of the Small Change initiative
• Increases in fruit consumption among children due to the setting up of a Fruit Tuck shop
• Pupils of Years 2&3 learning how to make healthy snacks and taking the ingredients home to introduce them and try them out with their parents and other family members
• The establishment of a parents' Health Group:
  35 parents attended the launch and eight offered written suggestions of what the group should focus on. Attendance at the launch numbered 12 and consultation has led to meetings being planned for times that suit most parents.
• A local co-op operating in the school once a week to sell fresh, affordable (local) food:
  in the first week of operation the co-op sold £75-80 of produce
• The introduction of a composting scheme & recycling scheme due to begin in the summer term 2001. Already bins are in place around the school for recyclable / compostable waste. A whole school event to build on and celebrate the school's achievements will be held on 30 June 2001

• Involvement of local health professionals: community dietician, health promotion and oral health who have all been involved in delivering some of the health information to the children
• Links with Stepney Family Health Centre (Dame Colet House)
• Support for composting scheme from the Tower Hamlets Parks Dept

Key Stage 2 Citizenship
and PSHE National Curriculum relevance

Pupils should be taught:

• to talk and write about their opinions, and explain their views, on issues that affect themselves and society (1a)
• that resources can be allocated in different ways and that these economic choices affect individuals, communities and the sustainability of the environment (2j)
• what makes a healthy lifestyle, including the benefits of exercise and healthy eating, what affects mental health, and how to make informed choices (3a)
• to make real choices and decisions…about issues affecting their health and well-being…[and] on the use of scarce resources (5d)

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