A primary school in Wembley has been praised for taking part in a drive which encourages residents to reduce their sugar intake.
Chalkhill Primary School in Barnhill Road, is supporting Brent Council’s ‘Slash Sugar’ campaign by introducing ‘Sugar Free Tuesdays’ whereby all food, drinks and snacks eaten on that day should be free of refined sugar.
Pupils swap sweets and fizzy drinks for natural sugar from fruits instead.
For example desserts such as custard and cake have been swapped for fruit salad and ‘The Crunch’, the school’s canteen, make their own tomato ketchup as branded versions can contain more than one teaspoon of sugar per teaspoon portion.
Pupils are also given healthy lifestyle tips at their weekly assembly, educated about portion control and the tuck shop only sells healthy snacks such as fruit, homemade banana cake, fruit cups and crackers on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
The money made from the tuck shop goes towards free healthy snacks for Key stage 2 pupils as currently the government only funds free healthy snacks for Key stage 1 pupils and the school believes that no one should miss out.
Karima Peerwani, assistant headteacher, said: “As a healthy school we engage with both the pupils and parents because it is important that the hard work we do at school continues at home.”
Cllr Krupesh Hirani, Brent Council’s cabinet member for community wellbeing, who said: “Well done to all the pupils and staff at Chalkhill for embracing Sugar Free Tuesdays. It’s a scheme that I hope all schools across Brent will consider.”
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