Barnes Primary School ~ catering services tender

Barnes Primary School is a split site school located in Barnes, London, SW13 0QQ. We are a thriving, oversubscribed two-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 487 pupils across our two sites, including 62 in the Nursery. There are additionally 74 teaching and support staff onsite.

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. 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. We would like our school meal provider to attend our pupil council’s food focus group meetings; help pupils plan our thriving allotments; educate them about the journey from seed to plate in assemblies; organise chef-led, hand-on tasting and making sessions; and support initiatives such as cookery clubs and food education for parents. This contract is about much more than feeding children – it is about educating and exciting the next generation and their families about food.

The school outsourced from the Borough-wide catering contract 12 years ago and school meals are now freshly cooked on-site and are of gold menu standard with at least 5 fresh salads and 1 fresh bread available daily and an additional soup and sandwich bar available twice a week for Key Stage 2 children. The value of the current contract was approximately £165,000 per annum prior to the pandemic. From April 2020 to March 2021, this fell to £90,000.

Please see SQ Document for further details.