World’s First Certified Sustainable Palm Oil Catering Company.
Edsential works closely with Chester Zoo and is part of the Chester Sustainable Palm Oil City Project. These partnerships inspired the business to work with all its suppliers to ensure that 100 per cent of food ingredients and products contain palm oil from responsible and sustainable sources.
To find out more about our Sustainable Palm Oil Catering status please Click Here
Edsential Catering Awards Evening.
The summer of 2019 saw first Edsential Catering awards evening, where we looked to award our staff for their service and commitment.
Images and further information about the awards evening can be found on our Catering page Here
“The catering team cannot do enough for the school and the children. They go above and beyond and even take on duties that are outside of their job description. They have become really important members of the School Team even though they are employed by Edsential.
The kitchen is a really happy and jolly place to visit. Although they are always very busy, nothing is too much trouble. The food produced is of the highest standard and the take up of school meals by the children proves this point.” – Headteacher
“Just like to say thank you for amazing evening was lovely meet everyone and to be invited to be part of this event ” – Catering team member.
We continue to receive positive feedback from our customers and this has continued to show the successful impact of these changes on the cleaning standards.
We have widely improved our Health and Safety provision across the service area so that less accidents are reported. We continue to improve Health and Safety Training for all staff within the workplace.
We continue to highlight and acknowledge the great work our staff do by using the Star of the Month award.
“I would like to thank Andrew Allmark, Facilities Manager, and his on-site team for their response in dealing with the issues that Christleton High School had with Edsential, in respect of cleaning standards on-site, prior to his appointment.
Andrew has continually responded in a timely and professional manner and the local team are always willing to work with the school to resolve any issues as and when they arise.
The way in which the company responds to issues is a real measure of their levels of customer focus and therefore on this basis of my recent experiences, I am happy to recommend Andrew and the cleaning service.” – Nigel Follos, Academy Trust Business Director – Christleton Learning Trust
During the summer term clerks from the Governance service supported a small number of academies conduct their admission appeals hearings which occur when a parents application for a new school place is declined by the admitting school, generally because they are full. These Hearings are generally conducted in person and follow a set procedure laid down in statutory guidance. This year the regulations were modified to allow online or written hearings to be conducted. The Governance Service took the decision to host hearings online using Microsoft Teams and supported both the schools and the parents involved in joining meetings where an independent panel reviewed each of the individual cases.
This was a significant undertaking that led to schools meeting their statutory duties and providing the opportunity to parents to present their case in an open and transparent forum.
“Thought this was a great course as a new governor, would highly recommend.” – Governor, Thingwall Primary School
“Excellent course, this is going to be in my ‘toolkit’ as a governance best practice.” – Governor, Ellesmere Port Catholic High School
Funding from The Amber Trust enabled a talented, visually impaired pupil to access one-to-one piano lessons with Edsential Musical Routes.
Thank you for organising such a wonderful event…It’s always lovely and gets us into the Christmas Spirit! Mel Gilbert – Shocklach Oviatt Primary
Fantastic ukulele lesson for Year 4 this afternoon, 6th lesson of 10! – St Winefride’s Primary
Our amazing musicians performing with pride today! – JH Godwin Primary School
Leaps and Bounds – £100,000 Grant funded by the Charity Youth Music.
Leaps and Bounds is our creative music-making provision for EYFS children following a successful grant from Youth Music, a national charity.
Specialist EYFS music tutors have been working in 17 primary schools and their linked nurseries across Wirral and CWAC with Foundation 1 and 2 teachers and practitioners.
With an offer combining CPD, networking, direct delivery and collaborative events, we have enabled young children to listen to live music performed by their tutor and small ensembles, sing in their classrooms and in inspirational venues, explore and play percussion instruments.
Even during the Covid-19 pandemic, we were able to continue in providing both schools and families home-schooling with carefully planned musical learning activities with Leaps and Bounds At Home, using YouTube to share specially arranged pieces of music and ideas for exploring them with young children.
“Working with Dianne was fantastic. We felt very confident with our expressive arts and design assessments for the autumn term, as we had had the opportunity to observe the children engaging in music with Dianne. Great professional development for all the Reception staff.” – Jan Sproston, Lache Primary School
“F2 have a had great start to the day. We took part in @edsential Leaps and Bounds ‘animals on the farm’ songs and activities. We enjoyed choosing instruments to represent different animals and had great fun playing them. Thank you @cate_madden and your great team!” – Tweet from St Werburgh’s Primary School
Over the last few months we have identified increasing challenges to Youth and Foster services in how they support young people they care for, it has been a time where we have worked with these council departments to create a new opportunity to support the most vulnerable and under-privileged people in our communities through the creation of our Aiming Higher Course:
We believe that all young people, no matter what their background, should be entitled to a range of opportunities to enhance their education and develop their personal skills. We will be introducing students to outdoor activities and through this medium support them to learn new skills that will inspire them to aim higher, thus improving their self-confidence, personal and social skills and in turn their life chances.
We are based in the amazing natural environment of North Wales and can use the local countryside to run adventurous activities that will challenge, motivate and develop young people improving their:
“Lots of flexibility in terms of changing our itinerary. Instructors have been great as always. Kitchen staff were very flexible and patient with our late return from activities.” – Youth Sport Trust – Outdoor Course
“Booking team were open to questions and very organised. Facilities on site were prefect for what we needs and safe. Environment and setting very beautiful, all staff were always very helpful and the meals were perfectly filling.” – Youth Sport Trust
“Can’t say enough about the staff – excellent on every level both with staff and pupils” – The Hammond School
During the Academic year 2019 the school chose to use some of its Sports Premium to introduce a programme of Forest School sessions into the school.
Clear links exist to show that such rtime spent outside with a significant adult (class teacher) have physiological and emotional benefits for children.
The evidence also indicates that heart rate during such activity is higher than during traditional P.E. sessions.
The objectives were to initially recruit a specialist Forest School practitioner from Edsential to work with staff delivering CPD aimed at guiding staff to deliver an increased proportion of their teaching time outside.
The result of such sessions ultimately to increase children’s physical activity and their understanding and appreciation of the outdoor spaces in their school.
Sessions were planned and delivered with clear links made to classroom learning allowing children to broaden both their understanding of learning involved in class and broadening their experience and understanding of the outdoor environment of their school.
“My child really enjoys these lessons. She sometimes struggles in class, so this is a good different way of learning that she enjoys.” – Parent
“My Girls love Forrest school as they don’t have the opportunity much at home. They have learnt so much and enjoy every session.” – Parent
We responded to feedback from Headteachers , Leadership and Governing Body teams , SENCO’s, teachers and parents/carers to develop our services ensuring they are holistic in the way Edsential engage with and support families, and that we are highly responsive to their needs. Edsential is committed to supporting the child and young person as well as their parents or carers to access support and advice to enable both to realise their full potential.
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We launched our Personal Best Programme. This programme utilises the power of being physically active and achieving their own personal best to make positive changes to the emotional, social and mental wellbeing of young people.
Find out more about the Personal Best Programme Here
National research showed that the best and most effective form of professional development involves teachers becoming actively engaged in learning.
Off of the back of this we launched a 6-week professional development programme for curriculum Physical Education follows a specific format that allows the teacher to observe, support, team teach and lead a lesson.
Curriculum Support Quote:
“A really supportive process. From seeing well led sessions to then conducting our own with some support it has been very useful professional development which can be used to improve the sessions I deliver. “ – Teacher, Brookdale Primary School
Quote from Personal Best programme:
“It has helped me not to worry about playing games and being active. I feel confident to join in games at play times.” – Child, Oxton St Saviour’s Primary School.
Our school swimming team provided schools with an efficient service to ensure as many children as possible leave primary education as competent swimmers.
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Edsential CIC and Partners that include The Welcome Network, Cheshire West Voluntary Action and Cheshire West and Chester Council were successful in accessing Government funding of £500,000 to coordinate Holiday Activity Provision and Food Clubs over the summer holiday period in West Cheshire for 2019.
This project came to light initially in 2017 where it provided 12 days of provision that grew in 2018 to 90 days of provision, this year it provided over 500 days of provision.
A truly remarkable achievement with an outstanding impact for the local communities.
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Edridge Trust: Edsential secured £5,000-a-year from the Edridge Trust, for the next 3 years, to fund disadvantaged students to travel to Tuscany.
This year two delegates were in receipt of the bursary that supports gifted and talented A2 arts student whilst studying their A level studies.
“Overall, this has been a life changing opportunity I have had the chance to be a part of and the memories and vital skills I have learnt are things I’ll never forget. I want to say a huge thank you to the staff who organized and took us on such an incredible trip I have learnt so much and am so grateful that I was picked to be a part of an experience which has given me so many memories to treasure. ” – Bursary funded Tuscany A2 Art Student.
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We reach further than just our local schools – our memberships and accreditations mean we influence decisions on a national level.