Learning to eat well and eat healthily is very important to us at Sunninghill. If a young person is to manage with the busy schedule at school and develop good eating habits for the future, they must eat well.

Our chef, Steve, not only provides freshly cooked food and sumptuous salads at lunchtimes but provides exciting and varied experiences of foods from around the world for our children to try. Match teas and Friday morning assembly breakfasts also allow parents and visitors to enjoy the eating experience at Sunninghill.

The secret is locally sourced produce from the Dorchester market and surrounding area as much as possible and adaptability of the menus to take advantage of tremendous opportunities when then present themselves. For example, a great deal on Lychees meant that every pupil in the school had a chance to try these exotic fruits to celebrate Chinese New Year.

It is also about making sure that children experience a balanced and nutritional diet in an environment that encourages children to try new things and not to be too fussy. This relies on a chef who makes all his food attractive to look at and delicious to the taste buds.

The only downside is that parents get fed up with being told that, 'this isn't as good as Steve's ...'! Most parents are now resigned to designing their food at home around the meals provided at school and find the weekly menus in advance a godsend for planning the weekly shop.