A Cook-in-Charge from a Caerphilly county borough school is the proud recipient of a major national award.
Colin Jones, Cook-in-Charge at Hengoed Primary School was awarded the ‘Welsh Outstanding Achievement Award’ at the Local Authority Caterers Association (LACA) Awards 2011 recently.
Colin was nominated for the award for his ‘outstanding levels of service and commitment’ and ‘the enormous contribution he has made to local authority catering provision’.
Cllr Phil Bevan, Cabinet Member for Education, Leisure and Lifelong Learning said, “During his time at the school, Colin has gone the extra mile in achieving important objectives for Hengoed Primary, by promoting healthy eating and lifestyles for the whole school”.
He continued, “This is a fantastic achievement for Colin, Hengoed Primary School and indeed Caerphilly County Borough Council, and I have no doubt that the pupils and teachers at the school are just as proud of Colin as I am”.
Colin has been employed at Hengoed Primary School since 2000 and has consistently maintained a consistent level of professionalism in his day-to-day work. He was one of the first volunteers to set up a Welsh Assembly-funded free Breakfast Club back in 2005, which is attended by 65 pupils each morning.
Also, when Estyn inspectors visited Hengoed Primary School in 2010, the School Meals Service was highlighted as an area of excellence.
Colin has lead a team that have fully supported all health initiatives introduced to address Government targets, such as Caerphilly County Borough Council’s ‘Fruit and Veg’ of the Week scheme, which introduced a new food each week to pupils.
He has contributed to developing exciting new dishes over the years, which included vegetable stir-fries with noodles, savoury braised rice with vegetables, turnip and apple crumble, pumpkin and potato cakes and spicy spinach, all if which the pupils found delicious.
Colin and his team also work with teaching staff to promote healthy eating, and help develop pupils’ food handling skills in the school kitchen, using food grown in the school allotment.
For further information on school meals, please visit the school meals web pages.
