Dykehead Primary School North Lanarkshire
Following a request from Ashley Goodfellow, a nutritionist in North Lanarkshire Council, the School Milk Project Facilitator Claire Doyle, visited the 286 pupil primary school in October 2006.

An e-circular was sent to all schools in the Authority and through co-ordinated work with the Catering Management team, nutritionist and the Quality Improvement Officer there was success in implementing schemes in 30% of the schools and improved uptake in others (end 06).

Ashley Goodfellow says: “As a variety of schemes develop, good practice is identified by the School Milk Project facilitator and shared between schools.  Good practice has also been shared via staff newsletters, local media and on a more national level via an article within the Holyrood Magazine.  Schools are keen to adopt best practice where possible, as this will support them in their work as Health Promoting Schools.”

Dykehead Primary were already running a fruit scheme and were keen to instigate a subsidised milk scheme.

Refrigeration for the extra milk was an issue.  Claire, with co-operation from the Authority, established a partnership with a refrigeration company and through this scheme a handful of schools, including Dykehead, received a free fridge.

Canvassing letter was sent to parent resulting in 243 children enrolling on the new milk scheme.

A year later on World School Milk Day Claire re visited the school with Charlotte the Cow, mascot for the Project 200 of the children were still drinking milk daily.

Foley Infants School
This school had no milk scheme in place.  It was visited by School Milk Project Facilitator, Jill Middleton, who advised the school to initially canvass all the parents on their views on starting a scheme.

The response was excellent with 90% of parents wishing their children to have milk at school on a daily basis.  Such a high response meant the local dairy was prepared to provide a free refrigerator for storing the milk.

Money is now collected half termly and two milk monitors from each class have been appointed and it is their responsibility to collect enough milk for their class before each morning breaktime.

Head teacher Anne Bennett says: “The cartons are just the right size to quench thirst and boost energy levels.  We’re also using the School Milk Project’s educational resources to further increase the children’s knowledge of milk and we view our scheme as an essential part of our commitment to healthy living.”

Clackmannanshire Authority
Following an enquiry from Rosemary Champion, Support Services Manager from the Clackmannanshire Authority, school milk facilitator Claire Doyle provided information and advice on the types of schemes available including refrigeration guidance and up- to-date information about the benefits of milk.

With support from the School Milk Project, which helped set up new accounts for each school via a local dairy, a blanket policy for a breaktime milk scheme was introduced.  Only one school opted out retaining milk at lunch time.

As with all schemes, parents were canvassed to establish their interest and Claire provided each school with a talk to the children about the key benefits of drinking milk.  A media event was also arranged at Clackmannanshire Primary where a local dairy farmer brought along a cow and two new born calves.

To date there has been a 33% increase in the number of children taking milk within all schools.  Lunch milk has been reintroduced and the level of milk drinking at this time of the day has also been maintained.

Excellent results can be achieved by working with an authority that encourages blanket policies.