School cleaning and catering staff to celebrate top marks

Catering and cleaning staff from all over the borough are using their pots, pans and brushes to shine – by picking up top marks in the classroom.

Forty eight staff from Rochdale Borough Council were presented with awards for achieving nationally recognised qualifications in catering, site management cleaning, nutrition and supervision.

Collectively the staff serve over 15,000 school meals and clean over 400,000 square feet of school and council buildings each day.

Catering staff have boosted their culinary skills by gaining NVQ Level 2 awards for sparkling food preparation, food safety, and budgeting. Cleaning staff are to step up to receive NVQ Level 2 awards proving their expertise in making schools healthy, clean and safe places to learn. Managers and supervisors will be applauded for achieving BTEC Level 3 awards in Management and a range of staff will be given nutrition awards showing they’ve got what it takes when it comes serving healthy school meals to the borough’s pupils.

The awards were presented at Rochdale Town Hall by Rochdale Borough Council executive directors, John Patterson and Pam Smith, along with Julie Pickering, Head of Facilities Management and Anne Taylor Head of Business Partnerships Service.

John Patterson said: “The council has been at the forefront of a national drive to give our children a healthy start in life with a Beacon award from the Government and 95% of our schools achieving healthy school status.

"By investing in this valuable training the council is demonstrating its long term commitment to children who will benefit from increasingly healthy, varied and attractive school meals and bright, clean and safe classrooms in which to learn.

“I congratulate our staff who have worked very hard and to a high standard to achieve these professional qualifications. We are proud of them.”