BackgroundWaycroft Primary School opened in September 1998 as a 14 class primary school, resulting from an amalgamation of Waycroft Infant School and Waycroft Junior schools. The kitchen, a team of five under the watchful eye of Catering Manager, Bridget Carter, serves around 220 meals a day for children and staff.
As professionaly trained chef, Bridget has worked in the catering industry since she was 16. Fully experienced in running a busy kitchen, she felt however she needed direction as to what was essential in training terms and wanted a company that could provide that training to a high standard.
She was determined that the Catering Department was as successful as the school and not just a poor relation. A second requirement was a company that could give both support and confidence to the staff, and not make them feel inadequate. Initially training was out by the contract catering company (which in her opinion, was not particularly effective.) The decision was then made to take catering in-house, leaving a gap in the training provision.
Having been in the industry some time, Bridget had built up many contacts, including the local Bristol Chief Environmental Officer and having listened to her needs, it was he who recommended Envesca.
The first telephone contact with Envesca was comfortable and reassuring and a meeting was arranged with Sue at Waycroft Primary School. Immediately Bridget knew she had found a company that was genuinely interested in meeting her needs, whilst being "compassionate with inadequacies".
In the very first training session, held by Simon Ellis, Envesca's Operations Director Bridget said she knew absolutely that she'd made the right decision.
Bridget quotes the primary school result as being "confidence" - confidence in Envesca to deliver what they promise to an expectionally high standard; confidence of the school governors in the Catering Department and confidence of OFSTED and Environmental Health Office.
In a recent school meals catering audit Bridget and her team scored 100% in the following four sections of the audit, giving them an overall score of 100%.
The proudest achievement of all was when Waycroft Primary School Catering was voted Bristol Food Champion for 2011, an award she collected at the Council House in Bristol.
As well as having all her staff fully trained and compliant, Bridget has gone on to complete a number of other courses including the CIEH Level 2 Award in Healthier Food and Special Diets, the CIEH Level 3 Award in Food Safety in Catering, Fire Safety, CIEH Level 2 Award in Emergency First Aid at Work and the CIEH Level 4 Award in Managing Food Safety in Catering which she achieve a Merit Pass!
The relationship with Envesca continues to flourish and she feels the personal service afforded to her has been second to none.
August 2011 - Exciting news.......Waycroft Primary School has just become an Academy.
