At my school, South Norwood School in Croydon, Christmas dinner truly is a family affair.
As well as a whole-school Christmas lunch during the school day, we also host a Christmas dinner after school where we invite every child and their family. This year’s event was sadly cancelled at the last minute due to the new Covid restrictions. But next year, as long as it’s safe to do so, it will go ahead as normal. We are planning an Easter family meal in 2022 to make up for it, and all children will receive an Easter egg.
So how does the Christmas dinner normally work? Well, there are no restrictions on who is welcome: children can bring as many family members with them as they like. We host hundreds of guests, utilising both school halls and some of our classrooms.
The children make table pieces in class leading up to it, and we go all out with the Christmas decorations. We set the table properly with crackers because not all of our families have a dining table or they may not be used to sitting down together as a family. As staff, we do everything from serving the food to cuddling babies so parents can eat their food while it’s still hot and enjoy their time together.
We serve the traditional Christmas dinner, as well as a vegetarian option, and everyone loves it. For some who are new to the UK, it’s a chance to see how Christmas is celebrated in the UK, for others, it’s a great chance to be part of the school community. People don’t see it as a religious event, it’s a celebration.
Every family will leave with a hamper of presents - ranging from a cinema evening to a Chinese food set - that have all been donated by staff or local businesses. Father Christmas also makes an appearance and gives every child a present. It really is the most wonderful night of the school year: everyone is buzzing on the night and for days afterwards. Even though the meal can’t go ahead as planned this December, the hampers will still be distributed.
It takes a lot of dedication from our staff, but we are all so passionate about its importance. Why? Two words: community engagement. At South Norwood, we have really high mobility: it’s a bit like a revolving door. For every child leaving, we have another one joining. So our school numbers are quite stable, but for example, this year we’ve already welcomed 12 new children.
We are also a very diverse school: children are mostly from black African backgrounds, and the community is really widespread, with many children coming to us from miles away. Our families don’t live in the surrounding streets, and that makes engaging our community really tough because it’s not the local people around the school.
It’s important then, that inclusivity and community are at the heart of everything we do, and there’s no better time to bring everyone together than Christmas. In the first year, we offered the Christmas dinner to just pupil premium families, but it was such a great success that we opened it up to everybody. The event does wonders for our parental engagement: if there are some families who we think would really benefit, we make sure that we target them specifically and ask them to attend.
If you want to introduce something similar in your school next year - Covid permitting - there are a few things I’d recommend considering.
1. Involve external organisations and people
We always invite our governors, the local councillors and our local MP, Sarah Jones. In the last couple of years, we’ve also developed a relationship with Farah London, who ran for mayor of London this year and used to attend our school. She contacted us this year to see if we needed any donations and has since donated £500. We also have local funeral directors who buy the crackers, and we’ve got a good relationship with a local estate agent who also donates money. It’s incredible how generous people are, and these donations mean that the night is extra special for our community.
2. Plan ahead
Buy things like tablecloths, napkins and decorations for the next year in the January sale when they are really cheap - just don’t forget about them in December! We also learnt early on to invest in a good quality Santa suit, and recruit a jolly Santa from the local community.
3. Start promotion early
We start promoting our Christmas dinner after the October half term and encourage people to confirm whether they are coming or not as soon as possible, so you can plan the catering. Make sure you account for all the volunteers and staff that help serve the food too. That said, always, always over-cater, because people will just turn up.
4. Ticket the food
As the years have gone by, we’ve also learnt to give out food tickets for the meal and the visit with Father Christmas - otherwise, people could go up for two dinners and for two presents.
Melody Berthoud is the headteacher of South Norwood Primary School (part of The Pioneer Academy) in Croydon
