Bishop’s Stortford college is celebrating the receipt of an award in recognition of the excellence of its catering department. The school was proud to receive a Gold ‘Continuous Advancement Programme’ or CAP award from independent assessors Provision Catering Ltd and became the first school in East Anglia and only one of two schools in the country to gain the prestigeous award.
CAP awards are only presented to departments who meet the highest standards in the catering and hospitality industry. To qualify for a Gold Award, establishments undergo an unannounced one day inspection. After the inspection, each organisation is graded and notified as to whether they have met the required standards and given an action plan to further develop their services. Around 35% of organisations fail.
Bishop’s Stortford College was assessed in September by an inspector who carried out a full appraisal of the catering department. This included looking at menus, assessing food practices, talking with pupils and looking at financial records to gain an all round picture of the efficiency and quality of the service.
Staff at the school were delighted to receive the award last week. “We take the quality of our catering very seriously to ensure that we offer both value for money and the highest of standards,” comments Malcolm Hemingway, Bursar at Bishop’s Stortford College. “The CAP award visit was a meticulous procedure which involved the study and assessment of every area of the service, so we were thrilled to receive the top award in recognition of all the hard work that the staff have put in. It’s good to be told by an independent outsider that we are offering such high standards at Bishop’s Stortford College.”
The independent, co-educational, day and boarding school, which has 1130 pupils, aged 4 – 18 on its roll, was presented with a framed certificate and plaque as proof of the award.
Ian Jackson, independent assessor from Provision Catering Ltd which inspects schools, hospitals and hotels across the UK was impressed with what he saw at Bishop’s Stortford College. “We have a set of strict criteria based on government and industry guidelines which I am pleased to say that Bishop’s Stortford College more than met,” comments Mr Jackson. “I was genuinely impressed by the standards that I witnessed during my visit.”