Tidemill Academy

Tidemill is an academy school in Lewisham. We have recently moved from an ageing Victorian building to a new state of the art purpose built school and converted to an Academy.

We exited the borough catering contract in 2009 with Educo providing a full OJEU compliant tender that allowed our school to have a catering specification that met our individual needs. The new catering contract met the high demands of the school providing for a Food for Life compliant service with fresh produce and ingredients being cooked each day. Educo were also able to assist in the transition to and design of our new kitchen. The nutritional benefits and bespoke menu catering for our pupils’ needs meant the meal uptake surpassed everything that preceded it and the contract guaranteed a nil cost to the school.

Following the successful initial contract period Educo negotiated a contract extension with further benefits for the school and the pupils.

Having already extended the contract in 2014 we needed to again run an OJEU compliant tender which Educo ran allowing for a further enhancement to our catering and moving our offer to Gold Food for Life while not effecting the school budget as the contract is again a nil cost contract. The new contract also reflects best practice ensuring the staff are all paid in accordance with the London Living Wage and have individual objectives to keep them motivated and enthused to deliver a quality service to the pupils. There are agreed Key Performance Indicators that the caterer must report against and there are clearly defined penalties if these are not met or surpassed.