Read the latest school food blogs, including Irene Carroll, Former Chair of LACA as she talks about healthy school lunches and the build up to the week.

For all those working this week can I ask you to check two things for NSMW? Firstly that you have told us what you are doing during the week. If you haven't, then please fill in the section under My NSMW on www.iloveschoolmeals.co.uk. Secondly if you have not done it already please get everyone in the office, family and friends voting for their favourite school meal at www.iloveschoolmeals.co.uk/vote. The vote closes on Sunday 31st so there is still time and every vote is important because it adds credibility to the results.

And if any of you have any final questions or comments then please let Arnold know at Arnold@avfmarketing.co.uk.

As we all get ready for a great week can I ask you to think about how we can make things even better for next year? I think this year is the biggest and best NSMW ever but I do accept I am biased. We know it is the biggest but only you can decide if it is the best. In life we can always do things differently and LACA made major changes to the event this year. After the week we will be asking you to tell us what we should change or improve next year. So please make notes during the week and then let us know when we contact you. Thanks again.

What a fun day I have had. I taught the children how to film and they taught me how to cook! I have just got back from Gilbert Scott Primary School in Croydon where I was taught to cook by Debbie Mumford, School Chef of the Year and her very able assistants.

Whilst Debbie and the rest of the cooking team were preparing the food and getting all the equipment ready Leon Taylor and I talked to the children about TV and video filming. One by one each child mimed a cooking technique. The rest of us watched them through the camera TV monitor and guessed what they were doing.

Leon Taylor has lots of BBC TV experience so he was able to give expert advice on making TV programmes to the children. He ensured everyone was always smiling and explained what would happen if a child removed their jumper so far though filming i.e. we would have continuity problems with our edited videos!

Thank you so much to everyone involved in the Get Cooking Day filming. I am really looking forward to seeing the final videos.

We have produced two graphics for you to display on your website. They are different sizes so you can decide which is the most appropriate for your site. The banners have been produced to standard display advertising sizes so they should be suitable for most websites. You can download the banners in My NSMW in the ‘Schools' and ‘Authorities' section.

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And don’t forget to link the banner to www.iloveschoolmeals.co.uk

This year's NSMW is the biggest ever. It has more authorities and schools taking part. The previous best was 80 authorities and now there are over 90. Thanks must go to all of you that have registered, downloaded plans and got their teams motivated. Now I must ask for one more thing. Please submit your plans about what you are doing during this week. This will have two advantages. Firstly your local press and media can see what you are doing and we can use this information to tell the national press. So please take just a few minutes to do this. Thanks for your continued support.

At this year's LACA Conference the importance of headteachers came out very strongly. So much so that the Chair of LACA, Beverley Baker, has already made it one of her key objectives for the year. She said, "Where we have the support and commitment of the Headteachers we have a successful school catering service". This is why NSMW is so important as it is a great way of getting their support. There are lots of free activities. I hope that you will use them, not just in the week, but throughout the academic year ahead. I know that the more you get teachers involved the more children will have a school meal and we all know how important that is.

I have just been to the round table discussion about NSMW and other key subjects for school caterers. It was organised by Mark Lewis, Editor of the Caterer and Hotelkeeper and Beverley Baker, Chair of LACA. The results will be published on Thursday 5th November so make sure you read a copy. It was a fascinating debate and included subjects like NSMW, what will happen after the next election and future funding issues.

This week further filming for NSMW took place in Croydon, but firstly I must say a big thank you to Allyson Lloyd who made all the arrangements. Leon Taylor who is a BBC Commentator and former Silver medallist at the Athens games in the synchronised diving was there to help with all the questions. He helped to keep everyone amused all day and he was brilliant with the children.

He also brought along his silver medal, which everyone wanted to hold!

Leon and Debbie Mumford, SCOTY winner, worked really well together with Leon acting as the presenter and Debbie demonstrating her cooking skills. She was brilliant and thanks also to her and Barbara, her contract manager, for coming up from Devon for the day. Debbie prepared her winning recipes and demonstrated a number of cookery skills. This was for the Get Cooking day on 10th November. I can say it will be a great success so make sure you use it to promote your school meals.

We are now at four weeks and still counting down to the launch of NSMW. It is amazing how time flies and it feels like just a couple of months since we had the first presentation on NSMW by AVF Marketing. That was last December and so much has been going on since.
Just recently we have been busy filming and there are lots of new videos now on the site, including Karen Fewell, Beverley Baker and myself. And have you ordered your stickers. There are only a couple of days left to do so, order them now.