We’re inviting special schools to take part in a new pilot designed to make pupil voice a bigger part of the catering conversation.
For many special schools, gathering meaningful feedback from pupils about their meals and dining experience isn’t always straightforward.
Traditional surveys don’t necessarily work for every pupil. Different communication needs mean that schools may need different ways to ask questions, gather responses and understand what pupils really think.
So, at The Litmus Partnership, we’re exploring a different approach.
A new way to hear every pupil’s voice
Following an initial pilot with Treloar School and Treloar College, we’re now looking for six special schools to take part in the next stage of our SEND Catering Consumer Insight Pilot Programme.
The aim is simple:
To help special schools hear more from their pupils about their catering and mealtime experience.
The pilot uses accessible, visual approaches to gather feedback across areas such as:
- Food choices
- Portion sizes
- The dining environment
- The overall mealtime experience
The approach can also work alongside communication methods already familiar to schools, including Talking Mats.
But this isn’t simply about asking pupils whether they liked their lunch.
It’s about finding meaningful ways to understand their experiences and identify where there may be opportunities to improve.
Why are we running a pilot?
The work with Treloars has helped us understand how an accessible approach to catering feedback can work in a special school environment.
Now we want to learn from more schools.
By bringing together six special schools with different pupils, settings and communication needs, we can continue to develop the approach and make sure it works for a wider range of SEND environments.
And the participating schools will benefit too.
Each school will receive clear outputs highlighting key themes, priorities and areas for improvement, with findings benchmarked against wider school catering data to provide additional context.
Could your school be one of the six?
We’re inviting six special schools to take part at no cost through the Litmus Haven Fund.
The pilot is an opportunity to:
Listen to what your pupils really think about their meals and dining experience.
Understand the themes emerging from their feedback.
Identify potential areas for improvement.
Benchmark your findings against wider school catering insight.
Help shape a new approach to gathering pupil voice in SEND settings.
Survey and project activity will begin in January 2027, with applications open between September and December 2026.
If you’re a special school and want to explore a more inclusive way of listening to your pupils about catering, we’d love to hear from you.
Could your school be one of the six helping us shape the next stage? Get in touch today to register here.
