In March 2013 I carried out a healthy eating survey with Reception and Key Stage 1 at King’s Park Primary School in Bournemouth.
Below is the letter I sent to parents:
Dear Parents/Carers,
My name is Kelly Elsworthy, I am a mum of two, a little boy (aged 4) and a little girl (aged 2). I found that when my little boy was around two years old he started to become fussy about what he would eat, choosing more sugary-based foods over healthy options. In order to try and combat this and encourage him to eat nutritional foods, I started to tell him stories of a healthy Pirate (The Cuddle Pirate) & his crew who always eat healthy food (the ‘Goodies’) and a naughty shark (The Sugar Shark) & his gang who always tries to steal healthy food and turn it bad with sugar.
Through my son’s engagement with the various characters representing different fruits and vegetables, he began to associate them with the importance of eating healthily. I then told the stories to some of his friends from nursery and they all responded so well, I decided to put pen to paper and bring the concept to life.
As I am self-published and funded, the challenge I now have is trying to get this message out to lots of families. I have decided to widen my target market, to help as many children as possible in understanding the importance of eating healthily. As a result I am conducting a survey approaching as many parents as possible, to understand how important providing healthy food is to their children. Once complete I can share this information with the local council, schools and shops that stock books in the hope that I can share my stories and help other parents like me.
If you are able to take a few minutes to complete the following survey overleaf I would be extremely grateful. The survey will also be available to complete online at http://www.thecuddlepirate.com/survey should this be an easier option for you.
If you do complete one, you will be automatically entered into a free prize draw to win copies of the first and second stories in the new series, ‘The Jelly Giant’ and ‘The Fruity Fish’!!
The closing date to complete this survey and return it to the school is Friday 8th March 2013. Prizes will be awarded by the end of April 2013.
For further information and tools to help encourage healthy eating, please visit: www.thecuddlepirate.com.
You can see the full letter and questionnaire here: RECEPTION & KS1 HEALTHY EATING SURVEY (pdf)
See the results of the survey here: HEALTH EATING SURVEY RESULTS (pdf)
About Kelly
