North Berwick High School has become the first secondary school in Scotland to introduce PukkaStuff, a reward scheme that turns healthy meal choices into ipods, mobile texts and minutes, shopping discounts and money off at cultural and leisure facilities.

PukkaStuff already runs in many secondary schools in other parts of the UK. Under the scheme, pupils earn PukkaPoints when they choose sensible and balanced meal options in their school dining area. They can then use the points online via a secure account to choose between a variety of discounts and rewards. North Berwick is the first high school in Scotland to offer PukkaStuff.

Cabinet member for Education, Councillor Peter MacKenzie, attended the scheme’s launch at North Berwick High School on 10 November. He believes that this is a great deal for pupils and their parents, saying: “Young people have a huge amount of choice when it comes to deciding where to have their lunch. However, with a healthy, tasty and filling two course meal available for around £1.80 their school dining-room  represents a cost-effective option. PukkaStuff will offer an extra incentive for pupils to make more positive meal choices by combining the long-term benefits of healthy eating with a variety of instant rewards. I’m delighted that North Berwick High School is the first in Scotland to introduce this scheme.”

Under the PukkaStuff scheme, a healthy meal deal costing an average of £1.65 would earn a pupil 10 points, which is automatically credited to their secure PukkaStuff account via their cashless catering card. Unlike some other loyalty schemes, pupils can immediately begin to use their points for unique discounts for a range of items, including free mobile top-ups, free iTunes vouchers, discounts off MP3 players, free PC games through to a wide choice of offers on Great Days Out, and the opportunity to enter competitions for prizes like a Nintendo DS Lite Console or an iPod.  Currently around 41% of the school’s 950 pupils buy food in the school canteen at lunchtime.

Pupils will be able to decide whether or not to sign-up for PukkaStuff and, for those who do, sign-up for the secure web-based account will occur during their Personal and Social Education (PSE) classes.

Deputy Headteacher at North Berwick High School, Jane Hamilton, said: “The canteen is an important provision in the school where pupils can sit in pleasant surroundings enjoying their lunch and socialising with their friends. We have been encouraging pupils to make healthy choices having organised a 'local organic lunch' and we were the first school in Britain to have a ‘Slow Food Lunch' This is another incentive to encourage pupils to opt for a healthy lunch.”

East Lothian Council’s Facilities Management team has been working closely with North Berwick High School to introduce the scheme and attended school assemblies every day for one week to explain it to pupils. North Berwick is the first of the county’s schools to start running the scheme but work has already begun to roll it out to others, starting with Dunbar Grammar in early 2009.

Catering Manager Joyce Marlow explained: “Introducing the scheme into North Berwick and getting it aligned with cashless catering has been a time-consuming process, which was why we chose to work with one school at a time. We can now review how the scheme works in practice, get feedback from pupils and begin the task of rolling it out to other secondary schools in the county.”

PukkaStuff Marketing Director Peter Heywood said: "We are delighted to be working with East Lothian Council to help increase the uptake of healthy school meals.  There's always a wide range of offers on the website, and this really attracts pupils and encourages them to ge tmore points by eating more school meals."

For more information on PukkaStuff visit www.pukkastuff.co.uk