St George's Academy was first established in May 1908, with 208 children on roll. The School was one of the first Technology Colleges; it has been Grant Maintained and was a Foundation School before becoming an Academy in January 2010.

The Academy has a history of success with students and has a waiting list for every year group. The Academy now occupies a campus of 32 acres and has over 2 200 students on roll over 2 campuses. The Academy is a comprehensive school serving Sleaford and the surrounding rural area. A 20 000 000 GBP building programme was completed in 2012 and has added significantly to the already very good facilities.

The successful tenderer will be required to provide catering services at the School.

The tender project is seeking to appoint a Contractor whose initiative and innovation will be welcomed for the provision of service within the existing facilities for the students, teaching and support staff, with a focus on exciting new food concepts to satisfy a wide range of pupil tastes and dietary requirements. The School would wish the successful contractor to review the current range of services offered and make recommendations accordingly.

The contract covers the scope for the provision of all catering services within the School, which also includes all hospitality and free issue requirements, which are to be recharged on consumption at ‘net’ food cost only.

The duration of the contract being offered is initially for 3 years commencing on 1.9.2017 and concluding on 31.8.2020. There will be an option to extend the contract for a further 2 years by mutual agreement. It will operate as a Guaranteed Performance Contract, with the successful Contractor offering the School a guaranteed return/cost per annum for the provision of core catering services. In addition, as highlighted above, the commercial contract will operate on a guaranteed return. Sovereignty of the cash tariff is to remain with St George's Academy for the duration of this contract.

As a school who are continually seeking ways to improve and develop the ethos and environment for students and staff, to give them the facilities they deserve and need to meet the challenges of the 21st Century, the School are looking for the successful tenderer to provide inward capital investment to refresh and rejuvenate the catering facilities thus improving on the current provision. This will be discussed in more detail with shortlisted companies at the site meeting.

The quality of food provision will be critical and indeed your organisation must be flexible enough to source bakery, meat, fruit and vegetables and dairy products through local suppliers based no more than 20 miles from the School. It is expected that menus will feature and utilise products in season when available.

Customer engagement will be fundamental to the continuous improvement in the service provision and within your tender response your methodology to this will need to be detailed along with examples of where this has been undertaken within similar contracts recently.

The successful contractor should have similar operations within the local area thus ensuring that the Operational Management Team responsible for the contract is available for regular unplanned visits and support for the contract and that coverage for any planned or unplanned leave from within the establishment staffing structure can be easily provided.

The current value of the contract is circa 300 000 GBP per annum.