Caterlink provide our delicious school lunches every day, which are cooked freshly by our on-site chef. Children are able to choose from a variety of healthy, nutritionally balanced dishes, including a daily fruit and salad bar. The children are encouraged to try new food, and our school meals are really popular. (See examples below)

Our lunchtime supervisors are also on hand to ensure that children eat their lunches. If children are having difficulty with either their school lunch or packed lunch we will contact  parents to let them know. The Head and Deputy have lunch with the children several times a week and our Head Lunchtime Supervisor also monitors the quality of lunches.

 

We organise termly Parent Panel events, where parent representatives from each year group are invited into school to see the lunch service, try the food and meet the catering team to ask any questions they have. 

 

 

PACKED LUNCHES

Children also have the option of bringing a packed lunch to school. We ask parents to send healthy lunches every day and do not allow fizzy drinks, sweets or crisps. We are also a nut and seed free school due to several children having a severe allergic reaction to nuts and seeds. Please note: this also includes peanut butter, which must not be sent into school. Please note that if your child brings in packed lunches from home, and these contain food that needs to be re-heated, we do not have the facilities to be able to heat food up for children.

 

For children aged 5 years and above preparing a healthy well-balanced child’s lunchbox, includes starchy food, protein foods, a dairy item, vegetables or salad, fruit and a healthy drink.

Healthy Schools London encourage you to:

INCLUDE: Daily

Minimum of 1 portion of fruit and 1 portion of vegetables everyday Meat, poultry, fish and nondairy protein e.g. pulses Oily fish at least once every few weeks (e.g. sardines, salmon) Starchy food such as bread, pasta, rice, potatoes including wholegrain varieties A dairy product milk, cheese and yoghurt Water or milk (semi-skimmed or skimmed). Healthy dessert, such as fresh fruit or yoghurt.

 

LIMIT: Once per week

Meat products sausage rolls, pies, sausages etc Cakes and biscuits to be enjoyed as part of a meal occasionally not as a snack Fruit juice 150mls per day

 

DO NOT INCLUDE:

Salty snacks such as crisps, nuts etc Sweets and chocolate, including chocolate coated biscuits Soft drinks or squash/cordial Take-aways

 

 

For more information and advice, please visit:

http://www.nhs.uk/Change4Life/Pages/healthy-eating.aspx

For healthy lunchbox recipes and ideas, please visit:

https://www.nhs.uk/healthier-families/recipes/healthier-lunchboxes/

https://www.foodafactoflife.org.uk/whole-school/whole-school-approach/healthy-lunchboxes/

Making simple, healthier swaps can make a difference to your child’s health. Please click on the link for more ideas of healthy lunch box swaps.

https://www.nhs.uk/healthier-families/food-facts/healthier-food-swaps/#lunch

Or download the Food Scanner app on the Apple app store or Google Play store.

 

SCHOOL LUNCHES EXAMPLES

We wanted to show parents examples of the food that the children are eating at lunchtime if they have school meals. All of the meals are cooked on site daily by our wonderful chef, Margi, and the children are able to choose what they would like to have each day from the three available options, see menu at bottom of page.

 

 

There is a salad bar and a fruit bar that the children are able to help themselves to,

 

along with yoghurts and fruit infused water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We organised a Parent Panel Meeting in the Spring Term where parents were able to sign up to come into school to try the food, meet the catering team, see the lunch service in action and offer their feedback. 

Here are some comments received:

• Extremely impressed with the quality of the food and the care that goes into preparing it.
• Lots of parents thought meals were prepared offsite so it was encouraging to be told and shown who cooks the meals and that everything is freshly prepared in school.
• We now have a greater understanding of how the lunch service works, how independent the children are at choosing food, getting pudding, clearing away etc
• The portion control adjustment to the children's age was really interesting and useful to know as well as how children can get more food from the salad/fruit bar if they are still hungry
• There were concerns from parents around puddings being regularly served, however it was explained to us that the amount of sugar (as with all ingredients) is carefully weighed and limited according to the proportions appropriate to children.
• The children were extremely well behaved and were clearly enjoying their lunch!
• Overall thoroughly impressed, I was very jealous of the children's hot lunch!