SCHOOLS MEALS

School meals for children in Reception to Year 2 are provided free of charge to parents under the Government Universal Infant Free School Meals scheme. All children entitled to UIFSM are provided with a hot, nutritious meal every day, and do not need to sign up to receive one. If your child has a food allergy or intolerance they will need to have a special menu agreed with Caterlink before they can have school meals, please contact the school office via info@orleans.richmond.sch.uk to start this process. 

The Mayor’s Universal Free School Meals Programme, for children (in school years 3-6) in the capital who currently do not receive free school meals – is to be rolled out from September 2023. As part of an emergency intervention to help with the cost of living crisis, the program will continue to fund millions more Free School Meals and has been extended until the end of next academic year, July 2025.

In order to sign up for your child to have school meals you must notify the school office in writing by emailing info@orleans.richmond.sch.uk and giving 5 days’ notice of this change. School meals must be taken 5 days per week, we are not able to allow children to mix and match school meals and packed lunches on different days.

For Nursery children, the cost of school meals are £2.70 per day. Nursery parents and carers must ensure that their school meal accounts on Arbor remain in credit – school meal accounts must not fall into debit.

If your child has a food allergy or intolerance they will need to have a special menu agreed with Caterlink before they can have school meals, please contact the school office via info@orleans.richmond.sch.uk to start this process.

Caterlink provides 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.

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 non-dairy 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 have previously organised events 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! 

School Lunch Menu: 

Address

Orleans Primary School, Hartington Road, Twickenham, Middlesex, TW1 3EN