School Meals

School meals are cooked in our own kitchen at school and are served cafeteria style. Our catering is provided by abm Catering Solutions, under the 'Grow' brand.

The cost of a meal is set by our caterers and parents are notified of any changes in advance.

The current cost of a school meal is £2.60 per day, although we are currently offering free school meals to all pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 as part of the Government's 'Universal Infant Free School Meals' (UIFSM) scheme. As well as this, some pupils may be eligible for 'Free School Meals' (FSM) throughout the whole of their time at school. Scroll to the bottom of the page for more information about free school meals.

We also provide facilities for children who wish to bring a packed lunch in from home.

School meal pre-ordering update - April 2025

We wrote to parents in February to inform you about an exciting update to our school meal service that will be implemented after the Easter holidays.

Over the Easter holiday, you will be required to pre-order your child's lunchtime meal via ParentPay, ready for when they return to school on Monday 28th April 2025.

This means that you can choose exactly what you want your child to have for lunch, or you can choose it alongside them from home! This will allow your child to have a more personalised dining experience and ensure that you know what they are eating at lunchtime.

How do I pre-order the meals?

Through ParentPay, you can view the school menus and will pre-order your child's meals in advance. This convenient feature will help you make informed choices about your child's diet.

When do I need to pre-order meals?

Pre-ordering will open and be available on your ParentPay account on Monday 14th April 2025.

You will book meals for the summer term (Monday 28th April 2025 onwards).

Do I need to access ParentPay every day to pre-order?

No, you can pre-order meals for a day, a week, two weeks, a whole term – the choice is yours.

What if I change my mind or my child is absent?

There is a cut-off time of 8.00am for changing or cancelling a meal order for that day. If your child is going to be absent, you must cancel the meal order by 8.00am on the day of absence, after this it cannot be cancelled or refunded to your account.

Please be aware that you will no longer be able to incur debt for dinner money, so it's essential to manage your account accordingly.

What if I don’t pre-order?

If you do not pre-order a meal for a particular day then your child will receive our default meal. This will be the jacket potato option for that day. Your child will not be able to select anything else if you haven’t pre-ordered so it is vital that you do. You will still be charged for this option.

When do I pay for the meals?

Unless you receive free school meals, there must be sufficient money in your ParentPay account before meals can be ordered. This is crucial as the system will not process meal orders without available funds.

What if I currently have debt on my account?

It is important that all dinner money debts are cleared before the Easter holiday. This will ensure a smooth transition to the new system.

My child receives free school meals – do I still need to pre-order?

Yes! Regardless of whether you pay for school meals or not, you will still be required to pre-order.

What happens when my child has a school trip?

When school trips take place, if you receive free school meals you will still pre-order your child’s lunch. You will choose a sandwich option for their packed lunch. If you pay for school meals, you can either pre-order a packed lunch from school or provide your own from home.

What if my child has specific dietary requirements?

You will now be able to make an informed decision about the meal that your child will be served if they have specific dietary requirements. The menus that you select from will make it clear on the type of meal each choice is – vegetarian, halal, non-halal etc.

What if my child has allergies or other medical requirements?

Our catering provider have devised a procedure for special diets which ensures that they are provided with the knowledge and understanding of any specific dietary requirement and that an alternative menu can be provided where necessary. It is very important that this special diet procedure is followed for any pupil who has any food allergies or other medical requirements.

If you have informed us that your child has an allergy or other medical requirement, you will receive a separate email from our catering provider containing details and instructions of what to do next. Please look out for this email and respond as a matter of urgency.

How do the catering team know what I have ordered?

Each pupil will receive a coloured wristband before they head to the dining hall. This will identify the meal ordered. This system will ensure that pupils receive the lunch you ordered.

Will my child be able to select something different to what I ordered?

Your child will be served the meal choice that you pre-ordered, they will not be able to choose something different when they are at school. Therefore, it is important that you make them aware of the choice you have made and the meal that they will receive.

Will the price of school meals change?

Due to increased costs, our catering provider must raise the price of school meals to £2.60. Please note that this change is unrelated to the new pre-ordering system being implemented. We understand that any price increase can be challenging, and we appreciate your understanding and support as we continue to provide nutritious meals for our pupils.

If you have any questions or need assistance with setting up or managing your ParentPay account, please don't hesitate to contact us at the school office.

Come Dine With Us!

You Said, We Did!

Last year, our school caterers (abm Catering Solutions) sent out surveys for parents/guardians and pupils to complete.

abm gathered the responses and looked at how their service could be improved.

Here are the changes that have been made by abm as a response to the surveys:

Lunch Menus

To give our pupils a wide variety of options, our lunch menu operates on a three week rota and includes Halal and non-Halal meat.

Also available daily are a choice of freshly baked wholemeal bread, a fresh salad bar, water, seasonal fresh vegetables, seasonal fresh fruit, fruit yoghurt and fruit jelly.

Our current lunch menus are displayed below (updated for April 2025).

Breaktime Snacks

You may wish to send your own snack in to school for your child to eat during breaktime. This must be a healthy snack as opposed to chocolate, sweets or crisps.

Here are some suggestions for snack time, which can be sent in a food bag or a sealed container:

Whole or sliced fruit.
Vegetable sticks, e.g. celery, carrot, pepper and cucumber. Some vegetables are naturally baton shaped which can save you time preparing them, e.g. sugar snap peas and baby corn.
Bag of plain popcorn.
Bread sticks.
Rice or corn cakes.
Small handful of mixed dried fruits.
Cereal bars.

Free School Meals

Trying to understand free school meals in schools can sometimes be a bit confusing. Hopefully we can help.

There are two ways pupils get free school meals at the moment. 'Free School Meals', quite often referred to as FSM, and 'Universal Infant Free School Meals', sometimes known as UIFSM. But what is the difference?

Free School Meals (FSM)

Your child may be able to get free school meals for the whole of their time in school if you get any of the following:

Income support
Income-based Jobseeker Allowance
Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
Support under part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
The guaranteed element of Pension Credit
Child Tax Credit (provided you’re not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190)
Working Tax Credit run-on (paid for the 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit)
Universal Credit - if you apply on or after 1 April 2018 your household income must be less than £7,400 a year (after tax and not including any benefits you get)

Children who get paid these benefits directly, instead of through a parent or guardian, can also get free school meals.

To check to see if you are eligible, complete our online free school meals application form using the button below. You will need to make a new application for each child but your information will be remembered to help you to complete multiple applications quickly.

You may apply for eligibility on behalf of a parent/carer if you have permission to do so and their details.

Universal Infant Free School Meals (UIFSM)

This is a scheme run by the Government where every child in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 is able to get free school meals. There is nothing you need to do for your child to be eligible, they will be entered automatically.

However, even though this scheme is open to all children, we would still urge parents/carers who are eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) as stated above to complete the online application form. This means that your free school meals will continue as your child moves into Year 3 and it means our school will receive extra funding from the Government.

Healthy Lunchboxes

As a school we encourage parents to provide their child with a healthy packed lunch at lunchtimes, if school meals are not taken and for educational visits.

The NHS Eatwell Guide advises that a lunchbox should contain: