School Dinners
Healthy School Lunches
Derbyshire County Council provides a daily lunch service in our school, which is available to all children. The meals are cooked in our school kitchen by Derbyshire County Council catering staff, all of who are trained in food hygiene and provide a caring, high standard of service to the children. Since September 2014, under the government’s Universal Infant Free School Meals (UIFSM) scheme, all Early Years and KS1 children are entitled to a free school meal.
The menus are carefully planned by a team of experienced people who consider the season, the popularity of dishes, the quality, the workload and the cost. An important part of the menu planning is to ensure that the nutritional content meets one third of the recommended daily requirement for children, and all the menus are analysed by a community dietician before they are sent to schools. Each lunch consists of two courses with a choice of main course, including a vegetarian option; vegetables or salad; potatoes or pasta; and a pudding or a choice of fresh fruit. In addition, children may choose either a glass of water or hi-juice squash. Extra water is always available. Current menu's can be found here.
A lighter option based on sandwiches, and salad or vegetables, plus a pudding and a drink is also available each day. Special diets will be catered for but we do ask for a medical referral from either the dietician or GP.
A menu of school lunches is always displayed on the kitchen window and is available on both ours and the Derbyshire County Council website. If your child would like to have school meals on certain days this can be arranged with the school office.
The current cost (at the time of print) of a school lunch for junior-aged children is £2.20 per day, i.e. £11.00 per week, which should be paid in advance weekly via ParentPay. Please speak to the school office if you don't have an account set up already. Please see this letter regarding other meal choices outside the standard meal options.
Important notice: If, because of your financial circumstances, you feel your child is entitled to free school lunches - EVEN IF YOUR CHILD IS UNDER THE AGE OF 7 AND THEREFORE ALREADY IN RECEIPT OF UIFSM - please let us know. If entitled, it is very important that you claim, since this brings a significant amount of money into school (‘Pupil Premium’, currently worth £1,300 per child) to support your child’s education. Such requests are treated in confidence and our system of collecting lunch money does not make public who has free school meals and who pays.
Healthy Snacks
Fruit or vegetables are provided free of charge on a daily basis to children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. Older children may bring healthy snacks from home to eat at break time and their name should be clearly written on them. At school we define healthy snacks as fruit and vegetables - anything that has grown above or below the ground without being processed!
We ask that all children bring a labelled water bottle to school with them each day and we encourage them to take regular drinks throughout the day. They can refill their bottle from the tap during the day as necessary.
Health Awareness
In addition to promoting healthy snacks and healthy lunches we aim to promote an awareness of healthy lifestyles through the development of a vegetable garden in the school grounds; the provision of a ‘trim trail’ in both of the playgrounds; an increasing range of extra-curricular physical activity clubs in which to join; lunchtime games organised by our Play Leaders; full involvement in local school sports partnership events; and by our curriculum provision on healthy lifestyles.
Please see this link for the latest school meal information and menus from Derbyshire County Council. https://www2.myschoollunch.co.uk/derbyshire/
