LUNCHTIME ARRANGEMENTS

Any child may have a school dinner, providing that the meals are paid for in advance. All dinner money should be paid for online using Parent Pay. As an academy we are now responsible for collecting debts, so please ensure that there is enough money in your Parent Pay account to cover the cost of school dinners.

From September 2014 all infant children are eligible to receive a hot school lunch free of charge. Further information about this will be provided before the launch in September.

If you qualify for Free School Meals due to you meeting the criteria, please ensure that you sign up for this service because the school receives additional funding for your child. Even if your child is in the infants and receives a hot school lunch for free anyway, please ensure that you fill in the Free School Meals eligibility forms to generate the additional funding. The school will gladly advise on your family’s eligibility for Free School Meals.

Packed lunches should be brought in a named lunch box, together with a drink (not fizzy) which should be in an unbreakable container. Please do not include chocolate with a packed lunch. It is quite in order for children to go home for lunch, provided we are made aware of the situation. It is the parents’ responsibility to make sure that they arrive back in time for afternoon school, but not before 1.00 p.m. please.

MID-MORNING SNACKS AND DRINKS

Milk may be purchased from the ‘Cool Milk at School’ organisation. Payment should be made in advance, at the end of the previous half-term. You will be notified by letter of the cost and payment date. Any children who do not have milk, are allowed water but not squash. Regular consumption of squash through the day, even in a very diluted form, will obviously have a detrimental effect on children’s teeth. We are advised by the school nurse and the dental hygienist that children should not be constantly drinking squash in any measure during the day.

Following advice from the school’s dental hygienist and the dietician, we would ask that if you send a mid morning snack, it should be either a piece of fruit or raw vegetable. Please do not send sweets to school for break or lunchtimes. Crisps and a chocolate wafer or biscuit are allowed as part of a packed lunch though we do ask you to consider the content of the packed lunch carefully. The issues concerning obesity and healthy eating are currently being considered nationally. We are doing our best as a school to ensure that children eat the correct food and are given the opportunity to participate in physical activities. Every child should bring in a water bottle from home for daily use. It will be washed and refilled with fresh water at the end of each day. Please note that we are unable to provide a replacement should the bottle be lost or damaged.