School meals:

The school has its own kitchen where meals of good quality are prepared each day to allow a choice menu for children.  Our kitchen team design the menu based on children's preferences.

Payment:

1) Paying for a School Meal:

Payment for school dinners can be made via the school office and directly to the school account.

2) Free School Meals 

Lunches must be paid for unless:

 a) The school has confirmation that a pupil/family qualifies for free school meals (the school office will be happy to assist you with any queries in this regard and this is all dealt with discretely) If you wish to apply for free school meals. Otherwise, please use the link below.

https://www.shropshire.gov.uk/free-school-meals/apply-for-free-school-meals/

b) Your child is in Reception, Year 1 or Year 2 (Since September 2014, all children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 receive a hot, tasty and nutritious lunchtime meal provided at no charge to parents, under UIFSM ( (Universal Infant Free School Meals).

Packed Lunches:

Children may also bring their own packed lunches. We do encourage parents to provide a healthy balanced packed lunch and ask them not to include glass bottles or flasks with internal glass sections.   Drinks that you provide for packed lunches must be still (not carbonated) and could be water or, for example, a flavoured drink such as sugar-free orange squash. These are to be consumed at lunchtime.  We also ask that if your child is having packed meals at lunchtime that you consider the contents of the lunchbox to ensure it is healthy and balanced (as well as an appropriate portion size for the age of your child please).

Having a healthy lunch does not mean not allowing any treats at lunchtime.

Here are some ideas that the kids may like (these can also be enjoyed by adults too!) You could even get children involved in baking these yourselves. 

• Banana bread
• Malt loaf
• Fruit jelly
• Plain, fruit or cheese and chive scones
• Rice pudding

https://www.nutrition.org.uk/healthyliving/helpingyoueatwell/healthypackedlunches.html?start=3

Supervision:

We have allocated staff to support and monitor the children at lunchtimes, including qualified first aiders. 

Healthy Snacks:

Children are encouraged to bring ONE healthy snack for break-times.  This should ideally be provided in a small named container.   Please do not send in huge portions or more than one healthy snack.  

Examples of a healthy snack could be:

• Fruit (whole or sliced)
• Cheese portions
• Bread sticks
• Vegetable sticks, e.g. celery, carrot, pepper, cucumber. Some vegetables are naturally baton shaped which can save you time preparing, for example, sugar snap peas and baby corn.
• Rice or corn cakes

If you are struggling for ideas for healthy snacks that your child might like there are websites such as www.schoolfoodtrust.org or www.greatgrubclub.com  which may prove useful.

Please do not provide the following as snacks in school:

• Chocolate
• Sweets
• Crisps
• Cereal bars (Many are high in sugar / fat)
• Pastries

If staff notice unhealthy snacks, rest assured that they will not "tell off" your child.  Instead, they will send a quick friendly message to you as parents/carers, so that you can send something healthy the next day.

Water Bottles In School (kept in class):

To keep well hydrated, the children are also asked to bring a bottle of still drinking water each day.   This bottle is kept/used in class, this must be still water and no other drinks are allowed. 

There are lots of good reasons for this, not least to have because:

• Water is the healthiest option for hydration
• Water makes the least mess if spilled (water bottles are kept in class/on desks and you would be amazed how often they "leak/get dropped"). 
• Sparkling water is not allowed in class due to the risk of carbonated water "spraying" all over class and because, unfortunately, some schools have experience of allowing carbonated water and have found that "lemonade, 7Up and Sprite have been swapped by some families - believe it or not! 

Children are encouraged to drink from their class water bottle whenever they are thirsty throughout the day.