School Dinners
At St Chad’s, we believe that a daily nutritious meal at lunchtime is an essential part of the school day. This is why we are proud to work with Relish, our school catering provider. Relish are committed to providing quality, fresh ingredients that they cook from scratch to produce their daily menus. Wherever possible, they use seasonal produce, and their daily food offer allows our children to choose from a wide variety of freshly prepared main meals and desserts.
All of our children in Reception and Key Stage 1 qualify for the government scheme, Universal Free Infant School Meals . This means that all children receive a free school meal regardless of their parents’ income.
Our school dinners are eaten in our school hall. We view our lunchtimes as a very sociable occasion. Our children are encouraged to try new foods and practise good table manners. The use of a knife and fork helps to strengthen little hands! Staff take it in turns to sit and have their lunch with children on a daily basis on our lunchtime 'Love Table'.
We have a group of Lunchtime Monitors (children in Year 1 and 2) who support our lunchtime staff with the tables and chairs and the tidying up of plates. Our older children are wonderful ambassadors to our younger children in Reception and will help them carry their trays.
Our school dinner menus are regularly updated. Relish take pupil voice very seriously and work closely with us to ensure they capture initial reactions to new dishes and food ideas. They also host special days within the school year and work with us to make sure there is relevance to the event, for example, links to a particular curriculum theme that we are learning about. Copies of our menus are can be found below. Please encourage your child to look through the menu to help them to choose their meal options.
Relish also have a special login area called the ‘Parent Portal’ on their website where you will are able to login to pre order your child(s) menu choice up to a term in advance. You are also able to view and download their menus and recipes, see what forthcoming events are planned and look at allergen information.
Although we like our children to have a school dinner, we understand that some children prefer to eat a packed lunch from home. At St Chad’s, we are committed to the promotion of healthy eating and we aim to meet the School Food Standards across all of our school dinners and packed lunches.
We encourage parents to follow the principles of the Eatwell Guide to ensure that their child's lunchbox contains:
- a starchy food, e.g. potatoes, bread, rice, pasta
- plenty of fruit and vegetables, e.g. carrot sticks, an apple, sliced cucumber
- a source of protein, e.g. beans, pulses, egg, fish, meat
- a healthy drink, e.g. water
Food items containing high amounts of fat, salt and sugars must be kept to a minimum e.g. one small packet of crisps. Fizzy drinks/energy drinks are not permitted in school. We have a number of children in school who are allergic to nuts and kindly request that parents eliminate nut products inside packed lunches.
Packed lunches are regularly monitored by lunchtime staff to ensure that they are healthy and meet the School Food Standards. Advice and ideas to help create a healthy and nutritious lunchbox can be found here.