School Meals
Menu - November 2024 - April 2025
New Year R children please find the link to: HC3S' New Year R Starter Guide 2022 This gives you all the information you need to know about school lunches at Cliddesden.
All children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 are entitled to a meal, free of charge, under the UIFSM programme:
- registration is not required
- each child will be able to have a hot, two course meal at their school which includes a meat or non-meat main item, vegetables, potato, pasta or rice, salad and a dessert
Registration is not required for children to have the free meals. But schools get government funding for all children who meet the standard free meal criteria. The funding is called the Pupil Premium. To let schools get the funding for as many pupils as possible, we encourage parents of children who meet the standard free meal criteria to register. This includes parents of children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2.
At Cliddesden Primary School, we believe that the best option for children at lunchtime is to have the hot school dinner, provided through our partnership with HC3S. We expect that parents of children in Key Stage 1 will take up the option of the Universal Infant Free School Meal.* This is because we believe that the hot school dinner option is much better for the children’s learning and health. We recognise the evidence that states:
- children are better prepared for learning if they eat well
- children make more progress if they have eaten the right nutritional lunch
- only 1% of packed lunches provide the correct nutrition
- eating hot dinners is an important social occasion and the children learn vital social skills
Our goal is to have zero packed lunches.
HC3S provide all the nutrients that children require through the week. They produce a menu which has a three-weekly cycle and is available here to view. The menu may differ if the meal suggested is not in line with our allergens policy. To find out more about HC3S, click here.
Allergen Policy
We have pupils in our school who may have an allergic reaction to some foods. Therefore we have a policy that does not permit the following in packed lunches or school meals
- Nuts
- Egg
Menus are adapted accordingly for children with intolerance or allergies to certain foods and the dining hall is set up to ensure safety is maintained at all times.
Healthy Lunch
A healthy lunch is necessary for your child to maintain their energy and concentration levels throughout the afternoon classes. There are two options for lunch:
School Dinners – are currently free of charge to all children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. For children in KS2 the cost is £3.20 per meal. There is a vegetarian or meat option
for your child to choose from. Please inform staff of any additional dietary requirements such as allergies.
Packed Lunches – we feel it is important that our children have a healthy packed lunch. Sandwiches should contain either meat, cheese, salad or a spread such as Marmite
or other sandwich spreads. Nutella, jam and other sugar based spreads are not encouraged. Pasties, sausage rolls and other such items are permitted. Please see the table below for some good ideas and alternatives to the norm.
Here are some ideas for how to include bread, rice, potatoes and pasta
Try all sorts of different breads including rolls, flatbreads, bagels and wraps.
REMEMBER; wholemeal and granary bread have a lot more goodness in them than white bread.
Couscous is very quick and easy to cook and also makes very good cold salads.
Rice salads can be really tasty and a good way of using up cooked rice (but remember to store cooked rice in the fridge and use a lunchbox that contains an icepack). Why not try mixing it up with vegetables, chopped fruit, raisins etc?
Have you tried potato salad in your lunchbox? Cooked potatoes mixed with mayonnaise, yoghurt and herbs are delicious. You might also want to add cooked meat like chopped ham or chicken.
Cold pizza slices can be a great addition to a lunchbox. Even better if they are homemade pizza slices so you can control the amount of fat and salt.
Useful websites
These website have some great ideas for healthy lunchboxes.
http://www.raisingkids.co.uk/food/fea106_packedlunches.asp
http://www.netmums.com/food/Lunchbox_Ideas.101/
Drinks
It is really important that you drink lots of water to keep you healthy.
- Plain (unflavoured/ unsweetened/ still) water.
- A small carton of pure / diluted fruit juice.
- A small carton of milk.
- Sugar free fruit juice
Cakes and biscuits
As part of a balanced meal we allow one sweet biscuit/cake per day in your healthy lunchbox.
Fruit
A healthy packed lunch should contain at least one piece of fresh fruit. Dried fruit is also fine but please check that it does not contain added sugar. Yoghurts are also allowed but try to keep them plain or fruit based.
Playtime snacks
All children in Key Stage 1 are entitled to free fruit which is provided by the local authority. KS1 children are allowed to bring an additional snack and Key Stage 2 children their own snack from the list below:
- A healthy snack bar e.g. Muesli or cereal bar.
- Bread sticks or plain rice cakes.
- Piece of fruit or dried fruit.
Biscuits, crisps, savoury crackers and similar high sugar, fat and salt packet snacks should not be included as a snack on any day of the week.
We operate a no nuts policy due to the possibility of allergic reactions.
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