School Meals

Lunchtimes are an important part of the school day and provide children with opportunities to listen, interact and share in conversation with their friends whilst enjoying their lunches.

Children have the choice of having a hot lunch or bringing in their own packed lunch from home.

All children, whether having a school lunch or packed lunch from home, are supervised at lunchtime by a team of Lunchtime Supervisors.

Hot Lunches

Each day the children are offered a nutritionally balanced main course and dessert, cooked on the premises and served in the school hall. There is a meat, a vegetarian or a jacket potato/pasta option (available on Tuesdays and Thursdays). A Halal chicken option is also available for children with religious beliefs and this is offered on roast dinner day (Wednesdays) and other days when chicken is being served.

Our school lunches are provided by Twelve15 which is part of Surrey County Council and has been providing school meals for over 70 years. You can find further information about them at https://itstwelve15.co.uk.

Pupil’s wellbeing is at the heart of Twelve15’s recipes – every weekday it focuses on providing fresh, healthy and nutritionally balanced lunches that adhere to Government food standards (https://www.gov.uk/school-meals-food-standards). 80% of meals are cooked from scratch using locally sourced produce wherever possible. There is a three week rotating menu, an example of the current menus can be found at https://www.itstwelve15.co.uk/menus/primary-school-menu.

Please note that the actual menu offered at Goldsworth may be different.

Special diets and allergies

Twelve15 caters for the 14 allergens identified by the Food Standards Agency, it also has a range of Special Diet menus including ‘Dairy Free’ and ‘Free from Gluten’. If your child has a food allergy, intolerance or requires a special diet please ensure you have completed the Twelve15 Special Diet Request Form before ordering any lunches – https://goldsworthprimary.co.uk/document/special-diet-request-form/.

Goldsworth is a ‘Nut Free Zone’ which means that no nuts are used in school meals.

Ordering School lunches

For each half term you will be required to book which days of the week you would like your child to have a hot school lunch.

Under Universal Infant Free School Meals, children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 are entitled to a free school lunch pupils regardless of household income (a saving of over £480 per year). This entitles your child to a balanced main course, dessert, fresh bread daily and access to a salad bar.

For children in Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 the cost per meal is £2.80 from September 2024, which equates to just £14.00 per week. If you are receiving Government benefits your child may be entitled to a free school meal, please speak in confidence to a member of the School Office.

School lunches must be paid for and ordered at least 5 days in advance either on the Arbor app or website https://login.arbor.sc/. To top up your child’s account you can find this in the section where you have ordered your child’s lunches. The credit balance amount will go down as lunches are taken.

Packed lunches from home

Should your child wish to have a packed lunch from home parents are asked to provide a nutritious meal in a suitable container. We like to encourage healthy eating and so request that no sweets or chocolate are sent in. As we are a ‘nut free zone’ we require that parents do not send anything into school that contains nuts, eg: peanut butter sandwiches, nuts in muesli bars, etc.

Drinks brought in for lunch time must be in a screw-topped plastic container.

Please ensure your child has items that they can open themselves.

Snacks

Children in Reception have the opportunity to visit our snack bar during their morning or afternoon session. This is a fruit/vegetable snack and is sometime supplemented with breadsticks. This is provided by the Government scheme, however, we do ask parents to contribute to our snack bar to provide a variety for the children to choose from – this gives the children the opportunity to try different types of fruit and vegetables.

Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 children are allowed to bring in snacks to eat at morning break. These snacks must be small so as not to spoil the children’s appetite for lunch and Key Stage 1 children should bring them in a small named container. No sweets or chocolate are allowed. The ideal snack is a piece of fruit (oranges should be peeled if the child cannot do it themselves) or vegetable or piece of cheese, etc.

Children are encouraged to bring in water bottles and these can be refilled from various drinking water outlets around the school.

Children in Reception have the opportunity to visit our snack bar during their morning or afternoon session. This is a fruit /vegetable snack and is sometimes supplemented by breadsticks. This is proved by the Government scheme, however, we do ask parents to contribute to our snack bar to provide a variety for the children to choose from. This gives the children the opportunity to try different types of fruit and vegetables.

KS1 & KS2, children are allowed to bring in snacks to eat at morning break. These snacks must be small so as not to spoil the children’s appetite for lunch, and KS1 children should bring them in a small named container. No sweets or chocolate are allowed. The ideal snack is a piece of fruit (oranges should be peeled if the child cannot do it themselves) or vegetable or piece of cheese etc. Children are encouraged to bring in water bottles these can be refilled from various drinking water outlets around the school.