School meals

Our school catering is deliverered by Aspens Services, a market leading contract catering company which specialises in school food. 

"We only work in the education sector so we know what our customers want.  Mixing this knowledge with an understanding of what’s hot in the food world sparks creativity and excitement in our chefs. Our kitchens provide delicious home cooked food each day and cater for individual dietary requirements. 

We don’t just provide food, we play our part to educate children and raise awareness about nutrition, food and where it comes from, so that they can make informed and mindful choices. Feeding our future. Please see more at www.aspens-services.co.uk

We make sure that our Food Festival menus are packed with comfort dishes and, at the same time, we help pupils to take their first steps with new tastes to explore. We make the most of fruit and vegetables that are in season, because that’s when they taste best and are the most planet friendly too." 

 

Special diets

Special diets are an integral part of our catering provision, whether as a result of an ethical or religious belief or a food intolerance or allergy. To register this as a requirement please complete and return the special diets form to the school as soon as possible.

 

Free school meals

All children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 are currently entitled to receive free school meals. 

Free school meals are available to children of all ages if their parents/carers are in receipt of certain benefits. If you think you may be entitled to free school meals you should make an application to the local education authority: 

Find out more and apply for Free School Meals 

 

Paid school meals

Paid school meals are available for all pupils, including Nursery pupils, who are not eligible for Free School Meals. Dinner money needs to be paid in advance in weekly or half-termly instalments. We are unable to accept cash and ask that payments are made to school via ParentPay. Currently, the daily cost of a school meal is £2.10.

If dinner money is not received for the week, meals will not be provided and a packed lunch must be brought from home. Should your child wish to change from school meals to packed lunch then one week’s notice is required.

 

Healthy packed lunches   

At Eastwood, we welcome our pupils bringing packed lunches to eat but request that these are always healthy packed lunches.  

According to NHS choices a healthy, balanced lunchbox should contain:

  • Starchy foods like bread, rice, potatoes or pasta
  • Protein foods like meat, fish, eggs or beans
  • A dairy item, like cheese or yogurt
  • Vegetables or salad and a portion of fruit
  • Water, milk or low-sugar squash

We know that it can be tricky thinking of different, exciting things to pack in lunches so would direct you to the following websites which have lots of really helpful ideas.  There are lots of other great inspirational websites available but these 2 are particularly useful:

The following items are not permitted:

  • Fizzy drinks or those in glass bottles
  • Sweets / chocolate bars (biscuits are acceptable)
  • Family size / grab bag size packets of crisps or snacks
  • Fast food items such as McDonalds’s / burgers / chips etc…
  • We also request that no items containing nuts are brought to school as we have a number of children with nut allergies.