School Meals & Packed Lunches

At lunchtime, children can have either a meal provided by our kitchen staff or bring a packed lunch from home. Unless your child is in receipt of free school meals, you need to pay for their dinners. A hot meal costs £3 with sandwich options costing £2. Dinners need to be ordered and paid for in advance through Arbor.

At lunchtime the children are allowed to go out onto the playground by themselves – adults will be waiting for them outside. If your child is starting in Year R, the class teacher will take them out and will be on duty during lunchtime for their initial time at school until they are settled in. We have some fantastic play provision for children during lunchtime, including various adult-led groups as well as child-led groups. At the end of lunchtime, the children will line up to go back into class. Please do encourage your child to go to the toilet during playtime and lunchtime.

If your child has any food allergies, please do speak to us regarding specific menus.


School Meals

Here is our current menu ...

Week A - wc 15th April, 6th May, 17th June, 8th July

Week B - wc 22nd April, 13th May, 3rd June, 24th June, 15th July

Week C - wc 29th April, 20th May, 10th June, 1st July, 22nd July


Oakfield Academy SUMMER 24.pdf

Packed Lunches

Alternatively children may bring in a packed lunch. We do not have refrigerated facilities therefore we recommend that you provide a cool-bag depending on the nature of food that you provide for your child. Please also provide your child with any cutlery or drinks that they will require with their packed lunch. All packaging and any food not eaten will be returned to you each day so that you can monitor the amount that your child eats. 

Please note that in order to promote healthy lifestyles, children should have healthy lunch boxes Monday - Thursday, with Friday being a treat day ... everything in moderation! If you need some ideas, click here ... https://www.nhs.uk/change4life/recipes/healthier-lunchboxes#lunchbox-recipes

Children are discouraged from bringing sweets and confectionary (such as chocolate bars) or fizzy pop in their packed lunch. 

The children are supervised during the lunch break, both in the hall whilst eating and in the playground.

Snack Time

All Reception and KS1 children are provided with a free piece of fruit daily. KS2 children are invited to bring fruit, vegetables or cheese as a snack for break time. We do not promote crisps, biscuits or chocolate as a snack or for lunch unless it is a 'treat day'.

Milk is available to all pupils and free for pupils entitled to free school meals. For more information, please contact the school office.

We encourage all children to keep hydrated throughout the day and ensure that there is fresh water available at appropriate times. A bottle should be sent from home so children have water available to them. Please note squash should not be sent in. If there is a medical reason for an alternative drink to be brought into school, please contact the office.

Nut-free Guidance

We aim to be a nut-free school. We do not allow nuts or nut products in school lunch boxes.

 

Oakfield Academy aims to protect children who have allergies to nuts. Our Nut-free Guidance means that the following items should not be brought into school:

We do not to use nuts in any of our food prepared on site at our school. Our suppliers provide us with nut-free products. However, we cannot guarantee that all food is free from nut traces.


 What types of food are nuts?
 Almonds
 Cashew nuts
 Hazelnut
 Pistachio
 Walnuts
 Brazil nuts
 Nut oils
 Peanuts

 

Parents and carers must notify staff if their child has any known or suspected allergy to nuts and provide all medical and necessary information. This will be added to your child’s care plan and, if necessary, a meeting organised with the school first aid lead and the catering team.

 

The school requests that parents and carers observe the nut-free guidance and therefore do not include nuts, or any traces of nuts, in packed lunches. All children are regularly reminded about the good hygiene practice of washing hands before and after eating which helps to reduce the risk of secondary contamination. Likewise, children are reminded and carefully supervised to minimise the act of food sharing with their friends.

 

Thank you for your help in making our school safe for all children.

Staff supervision

Our staff supervise at lunch times as we know they know our children the best! They help children by playing games, rotating equipment and having fun with them.