School Dinners

At Tidemill we work closely with our caterer, Alliance in Partnership (AiP), to provide our children with a healthy, delicious and freshly prepared meal each day. The food children eat is critically important to their health and development and AiP are committed to encouraging healthy and balanced eating by providing and promoting healthier choices. We offer a choice of three hot meals per day (including a vegetarian option) and we have freshly baked bread and a well-stocked salad bar.

Menu

Our school meal menu works on a three week rotation. To see an example of our menu please click here. We do not serve pork as part of our hot school meal menu and our food is halal.

 

Theme Days

We also offer special menus through the year to tie in with festivals and celebrations. If your child usually has a packed lunch but you would like them to have a school dinner on the theme day, please inform the office so they can book the meal for you.

 

Meeting Special Dietary Requirements

Some of our pupils may require special diets (due to allergies or special educational needs) and we will do our best to meet these. If your child has a food allergy or needs a special diet, please speak to the office so we can alert the dining hall supervisors and our catering team.

Paying for School Dinners

School meals are free for children in Reception, year 1 and year 2 as part of the Government’s Universal Free School Meal for Infants initiative. Pupils in year 3 to year 6 (and full-time nursery) pay £2.30 per day. We ask that parents pay for all meals in advance (weekly, monthly, termly or yearly) using our online Parentpay facility www.parentpay.com. Access to ParentPay requires a username and password, details of which are sent out by the office. If you need some help to access the service, please pop in to see the office team. They will be happy to sit down with you to go through everything. If you think you are entitled to free school meals, please visit our Free School Meals page.

 

Arrears

You will not be allowed to accrue arrears. If at any time your account does fall into arrears, meals will be suspended until payment is made.

Packed Lunches

Whilst we feel that all children benefit from a freshly cooked meal at lunchtime we understand that some parents still prefer to send in a packed lunch, especially if their child is a particularly picky eater. If this is the case we ask that you provide a healthy lunch which includes a balanced variety of food groups. Sweets and fizzy drinks are not allowed. As we have a number of children with severe nut allergies, we ask parents not to include nuts or nut products in children’s packed lunches. This also applies to packed lunches for educational visits. Please note that food brought in from home cannot be heated in school. Please read our Packed Lunch Policy if you would like further guidance.

Healthy Eating

We are a healthy eating school and therefore request that children do not bring the following into school:-

· Nuts (including peanut butter)

· Sweets

· Chocolate

· Fizzy drinks

As we actively promote healthy eating in our school, we kindly request that you do not bring birthday cake or party bags into the classroom.