School Lunches
Research shows that a healthy midday meal has significant health and educational benefits, enabling children to concentrate better in afternoon lessons and helping them develop healthy eating habits. We are very pleased to be offering hot lunches provided by Aspens Vintage Catering here at Himbleton. The quality of food is fantastic and there is a good choice of healthy options each day.
Aspens Catering
We are always in the mood for good food!
We are Aspens Services, a market-leading contract catering company specialising 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 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 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.
Menus
The school menu rotates on a three-week basis and refreshes for Autumn/Winter and Spring/Summer seasons.
How school meals can support your child’s diet
All children need a nutritious, balanced meal to grow and meet their full potential.
School meals need to be compliant with the School Food Standards. These were created to help children develop healthy eating habits and ensure that they get the energy and nutrition they need across the whole school day. Therefore, parents should be able to trust that the school’s menu has been developed based on scientific nutrition research.
Click on the link to find out more about the Government's School Meals Food Standards: https://www.gov.uk/school-meals-food-standards
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 any special diets as a requirement, please complete and return the special diets form to the school as soon as possible.
Our Planet
We work closely with our clients and suppliers to be as environmentally friendly as we can. By making lots of small changes, we can make a big difference. We care about the future and continue to focus on responsible sourcing, using seasonal produce, increasing our focus on plant-based recipes, making our menus more sustainable, keeping waste to a minimum and reusing and recycling to reduce the impact we have.
The Government currently funds universal free lunches for all pupils from Reception to Year 2 to enable them to have a school-provided midday meal, although all children will need to register and make menu choices, regardless of year group, via the link below. For children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 there will therefore be no cost, although your child will need to either opt into the Universal Free School Meal scheme every day, or you will need to send your child to school with a healthy packed lunch every day.
However, parents and carers of children in Nursery, Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 will need to decide which days their child would like a school lunch and then order this, complete with online payment of £3.00 per day.
Meals must be ordered in advance; this can be done termly, weekly or even the night before if necessary!
Lunchtime for all children at Himbleton is from 12.00pm to 1.00pm.
Free School Meals
Free school meals are available to some families who are in receipt of certain government benefits, such as Income Support or Income-Based Jobseekers Allowance. Other benefits may qualify you to apply for Free School Meals for your child. Applying for a free school meal could raise extra funding for the school to fund valuable teaching and learning support and is still paid to the school even if your circumstances or entitlement ceases.
If your child does qualify, the school receives additional funding known as the Pupil Premium Grant. This grant will then apply to your child for 6 years. The funding is used to support your child educationally and can, in some instances, be used to pay for educational visits and extra-curricular activities.
In addition to this, your child may qualify for extra funding during their time at school through the Government Free School Meals grant. If you are in receipt of any benefits, your child may qualify for this grant and the school will receive additional funding throughout their time at Himbleton and would be eligible for the Holiday Activity and Food Programme.
If you think your child may qualify, please complete the confidential application process via the link below: