School Meals

There are two choices of lunchtime arrangements for children at Balgowan:

School Lunch

Remain in school and have a meal. The cost of a school meal is currently funded the government initiative of Universal Infant Free School Meals and have a very high uptake for school lunches. UIFSM is available to all children in EYFS and KS1.  Currently KS2 meals are free for all pupils under the Mayor's scheme: Free School Meals | London City Hall

GROUP-3-Autumn-Winter-2024-2025-ML-with-dates.pdf

Packed Lunch

Remain in school and eat a packed lunch brought from home. Packed lunch meals for all pupils are currently eaten in the gym and hall with their class.  We are a healthy school, and we therefore encourage healthy packed lunches with no sweets & chocolate.  Please note that we have some children with severe nut allergies, therefore we are a NO NUT SCHOOL. For the safety of children, please do not send any items of food in with your child that may contain nuts.

All meals, whether cooked by the school or brought in from home are supervised by the Mid-Day Supervisory staff. Pupils are given plenty of time to eat their lunches and despite the difficulties that we do have with available space inside the building, pupils are not pressured into eating their lunch quickly in order to release space for other pupils. We do of course expect all pupils to conduct themselves sensibly, whether they be eating school lunches or packed lunches and we do place due emphasis on good manners. Unnecessary talking is not acceptable, particularly when eating food and the importance of other good eating habits, sitting properly and eating over the table, not rushing eating, using knives, forks and spoons properly and cleaning up any spillage of food they make (if appropriate), are consistently reinforced by the adult supervisors.

Harrisons

Harrisons Catering supplies all of our school meals.  They are balanced, nutritious meals cooked fresh in our school kitchen. 

Learn more about Harrisons The school encourages all parents/carers whose children have severe allergies to contact the school office at Balgowan to meet with a member of staff to discuss any aspects of the lunches that are provided. We understand that parents may be uncertain in the first few weeks as to whether they would like their child to have a meal prepared by our contractors or for their child to bring in their own packed lunch.

To support the school’s commitment to healthy lifestyles we encourage all pupils to bring water into school to drink. Water containers can be accessed throughout the school day at designated times planned by the Classteacher. All plastic drinks containers should be marked with the child’s name. The school has chilled water coolers along all the ground floor corridors.

Fresh fruit is also made available each day free of charge, at playtimes, for pupils in the Early Years and in Year 1 and Year 2.