Lunchtime

Lunchtime is an exciting part of the school day for the children.  We are proud of our Healthy School Gold Status and work with families to ensure that all children enjoy a healthy and nutritional lunch. Currently, all children in Reception to Year 6 are entitled to a free school meal, under the London Mayor Free Schools Meal offer. Our school lunches are freshly prepared on site in our fully equipped school kitchen.

We encourage all children to try the school lunches in their first half-term at school.  In our experience, children are much more likely to try new food (and enjoy it) when not with their family, so it is a good idea to let them try out a hot meal in the first half-term.  We do not want the children to go hungry – we will keep a close eye on how much they eat during this period and liaise with parents where necessary.  Remember no news is good news! Click here to view a sample menu on our website: School Dinners

To book a school dinner, parents will need to log in to their child’s MCAS account and go to the Dinners section.  For each date that you would like your child to have a school dinner, you will need to click on School Meal, Halal Meal or Vegetarian Meal as appropriate and click select. This must be completed for every day that your child is going to have a school lunch, otherwise the kitchen team will not have enough food for all the children.

• We recommend that families do this for a minimum of four weeks at a time and then update this weekly on a rolling programme, although some families have said they prefer to go on and make a selection for the whole of each half-term.
• We recommend that you go to the school website and look at the menu each time they change (twice each year) with your child.  If you look at the first column, it will tell you which weekly menu corresponds with each week of the half-term.
• If there are days you know your child will not eat the School Meal option, and you decide to send them to school with a packed lunch provided from home, do not select a School Meal option on that day – if you don’t make these changes it will cost the school money and ultimately this means less resources to spend on the children.  

Please note that bookings must be made a minimum of 4 weeks in advance, and changes cannot be made once the four-week deadline has passed. 

Lunchtime Options
Universal Free School Meals	As well as a hot lunch, the children are free to take a piece of freshly baked bread and choose from the salad cart which offers a range of freshly cut vegetables each day.  The school menu offers vegetarian and Halal options.  Through liaison with families, the kitchen team can accommodate allergy and dietary needs – please speak to a member of staff from the admin team with any queries of this nature.  Menus change twice a year and our Junior Leadership Team works closely with our catering providers to ensure school meals are both nutritious and appealing to our children.   You can view the current menu on the school website.  Click here to view a sample menu on our website: https://www.hillcross.merton.sch.uk/virtual-office/school-dinners
Packed Lunches	If you choose to provide a packed lunch for your child, it must be in a named lunch bag or box.  We suggest that a small amount of food should be provided (most parents provide enough food to feed a whole class when their child first starts school!) and this can be gradually increased if your child eats everything and is still hungry.  We will liaise with families in these circumstances and will ensure no child will be left feeling hungry – they will have access to fruit and milk throughout the day. We actively promote healthy lifestyle choices in line with our Healthy School status.  Children should not have chocolate, packets of biscuits, sweets or fizzy drinks in their packed lunches.  Suggestions for items to be included are: Savoury option such as a sandwich, pasta or filled wrap Fresh or dried fruit and/or vegetables A bottle of water or juice Crisps, savoury biscuits, cheese pieces or yoghurts. A small treat may be included if felt necessary. Packed Lunch Health & Safety: Grapes and cherry tomatoes are potential choking hazards for young children. Due to their round shape and size, they can easily block the airway.  To reduce the risk, please ensure that you cut grapes and cherry tomatoes into smaller pieces for your child. We will remove any uncut cherry tomatoes, grapes or similar items from children's lunch boxes. Please note that we are a NUT FREE school, so please do not send any nuts or products containing nuts (such as peanut butter, nutella or cereal bars with nuts) into school with your child.

The children will be supported in the dining hall by two members of the EYFS team and their designated Midday Play Leaders (MPLs).  They are encouraged to eat their healthy savoury option first, then their fruit and finally their treat.  Water is available on the tables for all children to drink.  All children are encouraged to eat at least half of their lunch by staff but we cannot force them to eat.  They will then play outside in the EYFS playground, supervised by the MPLs.