School Meals
Special Diet Welcome Pack
Free School Meals Information and Eligibility
Lunch menus Spring Term 2 and Summer Term 2026
School Lunches
Our school lunches are cooked on site by Mrs Graham, our school cook. The menu is worked out by NYES Catering to ensure a good nutritional balance with the emphasis on healthy food. Allergies and dietary needs can be taken account of so please do talk to the school if your child is interested in a school lunch.
If your child brings a packed lunch please can I encourage you to support our Healthy Schools Status by not sending in food that is high in sugar and fats, such as crisps, chocolate biscuits, cakes or fizzy drinks. Thank you for your support with this. We also request that your child has a labelled bottle of fresh water in school every day. This is proven to help concentration and prevents dehydration. Thank you.
From September 2025 a school lunch will be £3.60 a day for school pupils and £2.50 a day for nursery pupils.
From September 2014, all children in reception, year 1 and year 2 in state-funded schools in England will be eligible for universal free school meals.
Payment
Payment details for dinner money can be found on ParentPay. If school dinner balances are not paid within 2 weeks then alternative arrangements will need to be made for lunchtime meals. The registers are updated on ParentPay on a Friday for dinners taken that week. If there are any issues or concerns please see Mrs Worthington.
Healthy Eating Policy
NYES Catering provide school meals with the aim of bringing enjoyment to school lunchtimes with local, fresh, great quality food being at the heart of what they do.
We follow a healthy eating policy, with 75% of our food produced daily in a school kitchen. We provide:
- Red tractor approved fresh meat and poultry
- Free-range eggs and sustainably caught fish
- A menu that is fully compliant to the School Food Standards
- Fruit and vegetables sourced regionally where possible using local suppliers to promote local businesses and reduce our carbon footprint
- Products free from additives associated with health problems in young children
- A menu that is nutritionally analysed, as well as being checked by a registered nutritionist
- Information and menu guidance on any specific dietary requirements any staff or pupils may have
- Fats free from hydrogenated oils
- Menus that are nutritionally balanced.
You can view our school meals food policy here.
Our school menus:
- Are changed twice a year to reflect the seasons
- Have a three-week menu cycle, allowing children to become familiar with the food served
- Are written using feedback from pupils, parents, carers, cooks and school staff.
We also offer jacket potatoes and sandwiches.
Our menus are also available in multiple additional languages: Arabic, Dari, Malay, Pashto, Romanian, Ukrainian. All menus can be downloaded from the North Yorkshire Council website here.
We host fun promotional event days throughout the year with special menus to add an extra “buzz” to school lunches. Recent examples include Build a Burger, Best of British and Street Food. These exciting one-off menus are shared with the school ahead of the day; please ask the school for more information.
Special Diets
NYES Catering have a dedicated team who work closely, are able to provide information, and will aid with any queries around our menus, including special diet menus, allergens, school food standards and nutrition.
Mrs Graham works with you to ensure that we are able to support, where possible, with any special dietary requirements that your child may have.
The allergen procedures and policies we have in place are essential requirements to ensure that the individual needs of pupils are safely met. It is vital that on behalf of your child you, as their parents/carers/guardians, meet with us to go through options should your child have any dietary requirements. This is particularly important within school due to pupils being under 18.
As well as a focus on allergens, special diets include: intolerances, religious and cultural requirements and dietary choices. NYES Catering work closely with their local suppliers to ensure that they are continuously increasing the availability of allergen-free foods, have a variety of food on offer, and utilise these where possible to align with their core menu and to ensure an inclusive offer.
NYES Catering comply with government guidelines around food regulations for allergens and food labelling. Centralised recipe and menu packs are provided to the on-site catering teams, which also contain a breakdown of ingredients, and the food allergens they contain.
We want to ensure that your child is safely catered for each day and with this in mind should your child require a special diet we ask that you complete our Special Diet (SD) Form and return it to school. A meeting will be arranged for you with Mrs Graham to discuss the information provided and to go through the menu. This will help review what is suitable for your child each day. For meals that aren't suitable, the catering team will try to adapt the recipe for you child, however in some instances this may not be possible, but the catering team will do their best to be able to offer an alternative.
More information can be found on the North Yorkshire Council website here and we have a Special Diet Welcome Pack which can be downloaded from this page on the NYES Catering website. Please contact the headteacher in the first instance, stating the required diet and our team will be in touch.
Free School Meals
From September 2026 the Department for Education is introducing new benefit criteria which will meal that all children from households in receipt of Universal Credit will be entitled to receive a free school meal. Although eligibility will be granted to all Universal Credit recipients, it is important to note that families do still need to apply to receive the meals.
If your child is currently registered as being in receipt of free school meals through North Yorkshire Council, you DO NOT need to reapply, as your child’s eligibility to continue receiving this provision will be automatically reassessed before September 2026. Where your child is moving to a school located outside of North Yorkshire, then you will need to reapply for this provision through the new authority/school.
Please be aware that any previous protections which applied to children already in receipt of free school meals will no longer apply. Eligibility will be based on whether you are in receipt of any of the benefits, as shown below:
- Universal Credit
- Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
- Support under Part 6 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
- The Guarantee element of Pension Credit
From September 2026 there will be 2 categories of eligibility for free school meals:
Targeted FSM: this covers children in households in receipt of Universal Credit with annual household earnings of £7,400 or less. These children will attract pupil premium and other disadvantage funding for their schools. Other education entitlements, such as the holiday activities and food programme (HAF) and the ‘extended rights’ element of school travel assistance, will be based on targeted free school meals.
Expanded FSM: this covers children who are in households receiving Universal Credit with annual household earnings exceeding £7,400. Children will be entitled to free school meals only.
For those wanting to apply, applications can be made through the council website www.northyorks.gov.uk/freeschoolmeals with effect from June 2026.
Applications are usually processed the same day. If your child is entitled to free school meals you will receive a letter confirming the date when the meals will start. The school is also notified that your child is entitled to free school meals. In the meantime, you should continue to pay for free school meals until confirmation comes through. Schools may be able to arrange a reimbursement of any monies paid whilst your entitlement is being confirmed.
If you are not entitled to free school meals you will be notified in writing.
From September 2014, all children in reception, year 1 and year 2 in state-funded schools in England have been eligible for universal free school meals. However, your school and child may also benefit from additional funding from central government know as Pupil Premium.
The government introduced the Pupil Premium grant to help children from low-income families reach their full potential and to achieve higher academic grades at school.
The level of funding that the school will receive for 2026/2027 is £1550 for each child that is registered as meeting the lower income criteria.
In order to determine if your child qualifies, and to allow us to claim the funding, it is important that all parents and carers who feel they may meet the criteria below, complete the online application form which can be found here: www.northyorks.gov.uk/freeschoolmeals
- Universal Credit, (provided you have an annual net earned income of no more than £7,400, as assessed by earnings from up to three of your most recent assessment periods)
- Income-Related Employment and Support Allowance
- Support under part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
- Guarantee element of State Pension Credit
The information provided by you will be used by the council to check for eligibility to claim additional funding for the school (the ‘pupil premium’) from central government. It will be used for no other purposes and will remain confidential to the council.
This may not be relevant to you but if at any point your circumstances change and you feel you may qualify, please complete the application form online.
Further Information provided by North Yorkshire Council