School Meals
We encourage healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle at St. Mark’s. We have a well-equipped kitchen who provide school dinners. Our school dinner menus offer children choice and nutritional balance.
We issue weekly healthy eating awards for children in Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 and this is based on the number of healthy options your child chooses from the salad bar and also the quality of healthy food provided in their lunchbox should they have one.
We encourage our children to:
- Choose salad and/or vegetables,
- Choose fruit for pudding or have a fruit snack in your lunchbox and;
- Choose water or milk to drink.
School meals at St. Mark’s are provided by CityServe. Find out more about CityServe
Our school meals operate on a 3 week cycle. Read a sample menu
Lunchtimes at St. Mark’s is a time whereby we gather together to share food and conversation with our peers. Good table manners are important and we encourage children to use their knife and fork, to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ and to clear their table after they have finished. We encourage children to try a range of foods and we offer a range of themed days.
School dinners are available free to all pupils from Reception to Year 2.
For other pupils, in Year 3 and above, school dinners are available. The cost is £2.50 per day (£12.50 per week), and dinners must be made payable using our online parent pay system. Please ask the office for details on how to set this up. If you wish to order a school dinner for your child, please contact the school office.
Important Allergy Information
NO NUTS ARE ALLOWED IN SCHOOL
We have children in school who live with severe allergies that can cause an anaphylactic reaction (life-threatening) if exposed to certain foods, particularly nuts. This includes on another person’s breath or on their hands. See this very short video about a child’s experience living with an allergy.
Please ensure you do not provide your child with any snacks that contain nuts. The following food products are healthy snacks you may eat at home, but are NOT ALLOWED in school:
Please see further information about how we support children in school with allergies:
Other Information
Christmas Dinner at St. Mark’s
We have a tradition at St. Mark’s that teachers sit with their classes to enjoy a Christmas dinner and also engage in some cracker pulling and festive joke telling.
We love our Christmas dinners and vegetarian and halal alternatives are always available.
Packed Lunches
In order to promote healthy living, packed lunches are checked by lunchtime staff and parents are informed if children are not bringing healthy lunchboxes to school.
A balanced healthy diet is important so we do understand that children may bring a small snack into school as a ‘treat’.
Drinks
Dehydration causes tiredness and reduces children’s attention. All children are expected to bring in a water bottle from home and staff children to sip their water throughout the day.
Please see a Water Bottle Letter regarding what you need to know as parents.
We recognise there are a number of water bottles on the market, but we ask that parents choose a water bottle that is plastic and child-friendly. Please ensure your child’s water bottle is labelled clearly and taken home to be cleaned regularly.
Healthy Snacks
Fruit is the best healthy snack you can provide your children with. It can also form part of their recommended daily amount, as fruit has a lot of important vitamins and nutrients that your children need.
Our school kitchen also provides toast as a morning snack and you can pay for this via the online parent pay system.
You can find more information about healthier snacks on the following website: