Healthy School Meals

Our catering offer

At Sarah Bonnell School, we are committed to providing high quality, nutritious food on our school site.  Further to a comprehensive tendering process, we selected London based Innovate Foods as a supplier we thought best able to deliver the services that we wanted for our students.

  • Simple – all of the meals we serve your children have been kept as simple as possible, using the same ingredients you’d find at home.
  • Fresh  – we hand make all of our lunches that morning.
  • Nutritious – every one of our recipes has been carefully selected to provide your child with the nutrition their growing bodies need.
  • Quality – we insist on the highest quality ingredients, from fresh fruit and veg to red tractor approved, grade A meat.

We meet regularly with our onsite catering team, and also ensure that we seek feedback from our students in order that we continue to provide a catering service that meets their needs.

Our menus

Our main catering offer at lunch provides a meal deal at a cost of £2.50 to students.  There are three separate menus – which run on a rolling cycle.  These are reviewed termly.

Allergies and food intolerances

If you have any food allergies or food intolerances please talk to our chef who will be able to advise you on food and drink options that suits your needs.

Some of our menu items contain gluten, dairy, egg and other food allergens. Due to our cooking environment there is a risk that traces of these may be in any other dish or food that we serve. We understand the dangers to those with serve allergies, so advise you to speak to a member of staff who may be able to help you make an alternative choice.

Breakfast

We are delighted to offer a FREE Breakfast provision in school for our students.

The breakfast, provided in collaboration with the National School Breakfast Programme runs from 8am to 8:25am in the Restaurant and includes bagels and a variety of cereals. There are also pastries and hot menu items for students to purchase cooked fresh daily by our catering contractor.

The National School Breakfast Programme is funded by the Department for Education and run by Family Action to support schools in England to provide children with a healthy breakfast at the start of the school day.

Free school meals – eligibility and how to apply

Although all Newham primary school children are automatically provided with free school meals, this is not the case for secondary students, who have to meet certain criteria in order to be eligible. However, a large number of our students are eligible and we thus encourage parents and carers to make the application to the borough on their behalf, via this page on the Newham website.  Please note that you will need your National Insurance Number in order to complete the application.

Eligibility criteria

Your daughter may be eligible to receive a free school meals if you are in receipt of any of the following benefits:

  • Income Support
  • Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
  • Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
  • Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
  • The guarantee element of Pension Credit
  • Child Tax Credit (provided you’re not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190
  • Working Tax Credit run-on – paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit
  • Universal Credit – if you apply on or after 1 April 2018 your household income must be less than £7,400 a year (after tax and not including any benefits you get)

If you believe you are eligible, you will need to apply for free school meals. The only way to apply for Free School Meals is via the Newham website www.newham.gov.uk then enter “free school meals” in the Search box in the top right hand corner. It is important that you apply immediately as processing the application can take some time. Please note that the person in receipt of the above benefits has to be the one that applies, otherwise your application may not be accepted.

If you have not applied, or your daughter is not eligible to receive a free school meal, please ensure that you give her a packed lunch each day, or money to load onto our cashless catering system. You can also load money onto her cashless catering account using ParentPay via the school website.

If you do not have access to a computer, or would prefer us to apply on your behalf, please contact the school, who can make the application for you and answer any questions you may have.