Our Catering supplier is Vertas EATS (East Anglian Taste for Schools). EATS menus are carefully compiled and feature many local items, reinforcing our commitment to support East Anglian producers. A very high proportion of the dishes are traditionally prepared within our school’s kitchen, allowing us to carefully control each recipe and its ingredients. The small proportion of meat items not prepared in our kitchens are also made using meat carrying the Assured Food Standards (Red Tractor) accreditation. The Red Tractor logo is your guarantee of quality and origin. Every critical step of the food supply chain is independently inspected to ensure food is produced to quality standards by assured farmers, growers and producers in the UK, from farm to pack.
EATS menu also includes Fair Trade items and Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) accredited fish products.
Please click on the link below to view the current menu choices. EATS are currently offering a limited menu due to COVID-19 restrictions in school.
Acle Primary School Lunch Menu Summer 2021
From September 2014 all Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 children became entitled to a free school meal under the Universal Free School Meals for Infants programme offer and will therefore not be required to pay for their meal.The lunches available are a hot lunch, vegetarian option, or jacket potato with filling, all with vegetables and dessert. Alternatively children can still bring in a packed lunch from home.
Lunches for Reception and Key Stage 1 are ordered using an online form issued via Parentmail on a weekly basis.
Key Stage 2 (Years 3, 4, 5 & 6) lunches are available at a cost of £2.30 per day to be paid in advance. Lunches are currently being requested to be paid online (please ask the office for details), alternatively children are asked to bring in a cheque for the whole week on a Monday in a named envelope, to their class teacher. Please do not send in cash at present. Please note below the information that is required on the envelope, alternatively please use one of our dinner money slip templates available under ‘Downloadable Forms’:
- The child’s name and class.
- The days on which meals are required for that week, and whether it is a Cooked Hot Meal (vegetarian option is available and needs to be ordered in advance on Mondays) or a Canteen Packed Lunch
- The total money for the week.
- Online payment (our preferred method of payment), or a cheque made payable to ‘Acle Primary School.’
Alternatively, you can pay half termly in advance. You can also pay online in advance, please see the school office for details. We reserve the right to request you to bring in a packed lunch for your child if dinner money is outstanding for more than one week. If a child is absent then credits for meals missed will be carried forward. We also provide facilities for children to eat packed lunches at school.
Is my child entitled to free school meals?
Free School Meals are available to pupils in receipt of, or whose parents are in receipt of, one or more of the following benefits:
• Universal Credit (provided the family has an annual net earned income of no more than £7,400, as assessed by earnings from up to 3 of the most recent assessment periods)
• 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 (providing the family is not entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190)
• Working Tax Credit run on – paid for four weeks after a claimant stops qualifying for Working Tax Credit
In addition the following pupils will be protected against losing their free school meals whilst Universal Credit is rolled out:
• From 1 April 2018, all existing free school meal pupils will continue to receive free school meals
• Any child gaining eligibility for free school meals after 1 April 2018 will be protected
Once Universal Credit is fully rolled out (expected to be complete in March 2022) any existing claimant that no longer meets the eligibility criteria will continue to receive free school meals until the end of their current phase of education (i.e. primary or secondary).
Schools receive additional funding, called Pupil Premium, (currently £1320 per child) for those children entitled to free school meals. Therefore it is important that families, who meet the criteria for free school meals, apply via the school for this entitlement, even if their child is in Reception, Year 1, Year 2, or they do not wish to take up this offer, otherwise we may miss out on this important funding which is used to support children.