Lunches for Children at Crabbs Cross Academy

As you may be aware the government announced that from September 2014 every child in Reception and Key Stage 1 (Years 1 and 2) is entitled to a free school lunch. Once your child is in Key Stage 2 there will be a daily charge.

For families that are entitled to Pupil Premium children will receive school lunches free of charge for as long as they are entitled to receive this benefit. It also means that you may get free school trips and clubs. If you think you may be entitled to receive this benefit please visit www.gov.uk/apply-free-school-meals to check your eligibility.

We are working hard to ensure that our school lunches are both tasty and healthy as well as making lunchtime’s fun for everyone. Remember children who eat more healthily perform better academically.

All the hot food is prepared freshly at our sister school The Vaynor and brought to Crabbs Cross Academy daily. A menu will be available on the MyED school app at all times for you to see. When a new menu comes out ready for a new term we will notify you.

Your child can decide at lunch time what they would like to eat from the menu and they also have a daily option of Jacket Potato with a filling of cheese or tuna and a salad bar. They also have a choice of two desserts.

If your child has any allergies or dietary requirements please let us know and we can discuss a suitable alternative.

At school we would like to ask parents/carers to support and help us by ensuring that their child is booked in for all school meals required. The school receives funding for actual meals taken, so the kitchen will only produce enough dinners for the expected number of children. We are not able to cook a meal for your child if they are not booked in.

We use ParentPay as our payment system here at Crabbs Cross Academy. This system will allow you to book lunches in advance. You will only need to make payment for the lunches once your child is in key stage 2.

We require the hot lunch booking to be made on ParentPay for each day that it is required. This is so we can gauge how much food to prepare each day. You can book up to 90 days in advance, so it is up to you whether you make bookings for the whole term/half term or on a weekly basis. If you book weekly you must book by midnight on a Wednesday for meals for the following week. Any amendments can be made but must be done by midnight on Wednesday for the following week. Any bookings not received in time will mean that you will need to send your child with a packed lunch.

If your child is bringing a packed lunch from home, please could we request no fizzy drinks, no glass bottles and no cans. Chocolate and sweets are not allowed, although chocolate biscuit bars e.g., ‘penguins’ are. We would, however, like you to consider healthy food choices which limit the amount of salt, sugar and fats in your child’s diet. On no account should a child bring in nuts or anything containing nuts as we do have children with nut allergies, which mean even smelling nuts can cause a severe reaction. Also, if your child brings a yoghurt, could you please supply a spoon.

If you have any problems booking the lunches on ParentPay or activating your account please do not hesitate to speak to the school office who will be happy to assist you.

Please see below some simple instructions on how to book lunches on ParentPay and if you are not already registered we have emailed to you your username and password so that you can activate your account straight away.

1. Access website – ParentPay.com
2. Log in with email address/username and password
3. Select relevant child (where more than one child is registered on the account)
4. Click on ‘Make Meal Bookings’ (highlighted in blue) where you will be directed to the ‘Make & View Bookings’ screen.
5. Select date range from ‘Week Commencing’ drop down box
6. Click ‘Make or View Bookings’ button where the days of the week will be presented.
7. Click day(s) that a hot lunch is required
8. The total will calculate in the ‘Booking Summary’ i.e. bookings added, bookings cancelled (the cost should remain as £0.00 if you do not pay for hot lunches)
9. Click ‘Confirm Bookings’
10. The cut-off to make/amend bookings for the following week is Wednesday midnight. Our Kitchen Manager collates all bookings from ParentPay on a Friday in order to cater for the next week.

If you have registered but have forgotten your log in details then please contact the office where we will be happy to obtain this for you.

If you have more than one child at either Crabbs Cross Academy or another school who use ParentPay, you can add them together on one account. Please visit www.parentpay.com/How-to-add-a-child-to-your-account-or-merge-two-accounts-together.pdf

We are available to help you set up your account in the office if you do encounter any problems.

We thank you in advance for your co-operation with this.

Many thanks

Crabbs Cross School Office