Redriff’s Food Mission
Improve children’s health and futures by:
- Living up to our school values of ‘Individual, Enlightened, Adventurous, Compassionate and Aspirational’ through our approach to food
- Serving a variety of fresh food so they have all the vitamins and minerals needed for growth
- Following school food standards to ensure children have the energy they need throughout a school day
Create wonderful school food memories by:
- Cooking food that is flavoursome and tasty
- Ensuring lunchtime is a social time
- Celebrating special events and our diverse community through our food
- Treating children as ‘customers’ so they are as happy in the dining hall as in the playground
- Delivering a friendly, warm, informed and smiley service
- Giving our children choice
Teach children to eat well for their health by:
- Supporting children to be able to talk about their plate and palate
- Developing children’s understanding of the food they are eating, it’s source, journey, flavour and nutrients
- Encouraging children to try new flavours and ingredients so they have a balanced diet
- Fostering a love for vegetables and fruit through tasters, growing experiences and other food education activities
- Building a good school food culture where mealtimes are valued in a school day
- Championing sustainability, in line with green school vision
Our school is proud to partner with Chefs in Schools, a charity on a mission to transform child health, school by school, class by class, plate by plate. Chefs in Schools is backed by the great and good of the food world – including Prue Leith, Thomasina Miers and Yotam Ottolenghi. The charity believes kids are our future, so let’s feed them like it!
Our school kitchen team has been through the Chefs in Schools programme. This hands-on training – delivered by a team of skilled, enthusiastic and professional chefs, has equipped our staff with the knowledge and confidence to make all food from scratch.
Packet mixes, frozen ready meals and ultra processed produce are off our menus. Where possible, any fish the pupils eat at lunchtime is caught in British waters and prepped here at the school. Meat is ethically sourced, where possible. Sauces – be it baked beans, a curry or pasta dish – are made from scratch and packed with blitzed vegetables. Breads are baked daily and made on site. Dishes are garnished. Our skilled kitchen team talks through the ingredients with pupils, sparking their curiosity.
We believe every visit to the dining hall is an education and a chance to pass on a good food culture to future generations. Research shows that when school food improves, child obesity rates fall, wellbeing increases and attainment improves. We want to ensure our pupils have the fuel they need to learn and can go on to live happy, healthy lives.
School Menu
Our school menu is designed to reflect our diverse community as well as following The School Food Standards, a summary of which can be found here. This includes:
- One or more portions of vegetables or salad as an accompaniment every day
- At least three different fruits, and three different vegetables each week
- An emphasis on wholegrain foods in place of refined carbohydrates
- We do not serve
- more than 2 portions of food that has been deep-fried, batter-coated, breadcrumb-coated, each week
- more than 2 portions of food which include pastry each week
- snacks, except nuts, seeds, vegetables and fruit with no added salt, sugar or fat (we do not serve nuts at all)
- savoury crackers or breadsticks
- confectionery, chocolate and chocolate-coated products
- cakes, biscuits, pastries or desserts (except yoghurt or fruit-based desserts containing at least 50% fruit)
Further information can be found here:
We follow our school menu, which can be found here, as closely as possible. As we try to use as many fresh ingredients as we can, on rare occasions we may have to vary the menu slightly, if there are supply issues.
Free School Meals
We provide free school meals for all of our children from Early Years to Year 6, including when on educational visits.
Counter Service
For Year 1 – Year 6, we provide a ‘counter service’ for our children where they have the opportunity to choose their lunch. We believe this develops independence and supports our schools values especially of being individual.
Family Service
For our children in Early Years we provide a ‘family service’ at lunchtimes. This means that the children are sat at lunch tables in groups, these tables are the same each day and they are supported by a key adult who also sits with them each day. This enables the adult to get to know our children really well, knowing their likes and dislikes, being aware and accommodating for any dietary requirements, supporting them with trying new things, talking to them about healthy foods and why it is important to eat a range of foods. Then as the children develop they also help with laying up the table, handing out plates and cutlery, and offering bread to their friends.
Water
Children should bring a water bottle to school with them every day, which they have access to in class and when in the playground. Children take their water bottles to the dining hall with them at lunchtime where there are also jugs of water. In classrooms there are taps and jugs of water as well as water fountains in the playground.
Fruit and Milk
Children have access to fruit at break times and lunch times. All children in Early Years receive milk during the school day. Children in Year 1 to Year 6 have access to milk in in the hall during their lunchtime.
Allergies and dietary requirements
Where children have allergies, we ensure that no allergens are served to these children. We also cater for other dietary needs and requirements for example vegetarian diets. Furthermore, as part of our inclusive approach, our kitchen provides a halal menu.
We also work with our children and parents to make sure that our children are able to eat the food on offer- we know that some children can have aversions to certain foods and have specific sensory needs – we are committed to supporting all of our children with their food journey so they can eat a healthy balanced diet.
Redriff Come Dine With Us
We look forward to welcoming parents into school to share further information about our food offer and answer questions parents have. At our “Redriff Come Dine With Us” event, parents will be provided with an opportunity try a tasting menu of the food we serve. Dates will be shared with parents.
Packed Lunches
We encourage all of our children to eat the free school meal provided. If parents choose to send a packed lunch for their child, we want to ensure they have food which is as healthy and nutritious as the food which is served in school.
See below for our Lunch Menu and Packed Lunch Policy. We have listened to our pupils and families comments and have made some adjustments. Just as a reminder all KS2 pupils are welcome to bring a healthy snack for morning play. Fresh fruit is available throughout the day for all pupils.