The Freebrough Restaurant

At Freebrough Academy we aim to provide a nutritionally balanced menu for every student and encourage them to take a meal with us each day. We also offer a range of healthy options at break time and before school.We will ensure that students have a happy eating experience with us, in a safe and secure environment.

At Freebrough Academy, we encourage our students to follow an active and healthy lifestyle. Recent media attention, surrounding the rise in obesity levels among both adults and children, has led to actions at a national and local level.

You may have already heard about encouraging your family to eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day as well as becoming more active by walking/cycling to school and participating in sport.

We ensure our dining facilities provide a range of healthy hot and cold food choices encompassing the 5-a-day choices along with the nutrients required to stay healthy. The aim of the Freebrough Restaurant is to inspire our students to eat healthily by providing exciting, nutritious food in a safe, caring environment.

Menus are designed to offer choice, take into consideration vegetarian, cultural and religious dietary requirements and meet the requirements of the Nutritional Standards and Requirements for School Food 2007.

Every day the menu is displayed on menu boards and television screens throughout the Academy and the cyclic menu is displayed at all times in the dining room area. Please click on each menu to enlarge it.

Details of our current pricing can be found below.  Please click on the price lists to enlarge.

Feedback from parents and students is very valuable to us so that we can continue to improve the service we offer.  We will communicate with you in the following ways:

Parents Evenings

These events will be attended by the representatives of catering team who will be on hand to answer parental questions about school meals and show some examples of the meals on offer to the pupils.

Leaflets & Posters

We envisage that a regular ‘flyer’ will be issued to each parent on a termly basis. In this way we can keep you better informed of improvements to our service and give notice of forthcoming catering events.

Parent Tasting Days

This is an initiative we would like to introduce, to invite parents to come into the dining rooms by arrangement with the Academy and catering staff to taste samples of dishes on the menus. This is seen as a way of making parents more aware of the qualities of Academy meals and as an encouragement to choose an Academy meal for their child.

Surveys

We put great value in listening to what parents, students and staff want from their catering service and we will survey specific groups on appropriate issues throughout the year.

The new legislative standards for school lunches aim to provide children and young people with food choices that contain essential nutrients and replace those foods high in fat, salt and sugar.

There is more information about these standards on the School Food Trust web site.

The NHS Choices web site Living Well has loads of information for pupils and their families about food that’s good to eat; food hygiene and safety; and how what you eat has an impact on different life stages, from babies to grandparents.

As part of the Government School Food Standard  to be made statutory from January 2015, the standards were revised to better guarantee that children receive a nutritionally sound lunch. The changes ensure that schools offer fruits and vegetables, whole-grain foods, low-fat dairy products and limit calories, saturated fat and sodium. As a parent, you can follow these same guidelines if you pack your child’s lunch.

The Benefits of Choosing a School Lunch

A healthy school lunch provides sound nutrition to establish a lifetime of healthy habits and the energy your child needs for the rest of his or her busy day.

It’s vital your child eats a healthy lunch, because lunch provides one-third of their daily calories. You want to make those calories count by offering nutrient-dense foods. Children who eat a healthy lunch have a higher nutrient intake not only for lunch but also for the entire day compared to children who don’t. Eating a well-balanced meal and keeping hydrated can also increase your child’s concentration levels.

Students in receipt of Free School Meals can choose a hot meal and dessert or a sandwich, biscuit and small drink with their allowance.  They can also bring extra money in to purchase breakfast or break time snacks.

Free Meal Entitlement Criteria

Free School Meals is a benefit awarded in respect of children under the age of 19 where the parent or guardian is in receipt of one of the benefits shown below:

*Income Support;

*Income Based Jobseekers Allowance (IB JSA);

*Support under part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999;

*Child Tax Credit

*The Guaranteed Element of State Pension Credit.

*Employment and Support Allowance

*Working Tax Credit (only during the 4 week period immediately after their employment finishes).

Children in receipt of Income Support and Income Based Jobseekers Allowance (IBJSA) in their own right are also entitled to free school meals.

Money received each week through Working Tax Credit benefit includes an amount for Free School Meals. This means that you do not qualify for a free meal if you receive it.

How to claim

Parents/carers should obtain a Free School Meals application form from the Academy administration office or print and complete the downloadable version below:

Free School Meal Application Form

When completed, the form should be returned to the Academy. Parents / carers can ensure free meals are provided promptly by supplying evidence of entitlement to the Academy, for example Benefits Agency letter or income support payment book.

Parents/carers who are asylum seekers must provide a letter, for the National Asylum Support Service (Home Office) NASS, stating that they are receiving support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, in order to receive free school meals. Schools should keep photocopies of such letters.

For those in receipt of the ‘Guaranteed’ element of Pension Credit it is suggested that parents produce their ‘Pension Credit M1000 Award Notice’ as proof of entitlement. The ‘How Pension Credit has been worked out for …’ section of this form clearly shows details of any Guaranteed Pension Credit in payment.

All claim forms and copies of proofs supporting a claim for Free School Meals are to be retained by the school.

Further information can be obtained from: Eileen Chapman, Office Manager on 01287 676305

*Menus designed to encourage a healthier choice

*Working with teachers to include healthier living in the school curriculum

*Training our team to understand the principles involved and promoting healthy eating

*Tsing promotional material to highlight the benefits of a healthy lifestyle.

We have developed a fully comprehensive quality assurance system to safeguard all catering practices within the Academy. All members of the catering team are trained in its application and hold, as a minimum, food hygiene and safety certificates. As a regular practice, the catering operation will be audited on a monthly basis to ensure compliance to its quality manual.

Freebrough Academy uses a “cashless catering “system which removes the need for students to carry cash. Students simply visit one of the cashless catering machines when they arrive at school to top up their account and then later pay for their food at the till by using their fingerprint.   Please speak to the Academy administration office if you feel that your child would benefit from having a daily spend limit imposed on their account to help them budget their money more effectively.

Each student has an individual account containing information already held on our school database and a numeric value based upon the scanned finger print image of your son/daughter. As the actual fingerprint is not stored on the system it is not possible to recreate the image for any other purpose. The School is subject to the same terms and conditions of the Data Protection Act in holding this information as we are with any other information we already hold on your child.

Benefits of using the Biometric Cashless System include:

* Queuing time (the biggest single complaint of our students) is much reduced as no time is lost waiting for students to retrieve cards/cash from pockets or purses.

*There is no distinction between paying students and those entitled to receive Free School Meals.

*Students are not penalised for using the Cashless System by having to pay to replace lost damaged or stolen cards.

*Accounts can be credited in advance.

*A comprehensive reporting system is available to parents/carers so that you could get a detailed breakdown of your child’s spending.

*Parents are able to request that a daily spending limit is set on their child’s cashless catering account if concerned about them not being able to budget.

*There are three re-valuation machines in the Academy dining hall so that cash can be credited to student accounts before school, at break time, or lunch time.

*Credit of funds by cheque can take place at the main School Admin office.

Parents can request a printed report to keep track of what their child spends and what they eat at the Academy, should they have any concerns.  Please contact the administration office to make a request.