Eating at the College

Caterers

Innovate, the College’s caterers, provide healthy hot and cold food at break and lunch time. The school menu is below of a 3-weekly rotation.

Menu

Cashless Catering

We operate a cashless catering system. Students who are not registered can register during break or lunchtime by visiting Reception.

Accounts are managed on-line here: cashless catering (ParentMail).

Food Allergies

Innovate kitchens are nut free but some menu items have a manufacturers declaration that they may contain nuts or peanuts. Whilst Innovate take all measures practicable to source alternative completely peanut or nut free products, this may not always be possible. As a school, we ask that parents do not allow their children to bring nuts into school due to allergies amongst students and staff. Thank you for your support in this.

If your child has food allergies or food intolerances, please contact the school so that we can make the catering team aware. We may also need to work with you to complete a medical diet request form for your child.

All Innovate staff undergo allergen training and have a ready reference in the kitchen for all recipes, to be able to answer any queries. Innovate have developed an allergen policy which forms part of their food safety management system and this is clearly displayed in the kitchen for easy reference. With rising incidences of food allergen intolerances and sensitivities amongst young people, it is necessary for us to have robust procedures in place to ensure that pupils with these needs can be catered for safely.

Free School Meals

You can make an application on-line to Cambridgeshire County Council for free school meals. Their system will check your child’s entitlement to free school meals and if they are eligible for the secondary school clothing allowance. To apply, please follow this link: Cambridgeshire County Council Free School Meals.

Alternatively, paper copies are available by contacting the Education Welfare Benefits service on 01223 703200.

Children from households with lower incomes may be entitled to free school meals. School children who are eligible for free school meals are entitled to a two course meal worth £2.35 each day and will save around £400 per year per child.

Our cashless catering system automatically adds daily credit of £2.75 to your child’s account, which can be spent at break or lunch time. The system does not identify the pupil as receiving free school meals when paying for their meal, so the process is completely private. Additional money can also be added to top-up their account or pay for other activities – as with any other pupil.

When you apply for free school meals, you will also allow your school to receive Pupil Premium – extra money to support children from families on lower incomes.

Please note – even if you do not use the free school meal allowance, the school benefits, so if you can apply, we urge you to do so.

Who is eligible?

All children who are at school under 19 at the start of the academic year (4 September 2015) and are claiming or have parents who are claiming one of the following benefits:

Income Support
Income Based Job Seekers Allowance
Income-related employment and support allowance
Support under part VI of the Immigration & Asylum Act 1999
Child Tax Credit but who are not entitled to working tax credit and whose annual income (assessed by HM Revenue & Customs) does not exceed £16,190
Guarantee element of state pension credit

How to apply

You can apply online or find more information at:

http://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/freeschoolmeals

You can also complete the attached form and return it by: post, email or hand it into school in a sealed envelope (we will send it on for you).

Free School Meals Application Form

Please follow this link to download the form for Pupil Premium Funding Pupil-Premium-Funding