School Meals And Packed Lunches

Reception and Key Stage 1 (Universal Free School Meals)

All Reception and Key Stage 1 children are entitled to Universal Free School Meals.

If parents wish to take advantage of free school meals they need to register with Dolce, the catering company, and pre-order meals online. Once registered, it is not necessary to take a Dolce meal every day as parents may choose to interchange school meals with packed lunches. Dolce's online meal booking system is managed by SchoolGrid.

Dolce School Menus

Little Chestnuts

Little Chestnuts children who stay for the whole day may choose to have packed lunches or school meals. Parents will need to register with Dolce (see above) and as Preschool children are not entitled to Universal Free School Meals they should be paid by direct debit to Dolce. Meals cost £2.80 (effective from September 2023) per meal.

Packed Lunches

If your child is bringing in a packed lunch the following tips may be useful:

Lunchboxes need to be clearly labelled.
All children should bring a full, named water bottle to school every day. This will be taken to lunch with them. We will refill it if required.
Food should be easy to unwrap and eat (e.g. peeled oranges).
Please provide a small plastic plate or paper napkin on which to place food.
We will send uneaten food home in the lunch box so that parents know how much has been consumed and can adjust the amount if necessary.
In our experience, flasks with hot soup are not suitable for this age group.
Nuts, or any food contain nuts, are not allowed at Chestnut Lane School as we have several children who are highly allergic to nuts.
To promote healthy eating and nutrition sweets and chocolate bars are not allowed.
Small round fruits like grapes, cherries, strawberries and cherry tomatoes are recognised by the Foods Standards Agency as potential choking hazards for young children. Therefore please cut them in half lengthways if you are including them in packed lunches. For further information on Early Years choking hazards please click on the following link: Early-Years-Choking-Hazards