School Meals
Meal Cost
School meals are provided by Innovate IFG at a price of £2.95.
Menus
Menus run on a 3-weekly cycle and these can be found below.
Allergens
Please check the menus for any allergens you may be concerned about. If your child has any allergies that school need to know about, please complete the Special Diet form below or find a paper version in reception.
Free School Meals - Changes to Free School Meal Entitlements
From September 2026, the Government has introduced substantial changes to Free School Meal (FSM) eligibility.
Under the new National criteria, all families in receipt of Universal Credit will qualify your child for a free school dinner, meaning that more students will become eligible.
Therefore, from September 2026, there will be two categories of benefit-related FSM.
1. Targeted Free School Meals:
This category continues to be based on the existing income threshold. Students will be eligible if their household;
- Is in receipt of Universal Credit, and
- Has an annual household income of £7,400 or less
Only students eligible for Targeted FSM will:
- Qualify for Pupil Premium funding
- Free school trips (residentials 50% of the cost)
- Free music lessons
- One set of uniform each year
- Free breakfast club
2. Expanded Free School Meals:
This category applies to school meals only and covers pupils who:
- Live in households receiving Universal Credit, and
- Do not meet the income threshold for Targeted FSM (i.e. the annual household income is above £7,400).
Pupils eligible for Expanded FSM will be eligible to a free school dinner only.
Please do not miss out on support that you may be entitled to for your child please seek further guidance at: https://www.gov.uk/apply-free-school-meals.
Paying for Dinners and Snacks
In school, we use a system called School Grid, which manages all the dinner payments and ordering. Dinners and snacks must be booked and paid for in advance (dinners are free for children in Key Stage 1 and Free School Meal children, but dinner and snack choices still need to be booked).
Over the course of the year we invite one adult per family to have lunch with their child. This can be a parent, grandparent, family friend. The children are so excited when it's their class's turn and the adults love the experience of 'coming back to school'!
A Word About Allergies and Intolerances
We would like to take this opportunity to clarify the important distinction between food preferences, intolerances and allergies. We completely understand that children may dislike particular foods or have foods that do not agree with them. However, a food intolerance is very different from a diagnosed allergy where a child may be at risk of a serious allergic reaction, including anaphylaxis.
We have children in school with significant allergies, including allergies to nuts, milk and certain fruits, and it is essential that we take these conditions extremely seriously. St Anne’s is a nut-free school, and we ask everyone to help us maintain a safe environment for all our pupils. For children who have school dinners, it is particularly important that parents/carers provide the meal provider (Innovate) with accurate and up-to-date information about any diagnosed allergies or intolerances. This can be completed on their app, via www.schoolgrid.co.uk This enables the catering provider to put the appropriate measures in place. Additionally, the school requires sight of any health care plans that illustrate how to respond to an allergic reaction for a particular child - each child is different. Thank you for helping us to keep all our children safe.