21st September 2020
Dear Parent / Carer
Over the last couple of weeks there have been a number of difficulties with some of the items coming in children’s packed lunches so I am writing both to clarify our expectations on this and also to simplify the system so that parents can better understand and adhere to the requirements.
There is an increasing issue with childhood obesity and tooth decay and, as an accredited Healthy School, we want to support parents as much as possible to make healthy choices for their children’s meals. There is also a clear link between a high sugar intake and poor behaviour, which we seek to protect our children from.
We recognise that this issue can sometimes be confusing and would like to clarify this further.
School kitchens must adhere to very strict nutritional guidelines about what can and cannot be included in school meals. This includes any salt, sugar and saturated fats. All menus compiled by school kitchens must meet these standards and all recipes are scrutinised for their nutritional content before being passed to the kitchen. This means that although the children will sometimes have puddings, cakes or chips for example, these are sourced and cooked in a healthier way and are presented as part of a balanced menu over the week. We understand that it is sometimes hard to explain this to children, who may see their friends as being allowed to have something on school meals that they are not as packed lunches, but we can control the sugar, salt and fat content of school lunches in a way that we cannot with packed lunches.
In the past, we have tried to ensure that packed lunches are of a similar healthy standard to school meals, but we recognise that it can be difficult to navigate the array of different types of foods and to ensure variety in packed lunches.
Therefore, to clarify our rules for packed lunches, they can include anything so long as there is no:
– Nuts (to safeguard those with allergies)
– Fizzy drinks
– Sweets and chocolate bars
Please note that:
– Cakes and biscuits are allowed – but only 1 of these per day
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Many thanks
Lucie Forrest
Headteacher
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