School Meals
Matching Green CE Primary School provides its own in house catering service, which allows us to offer a wide range of choice everyday. Miss Bennett our Catering Manager has developed 2 week rolling menus which can be found below.
All the ingredients used in the kitchen are fresh and are locally sourced wherever possible. Some things will be standard daily, fresh fruit always available as an option for dessert, salad bar, water or fresh milk and occasionally fruit juice.
Throughout the academic year we will have special themed lunches, so far this year we have had a Spanish lunch, Children in Need Pudsy cupcakes, a World Cup lunch Christmas dinner and a Chinese New Year lunch. Around Mother's and Father's Day we invite a few mums/dads, nans/grandads into lunch each day to give the children a chance to say thank you.
School dinners are FREE for all children in Reception, Year 1 & Year 2. For those children in Years 3, 4, 5 & 6 who were previously entitled to Free School Meals this will continue. If your circumstances change at any time and you think you may be entitled to Free School Meals please speak to Mrs Howes or Mrs Dean in the school office.
We send out an annual survey to parents/carers about the lunches that we provide and we continue to welcome feedback from both yourselves and the children.
Dinners cost £2.75 per day, £13.75 per week and payments can be made via School Money using the following link:
https://sm1.schoolmoney.co.uk/public/school_money/login.html.nc
Free School Meals
All children in Reception, Year 1 & Year 2 are entitled to Free School Meals
Older children may also be entitled to Free School Meals, to be eligible you must be receiving one of the following:
· income support or income-based Job Seekers Allowance;
· Child Tax Credit with an annual taxable income of less than £16,190
· Pension Guarantee Credit;
· income-related Employment and Support Allowance;
· support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999.
You are not eligible if you receive any amount of Working Tax Credit
For more information and to apply for Free School Meals go to http://www.essex.gov.uk/freeschoolmeals or contact the school office where your enquiry will be treated in the strictest confidence.
At Matching Green we encourage the children to live a healthy lifestyle and emphasise the importance of a balanced diet alongside fitness and exercise. As we have been awarded the prestigious Healthy Schools Award we aim to follow a healthy eating regime throughout the school, encouraging only a healthy snack at break times and a healthy lunch box if your child is not participating in a school meal. All children are encouraged to drink plenty of water throughout the day all we ask is that you provide your child with a labelled water bottle. These will be filled up with fresh water by staff every day.