We are a Healthy School and our kitchens prepare a fresh, varied and nutritious menu each day for hundreds of children. There is currently a choice of main meal, including a vegetarian option, served with vegetables or salad, fresh bread, a pudding, fruit or yogurt. Water is freely available and juice drinks can be purchased separately.
We are using the services of Aspens who will provide our meals at OJS.
School dinners are excellent value at £2.65 a day, payable at least weekly in advance and you pay online suing the Arbor app. If online payment is problematic for you, please contact the school office who can help you with alternative methods of payment.
Pupils are eligible for free school dinners if their parents/carers receive income support, jobseekers’ allowance, child tax credit (without working tax credit), employment and support allowance, the guaranteed element of state pension credit, or have support under Part IV of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. Apply online at www.leicester.gov.uk/freeschoolmeals or call 0116 454 1009. Children eligible for free school meals also qualify for additional funding in school through the Pupil Premium scheme.
Some children prefer to bring a packed lunch to school instead, and we encourage them to bring healthy food choices in to school. Children should take their lunch boxes straight into the dining hall when they arrive at school in the morning, before lining up, and collect them from there at the end of the school day.
As a Healthy School we do not allow children to have sweets, crisps or snacks in school for eating during the day, and we find that this means the children are more ready to eat their midday meal. Children may bring fruit from home to eat at playtime, and there is also fruit for sale at school. Children may also bring a refillable water bottle in to school so they can have a drink available throughout the day.
IMPORTANT – Overdale Junior School is a nut free zone
Please ensure that your child does not bring any nut products into school in their packed lunch or snacks as we have a number of pupils will very severe nut allergies. Thank you.