Food Allergies and Intolerances Policy
- Food Allergies and Intolerances Policy (118.58KB)
Free School Meals Update – June 2025The Department for Education recently announced that, from 1 April 2025, the rule protecting pupils’ free school meal entitlement will end for some. That means Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) will regularly check pupils’ eligibility to ensure they are still eligible for free school meals. If a pupil is no longer eligible, their free school meals will end from this point. Applications approved before 1 April 2025 will remain eligible until the pupil finishes their current phase of schooling – that is:
Once a pupil moves to their new school phase, HCC will regularly check that the pupil is still eligible for free school meals. The checks will start this summer for all children moving from years 6 and 11, plus all applications made after 1 April 2025. HCC will write to you if your child is no longer eligible If you’re experiencing financial difficulty and are seeking support, visit www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/householdsupportfund or contact www.citizensadvice.org.uk. As always, HCC will run a renewals process during the summer and update schools of continued entitlement. Note 1 – Parents with pupils currently in year 2 moving to year 3 will need to reapply for the new academic year. To make an application visit www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/freeschoolmeals (apply under the Year 3 and upwards section) Note 2 – The above update only applies to the Free School Meal system. All pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 will continue to receive free school meals under the Universal Free School Meal system. |
Free School Meals
We want all parents and carers at Manland to get the support they are entitled to.
Children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2
Under the Government’s ‘Universal Free School Meal’ scheme, all children get a free lunch at school if they’re in Reception class, Year 1 or Year 2.
If you register, Manland could get extra funding (called ‘Pupil Premium’) to pay for additional staff time, extra computers, books and trips.
Click here to register for a free school meal for your child in Reception, Year 1 or Year 2.
Children in Year 3 or older
If you have a child in Year 3 or above, your child is entitled to a free school meal if you are in receipt of certain benefits.
Click here to register for free school meals for children in Year 3 and above.
In addition to free school meals, children in Year 3 or above might be entitled to extra help.
The school office is happy to make free school meal applications on your behalf – just contact us on 01582 713452 or email the office.
Lunch Menu
At Manland, we follow the Herts Catering choice menu for our school lunches. This means that each day, pupils can choose between a meat or vegetarian meal, a jacket potato option or a sandwich choice. Children are also able to bring in their own packed lunches from home if they would rather. The cost of a school dinner is £3.55 per day until 31st March 2025.
School meals are important to the health and wellbeing of our pupils and are a valued part of the school day. As a school, we always try to keep the price static for as long as possible, however, Hertfordshire Catering Limited have had to increase the price they charge, per meal, following changes in the National Living Wage and National Insurance.
As such, from 1 April 2025, the price for each child’s meal (Year 3 and above) will be £3.74.
The price of infant school meals (Reception, Year 1 and Year 2) has also increased, however this cost is not paid by parents and carers as all infants nationally receive universal free school meals.
Please be assured that we have not taken this decision lightly and have worked hard to minimise the price increase.
Summer/Autumn 2025 Menu
For children with food allergies or intolerance, special procedures are put in place to ensure they are not in contact with those foods. Please ensure that Herts catering are aware of such issues so that they can use this to prepare suitable lunches for your child. The school office can provide further support with this, if needed.
The following foods should not be brought into school:
• Peanuts, peanut butter and other products containing peanuts
• Nutella / Chocolate spreads containing nuts
• Pesto containing nuts – Please check the ingredients carefully. Many popular products contain cashew nuts, other nuts and products which are not permitted in school.
• Packs of nuts
• Fruit and cereal bars that contain nuts, peanuts or sesame e.g. tracker bars
• Sesame seeds or products containing sesame
Thank you for your understanding with this.
Please refer to the Herts Catering website for further information about school meals, including how to apply for a special menu: https://hcl.co.uk/allergy-overview
You can pay for your school meals via the School Gateway.
