Lunches

School Dinners & Drinks

A choice of hot or cold sandwich meal is available daily. The price for this is £3.00 and our preferred method of payment is via our cashless system Arbor. Meals must be paid for in advance and, due to the scale of the school, you are required to select whether you wish for your child to have a school meal, packed lunch or home dinners for a full half-term. Changes in arrangements can only be accommodated on a half-termly basis unless there are exceptional circumstances such as medical/dietary needs.

Our school meal menu includes meat, fish, vegetables, pasta and rice. Sweet courses include ice cream, cake, yoghurt, flapjack and fruit. Children can bring their own packed lunches as an alternative but school lunch/packed lunch cannot be mixed during the half term. We encourage all parents to support our healthy eating programme by providing a well balanced packed lunch. Packed lunches for Reception children create numerous difficulties and therefore Reception children are not offered packed lunch until they begin Year 1.

Free school meals are provided for all children in Year Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 as these meals are presently centrally funded by the government.

School milk is provided daily for all of our children. Milk money is invoiced at the start of each school year via Arbor. The price of school milk will be £42.00 for the academic year from September.  Children may bring a piece of fruit into school for a healthy snack.  Children are also encouraged to bring a bottle of still, clear, water (clear, sugar-free flavoured water is acceptable) to keep well-hydrated during the school day; fizzy drinks, juices and other flavoured drinks are not permitted.

Click here for more details about South Tyneside School Meal menu 

For further information and guidance on healthy diets please see: https://www.nhs.uk/healthier-families/

Healthy Packed Lunches

Here at Westoe Crown Primary, we encourage children who stay for a packed lunch to eat a nutritious lunch in order to stay healthy. Whilst nuts are a good source of protein, due to some children having severe nut allergies and choking hazards, we would ask that parents do not provide children with nuts in packed lunches. No hot liquids/foods are allowed in packed lunches for Health & Safety reasons.

Sweets and chocolate bars are strictly forbidden, although ONE small snack-sized biscuit is permissible.

Healthy Lunchbox Suggestions

Try to vary the type of bread such as wholemeal, granary or high fibre white bread. Also make sandwiches from different kinds of bread including bread rolls, French bread, bagels and pitta bread as well as sliced bread.

Use a different sandwich filling each day – preferably including a fruit or vegetable.

For example,

  • Grated apple and sliced pear
  • Chicken, lettuce and tomato
  • Grated cheese and carrot
  • Tuna and sweetcorn
  • Cheese and cucumber
  • Mashed banana
  • Cottage cheese, grated carrot and grated apple

Fruit and vegetable

Some fruits to try:

  • Seedless grapes
  • Satsumas, tangerines or clementines (peeled and wrapped for younger children)
  • Small bananas
  • Cherries
  • Apples (can be cut into pieces for younger children and brushed with lemon juice to avoid browning)
  • Plums
  • Dried fruit such as apricots, dates or raisins
  • Fruit salad (apples, satsumas, pears, pineapple chunks, kiwi fruit and grapes work well together. Avoid bananas because they go brown)
  • Canned fruit transferred to a pot (use fruit stored in natural fruit juices rather than syrup)

Some vegetables to try:

  • Cherry tomatoes
  • Carrot sticks
  • Celery sticks
  • Cucumber chunks
  • Baby sweet corn
  • Grated carrot and raisin salad

Drink

Avoid sugary and fizzy drinks. Instead use water or fruit juice.

Other lunch box items

Sweet suggestions

  • Scones
  • Malt loaf
  • A flapjack
  • Yoghurt
  • Teacakes

Savoury suggestions

  • Rice cakes
  • Bread sticks
  • A boiled egg
  • Cheese and crackers

Keep it cool to keep it fresh

  1. If you make sandwiches the night before, wrap them up and keep them in the fridge overnight.
  2. If you include a carton of fruit juice, keep it in the freezer until the morning before it will be drank. Then put it directly in the lunch box – it will have thawed by lunchtime and kept the rest of the food cool.
  3. Use a small, insulated cool bag.