At Benfield School we strive to be a healthy school and educate students on how to be healthy and consume a balanced diet. The Government has set targets to improve the nation’s health and we in school have our part to play. School meals are rapidly moving towards more healthy options and Benfield School has recently been accredited with the Healthy School plus.
We listen to Student Voice and serve foods students want and know are part of a healthy lifestyle.
It’s good to know that when you send your child off to school they will be eating a hot, healthy and nutritious meal at lunchtime. When children eat better they do better and school meals help keep their mind and body working to it to its maximum until they return home. This also helps with health and development.
Children respond positively to a caring, happy atmosphere where their welfare is paramount and being at school certainly assures that. Eating nutritional, well balanced meals at school also plays an important part in this and is unquestionably the core to a healthy school life.
Our school meals service is continually reviewing and improving the school meals offer to update menus reflecting trends and tastes. Our school meals provider has attained Food for Life awards for quality since 2014.
There is a strong link between ensuing children east nutritious food and academic attainment.
Free School Meal Prices
FSM prices will remain the same as current.
Paid School Meal Prices
Paid meal prices from September 2020:-
- £2.30 pupil
- £3.20 adult
In secondary schools the paid meal price relates only to the standard two course meal offer or the Meal Deal(s) which are offered as part of a much wider range of services available in secondary schools.
Applying for Free School Meals
If you are on Income Support or receive certain other benefits and your child is in school on a full-time basis (including those in sixth-form) you are entitled to free school meals.
Applying for Free School Meals means that you can save £418 each year with free school meals.
If you are on certain benefits and your child is in school on a full-time basis (including those in sixth-form or children at nursery for a full day) you may entitled to free school meals.
This will not only save you £418 every year, it also guarantees your child will get a nutritious meal at lunchtime to keep them going until home time.
It is really easy to check if you are eligible and sign-up to free-school meals. Find out more here or phone 0191 278 7878 and ask for Admissions and Information Service for free school meals.
Breakfast Club
Breakfast Club is available to all students from 7.30am to 8.30am in the dinning hall.
We will be offering a variety of free breakfast based foods for students to chose from. This will include a limited range of breakfast food as well as other items that can be purchased. We hope this gives students the best possible start to the day.
Students will have the opportunity to catch up on any outstanding homework as well as socialising with friends and listening to the radio.
Benfield School Payment Systems
School meals can be purchased by the following options –
- Cash put in to Revaluation machines in school
- Online
- Paypoint card
Our online system is called Parentpay, this is a convenient way to pay for school meals, trips, and much more.
This service will remove the need for your child to bring cash to school and instead will allow you to make the payments directly to the school.
To take advantage the online payment system or order a paypoint card, please contact the school office for more information.
Cashless Catering System
Benfield School uses a biometric cashless catering system for all students and staff. This system identifies each user when they place their finger on a scanner and is used by all secondary schools across Newcastle. The biometric information that the school holds for each student is held in an encrypted format and is deleted once they leave the school.
In order to be able to use your child’s biometric information, we require your written consent. You can withdraw your consent at any time in the future, as long as this is provided in writing. If you do not wish your child’s biometric information to be processed by the school, we can provide your child with a PIN number to use instead, but please be aware that this number is randomly generated and cannot be changed to a personalised number.