Catering
All our sites provide a hot meal at lunchtime for our pupils, rather than a self service canteen, alongside the opportunity for class-based snacks at our Park and Hill campuses.
School meals for the 2025/26 academic year cost:
- £2.83/day for nursery,
- Infants Meals are funded by the Universal Infant Free School Meal program,
- Junior Meals are free for this academic year 2025/2026 due to funding from the Major of London,
- £2.93 for senior pupil meals.
Where pupils opt to take a school lunch, families are requested to pay for these via ParentPay.
ParentPay is the finance system Sherwood Foundation School uses to collect payments form families for items such as lunches and trips or residentials. All families will be set up with a ParentPay log in when your child starts at Sherwood Foundation School.
Families are expected to cover the cost of school lunches and not allow their account to get into significant debt.
To ensure our catering company, Caterlink, are aware of any specific dietary requirements or needs, we ask that families complete their dietary requirements form and return to the campus office or class teacher.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the School Food Standards?
The School Food Standards were developed by government and are a set of food-based standards to ensure menus are nutritious, balanced and healthy. Examples include offering wholemeal starchy foods, having oily fish on the menu, and limiting pastry. Find out more: www.schoolfoodplan.com
How much sugar are in your desserts?
In line with recommendations to reduce free sugars (free sugars are added sugars – those not naturally found in fruit or milk) and the Children’s Food Trust guidance, Caterlink have reduced the sugar content of all desserts to under 6.5g of free sugars per portion. Across our menus the average sugar content per day is 4.5g of free sugars, so you can be sure your child is getting healthy desserts.
Is my child getting enough food?
All recipes are created in line with the School Food Standards recommended portion sizes and are checked by a nutritionist. As well as the main meal, vegetables and dessert, we also offer bread and salad daily for the children to take.
What is MSC fish?
By choosing fish with a Marine Stewardship Council blue label, we can ensure that we are supporting sustainable fisheries and protecting the ocean. All fish on our menu is MSC certified.
What is red tractor meat?
Red tractor ensures that we can trust that all of the meat that we buy and know that it has to meet strict standards such as animal welfare, traceability, food safety and environmental protection. We have a British First Policy and all of our meat products are traceable from farm to fork.
How much salt is in your food?
We work with suppliers to ensure products are in line with the Government Salt Targets. We also don’t add salt to our recipes as per the School Food Standards.
What is the Food for Life Served Here award?
Food for Life Served Here is a set of criteria ensuring that food served is healthy, local, seasonal and fresh. We operate all of our schools on their silver standards as a minimum. We were the first education caterer to be awarded the Food For Life award. Find out more: www.foodforlife.org.uk
What are Added Plant Power dishes?
Added plant power dishes are recipes where the protein comes from a mixture of meat and plant-based proteins such as beans, chickpeas, or lentils, such as a chilli con carne with kidney beans in. This makes the dishes more environmentally friendly (a 50% reduction in greenhouse gases), whilst reducing saturated fat content and increasing fibre.