Food and nutrition are key parts of everyday life at the Richard Pate School. Our brilliant in-house catering team ensures there is always a fresh delicious and balanced meal for the children to enjoy at lunchtime, fruit and milk at morning break time and healthy snacks at after school club. We are proud to provide home cooked meals prepared with the freshest and finest, and where possible, locally-sourced ingredients.
Menus are prepared using the simple principle of the eat well plate. The children can choose from a selection of two hot meals, including a vegetarian option, as well as a baked potato and salad offering. A hot pudding and selection of cold puddings are also available. These menus have been reviewed and approved by a dietitian working with the School’s food supplier, Allmanhall.
The Nursery children are served their food in the Nursery whilst children in the main school have a buffet-style service in the dining room. All the children enjoy their meals sitting with friends and are supervised by staff.
We can accommodate all dietary requirements and catering staff work closely with parents and class teachers with regard to pupils who have allergies. Any parents who have particular concerns should talk to their child’s class teacher in the first instance.
We regularly monitor the guidance and updates and provide ongoing training to all members of our catering team to ensure the best possible standards of food production, hygiene and safety (most recently training on the implementation of Natasha’s Law in October 2021). Our kitchen has a five-star food hygiene rating.
As a team, we are constantly looking at ways to improve our catering offering, both from a nutritional and environmental perspective. Recent examples of changes we have implemented include:
- We have reduced single-use plastics as much as possible:
- Individual milk cartons are no longer used for morning milk. Milk is delivered in a jug with beakers.
- No clingfilm, kitchen foil or other single use plastics are used in the kitchen.
- Sachets for mayonnaise and ketchup have been reduced.
- Where disposable plastics must be used we purchase compostable plastics.
- We have reduced sugar content in all of our puddings, cakes and biscuits.
- We have reduced salt content in all of our savoury dishes.
Our termly menus are uploaded on our website and are also sent out with the weekly Link. If you have any suggestions or questions relating to catering at Richard Pate, please contact the catering manageress, Lydia James on ljames@richardpate.co.uk
