Family Service
11.06.2010
From the 12th July 2010 we will be introducing a 2-week trial of County Caterer’s Family Dining Service. We have been working in partnership with another local school, which already operates a successful family service during lunch time, and have made appropriate arrangements for us to trial the service here at Clapham Terrace.
Children choosing to have school dinners will no longer queue up for their meal, as they currently do on a rota system. Instead the children will have their food served at their table. This means that all children will be able to sit down to eat at the same time and older children will take responsibility for laying the tables and serving the meals.
The menu for Family Service is a single choice menu. If your child is vegetarian or has special dietary requirements they must be registered as such, with school, to enable them to have the vegetarian or a special meal. Enclosed is a copy of the menu which works on a 3-week cycle just like the current menu. Please share the menu with your child so that they know what meal to expect each day.
There are lots of potential benefits to this system:
• Children will all be able to start eating their lunch shortly after 12noon, avoiding the current rota system and queueing time.
• Some children will be given the opportunity to ‘train’ as official Servers and develop the responsibility whilst also acquiring the skills needed to do this role well.
• Children will not be moving about once lunch starts and this will create a calmer and more sociable environment.
• Children will be expected to show good manners and eat at a steady pace, rather than rushing to finish their food quickly so they can join their friends on the playground.
• With all children eating at the same time this will create the opportunity for lunchtime clubs to run more effectively.
• With a single choice menu this will significantly reduce the time taken to complete the dinner register each morning, thus creating more learning time.
• This will also minimise the confusion and errors that sometimes happen and result in children getting the wrong meal.
This is a very exciting opportunity for us to trial before the summer holidays. If your child does require a specific meal please complete the form below and return it to the office by Tuesday 07th July 2010.
If you choose to supply your child with a packed lunch please can you ensure that they have a drink, and a spoon to eat dessert with. All waste food and empty containers will be packed back into your child’s lunch box so you can monitor what they have consumed.