Food in School

To ensure your child is catered for safely each day, Hutchinsons are school caterers will need to collect some essential information about their dietary requirements. A form to do this is accessible below or from the School office ​

Managing Special Diets in primary schools- parent information

 If the special dietary need is a medical need (e.g. allergy or intolerance), please also provide a note from a health professional (Doctor or Dietician) confirming your child’s needs. We will not be able to process this request without this information. This will then be passed on to the catering team who will work with the Company Nutritionist and Operations Manager to assess whether it is safe for us to cater for your child. If you child has a care plan please also pass this onto the school office who will pass this onto the school inclusion manager and if necessary will arrange a time for you to meet with them to discuss this further. We will do our upmost to cater for all children, where it is deemed safe to do so, and individual menus will be put in place for each child registered with us as having a special dietary requirement. However, on occasion we may feel it is not safe to cater for a child. This decision is not taken lightly and will always have the safety of the child as the highest priority.  

We are a nut free school, and this decision has been approved by our governing body, however our position is not to guarantee a completely allergen free environment, rather: to minimise the risk of exposure, encourage self responsibility, and plan for effective response to possible emergencies. We are committed to no food and drink sharing.  We aim to protect children who have allergies and therefore do not allow nuts or nut products in school lunch boxes. This means the following items should not be brought into school:

• Packs of nuts
• Peanut butter or Nutella Sandwiches
• Fruit and cereal bars that contain nuts
• Chocolate bars or sweets that contain nuts
• Sesame seed rolls (child allergic to nuts may also have a severe reaction to sesame)
• Cakes made with nuts
• Any home cooked meals for packed lunches that are made from nuts

The school kitchen are also nut free. Whilst we cannot guarantee freedom from nut traces, this does mean that no nuts are used in any of the food prepared on site at our school. Additionally that our suppliers provide us with nut-free products.

Please see below the different types of nuts and further documentation from anaphylaxis UK

• Almonds 
• Peanuts
• Pistachio
• Cashew nuts
• Brazil nuts
• Walnuts
• Hazelnuts
• Pecans
• Macadamia nuts
• Nut oils

Peanuts-and-tree-nuts

Know-your-nuts-infographic

We are also aware that our children may suffer from  other food allergies. Allergies have consequences for the sufferer which range from irritating to life-threatening and whose impact can worsen with repeated exposure. Therefore, all allergies will be taken seriously and dealt with in a professional and appropriate way. Please note we cannot give out any sweets  brought form home as treats. Homemade snacks or party food contributions must have a label detailing all ingredients present and the kitchen environment where the food was made must be nut free. If you are unsure about a selection please speak with a staff member before bringing the food item into school. All children are regularly reminded about good hygiene practice of washing hands before and after eating which helps to reduce the risk of secondary contamination . Likewise, children are reminded and carefully supervised to minimise the act of food sharing with their friends.