School Lunches
A healthy lifestyle, underpinned by sensible food choices is the key to achievement both personal and academic. As a school we believe in the holistic approach to education, which means we believe in caring for, and nurturing all aspects of our student’s development.
Helping our students to adopt a healthy lifestyle is not just about ensuring they are well informed; it is about offering a range of healthy dishes, properly cooked and attractively presented to encourage them to make changes that will stay with them for life.
We are a Food for Life Flagship School currently working towards Beacon status. http://www.foodforlife.org.uk/ Over that past sixteen months we have been working to transform the whole school food culture and through our school meals service we aim to:
- Provide lunches that are made from a minimum of 75% fresh ingredients
- Create and serve dishes that are seasonal
- Use local suppliers
- Serve produce grown in our own market gardens at least once a week
- Ensure all food and beverage items served meets the nutritional needs of our students.
- Offer a variety of foods to ensure cultural and specific needs are met and to ensure all students have a choice.
The Wiseman Market Garden
Three years ago we started growing produce to use in our training kitchens. The aim then was to show students how vegetables were grown and encourage them to create dishes using a variety of fresh produce. The project expanded and is now starting to produce main crop vegetables, salads and fruit for student lunches. Run mainly by volunteers and supported by the Soil Association and Garden Organics have further improvements planned for 2008 / 9. The gardens still play an important part in teaching our students about the food they work with and eat, but our focus now is also on ensuring we reach maximum production by the end of 2009 to ensure we have a constant supply of fresh, organic fruit and vegetables in our cafeteria.
Menus and Prices
Our menus change weekly and are based on the seasonal produce available. The menus are rotated every half – term and our student committee meet at regular intervals to feedback comments from the whole school so that what we offer reflects student requests and ideas. Many of the dishes served are developed in our training kitchens by our vocational catering students before being tried in the main restaurant.* We aim to offer good value for money, without sacrificing quality and a copy of our current price list is available*
Choices
We have two food service areas operating from September 2008. Our main meals, desserts, pasta, soups and salads will be served from the new ‘Wise Choice Café’ located in the main building* Sandwiches, baguettes, tortillas and other healthy light lunch items will be available from our new Snack Bar located in the main playground*
Being in the sixth form is not just about embarking on a post sixteen course of education – it is also about acquiring the social skills of a young adult! Our new sixth form coffee shop offers students a range of food and beverages served throughout the day in relaxed surroundings which facilitate an opportunity for private study or socializing with friends.
ParentPay
We now operate a cashless system of payment all food and beverages in the Wise Choice Cafe and the Snack Bar. Cash payments are accepted in the Sixth Form Coffee Shop
ParentPay is the web based software that allows parents to add money to their child's account to pay for meals in the Wise Choice Café or the Snack Bar.
All families will receive a user id and password by Friday 5th September to allow them to login to the website. At the moment there is only the facility for one login to be issued per child, it is hoped in the future that we will be able to issue a second login for parents that do not live together.
If you forget your user details or have lost them, after the 5th September, please contact Mrs Jacqueline Parks, Head of Hospitality at the school who will re-issue your details (there is a charge for this service).
Having Problems?
Any family or student having problems using ‘Parent Pay’ or their fingerprint is not being recognised by the electronic readers at the tills? Then the student should see Mrs Parks at the Wiseman Café at 3.20 on Tuesdays or Thursdays.
Click on the link on the Home Page to enter the ParentPay website.