School meals
Our dinners are supplied by Aspens Services, a market leading education catering company specialising in school food.
Aspen only work in the education sector so we know what our customers want. Mixing this knowledge with an understanding of what’s hot in the food world sparks creativity and excitement in our chefs. Our kitchens provide delicious home cooked school meals each day and cater for individual dietary requirements.
They don’t just provide food, they play our part to educate children and raise awareness about nutrition, food and where it comes from, so that they can make informed and mindful choices. Feeding our future.
Aspen make sure that our Food Festival lunch menus are packed with comfort dishes and, at the same time, we help pupils to take their first steps with new tastes to explore. They make the most of fruit and vegetables that are in season, because that’s when they taste best and are the most planet friendly too.
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Holgate Primary are a ‘cashless school’ and we request that parents use the ParentMail system to pay for items such as school meals, without the worry of sending in cash. The system is very user friendly and has it has helped the school to vastly reduce our carbon footprint. If you haven’t registered for ParentMail please speak to the main office.
All pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 are entitled to free, hot school meals (regardless of income), as part of a new nationwide scheme known as ‘Universal Infant Free School Meals’.
FREE SCHOOL MEAL eligibility for all children F1-Y6.
Children may qualify for free school meals if they attend a Nottinghamshire County Council School and the parent/carer receives one of the following benefits:
- Universal Credit with an annual net earned income of no more than £7,400
- Income Support
- Income-based Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA)
- Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
- Support under Part 6 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
- The Guarantee element of State Pension Credit
- Working Tax Credit run-on (paid for the four weeks after the person stops qualifying for Working Tax Credit)
- Child Tax Credit (with no Working Tax Credit) with an annual income of no more than £16,190
If your child is entitled to ‘free school meals’ (as we used to call them), in other words if you are a low income family, it is still absolutely crucial that you apply for this. Your child does not have to have a school meal if you prefer them to have a packed lunch but if they are on our Free School Meals register, then they qualify for all sorts of other benefits throughout the year, including free milk, discount on trips and after school clubs and a school uniform voucher.
When a child is on our Free School Meals register, the school receives extra money which we can then spend on education and enrichment. This extra money is called the Pupil Premium and its purpose is to ensure that children from low income families are not at a financial disadvantage during their education as a result of home circumstances.
Registering for free school meals
You can register for free school meals online (Register online.) The information needed to register includes:
- personal details (including national insurance number and date of birth) for the parent/carer
- child’s details in full including their date of birth and the school they attend.
If eligible for free school meals, the start date will normally be within two working days of parents contacting us and entitlement being verified. We will also write to confirm the date the child’s free school meals and milk will start.
Children transferring between Nottinghamshire schools do not need to reapply. Children will continue to receive free school meals and milk while parents are receiving the qualifying benefit or until the end of transitional protection (31st March 2025).
- Changes to free school meal entitlement - universal credit rollout
If parents are unable to apply online they should contact us on 0300 500 80 80