School Dinners
Our school lunches are cooked by City Catering. School dinners are currently free for year groups Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 and we would encourage children to have a hot free school meal. For other year groups the current cost is £2.90 per day and we would ask that dinners are paid in advance of the meal being ordered with payment being made via our cashless online payment system using Tucasi SCOPay. This site can be accessed by going to www.scopay.com. You will need to set up an account, if you haven't already got one, and the details can be obtained by contacting the school office. Siblings can be linked to the same account so dinners can be paid for all children at our school using one login.
City Catering provide a nutritiously balanced two course meal while also teaching pupils about healthy lifestyles. Lunch options are on a rota basis each week and children are given three options to choose from each day. City Catering do also have specially adapted menus for children suffering from any food allergies/intolerances.
If you believe you may be entitled to Free School Meals, and have not already applied, you can visit https://www.southampton.gov.uk/schools-learning/in-school/school-meals/free-school-meals.aspx for more details and click on the link at the bottom of the page to apply. We would encourage all parents that are eligible to apply for Free School Meals, even for pupils in Year R, 1 and 2, as being entitled has other benefits including supermarket vouchers during lockdown periods and additional funding for our school.
Please note that we do have a strict no nut policy at our school so for the safety of our children suffering with allergies, please ensure that all items brought in to school do not contain nuts. You may prefer for your child to bring in their own packed lunch for their dinner. We do encourage healthy eating at St Mark’s so we do ask that packed lunches do not include sweets or high levels of sugary food. Please also refrain from sending children in to school with cans or bottles of fizzy drinks. We encourage children to bring their own water bottle in to school to keep themselves hydrated throughout the school day. We also have drinking water available around our school in classrooms. Our Reception and KS1 children are provided with a piece of fruit at break time (and a carton of milk if they would like it) and KS2 children are also encouraged to bring their own healthy snack in for break times.
