School Meals
Our lunch menu can be found here: Lunch Menu Winter/Spring 2025
Dinner Arrangements
School dinners at Oriel Academy are provided by Cucina IFG. Our caterers have earned an excellent reputation for providing fresh food that is popular with pupils and providing value for money.
All school meals are cooked fresh daily on site by our own catering team. Meals must be paid for in advance using the School Gateway.
Packed Lunches
Children may bring their own packed lunch to school. Please remember that we are a ‘Nut Free Zone’ and no nuts are allowed on the premises. This includes sandwiches with Nutella chocolate filling.
Lunches should be sent in a named plastic container; glass and tin containers are not allowed. Please ensure that contents of a packed lunch are nutritionally balanced. A week’s notice is required if your child wishes to change from packed lunches to school dinners or vice versa.
Water
There is plenty of drinking water available. Please provide a named water bottle for your child.
Free School Meals
As of September 2014 all children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 are entitled to free school meals as part of a government initiative:
Dear Parent / Carer
Free School Meals and the Pupil Premium From November 3rd a new ‘Free School Meals / Pupil Premium Service’ www.fsm.lgfl.net will be a website where parents can quickly and easily check eligibility for free school meals and, if eligible, also gain welcome additional funding for their child’s school, known as ‘Pupil Premium’. If eligible, you are not obliged to accept the free school meals for your child if you wish to make other arrangements, but we do want to encourage applications as the additional funding gained would still benefit education provision at the school.
What the service does for parents:
After entering essential details into the web site, the online application process links to the Department for Education system for checking eligibility and gives an immediate ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response, and will notify the school.
This system is being provided to encourage parents to apply and take advantage of free school meals while at the same time increasing the benefit to schools from Pupil Premium funding, a substantial amount of which does not reach schools because not all parents who are eligible apply for free meals for their child.
By way of a ‘thank you’ to parents for taking part, and regardless of individual outcomes, The London Grid for Learning (LGfL) would like to provide parents of children attending LGfL-connected schools with Sophos Anti-Virus software, free of charge, to protect the computers used by pupils at home.
To gain access to this software there is a short registration process which will also give you access, if required, to other LGfL services and benefits that are available to your child’s school. Please be assured there is no catch, no cost and no advertising. LGfL (a UK education charity set up in 2001 and owned by London’s 33 local authorities) exists to support education and is leading this initiative to make it easier for parents to apply for free school meals and to encourage the drawdown of unclaimed Pupil Premium.
What the service does for schools:
As the government has now introduced free school meals for all children in Key Stage 1, it is more important than ever for schools to know the number of pupils for whom they can claim Pupil Premium funding. These funds enable schools to take on additional staff and invest in additional equipment, resources and activities to the benefit all children. Please visit www.fsm.lgfl.net enter the necessary details and support this worthwhile initiative.
This service is provided by the London Grid for Learning and is available to parents of children attending schools which are part of the LGfL schools community.
If your child is in the juniors you can claim free school meals for your children if you receive any of the following:
- Income Support, Income Based Job Seekers Allowance, Income Related Employment and Support Allowance
- Child Tax Credit but not Working Tax Credit and the household income is not more that £16,190
- The Guarantee element of State Pension Credit (from 30th April 2005)
- Support under part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
Please note anyone receiving Working Tax Credit, regardless of income, will not qualify.
Find Out More About Free School Meals
Pupil Premium Grant
Do you receive benefits? Your child could qualify for free school meals.
Even if you don’t want your children to have the meals, claiming them helps the school.
The more eligible parents who claim meals, the more funding the school receives by way of the Pupil Premium.
We receive pupil premium, funding based on the number of children who claim and are eligible for Free School Meals and is used to support teaching and learning this will help your children directly!
Equally if you qualify for Free School Meals you may be eligible for financial help with school trips and out of school activities.
If you have any queries regarding the above, please contact a member of the school office staff.