Dining

Education at St Aidan's extends to informing young people about the long-term health benefits of a healthy lifestyle and a nutritious diet.

Our catering team is passionate about the food they serve and strongly believe that healthy eating is linked to success in the learning and development of our students.

In providing a school lunch service in-house every day, we promote healthy choices, offer good value for money and provide a first class service to students and staff. Ingredients are sourced from local suppliers. The academy is fully compliant with school foods standards, we can cater for special dietary requirements if informed in advance and allergen information is available if required.

Our catering service is led by catering manager Sue Albrow, who is supported by a team of 6 catering assistants.

All students remain on the academy site at lunchtime. We operate a one-sitting lunch break, from 12.35 pm –1.10 pm.

Menus

Choice

Students have the option of a hot or cold lunch prepared by our catering team, or may bring in a packed lunch. For those opting for a school lunch, a variety of dishes, freshly made on the premises, is available.

Students can choose from:

Main meals and desserts

Jacket potatoes, assorted sandwiches and salad bowls

Hot sandwiches, wraps and pizza

Smart pasta bar.

We operate a ‘grab and go’ system, which is useful for students who are committed to lunchtime activities and need a quick meal, and ‘meal deals’.

Payment

We operate a cashless catering system – ParentPay – which means students do not need to bring money into school to pay for their lunch. Every student registers their fingerprint onto the system when they join the academy and then simply scan their finger when they come to 'pay' for their lunch or breaktime snacks.

Each student’s account can be topped by using the ParentPay website by debit or credit card. Alternatively, there are ‘cash loader’ machines, located by Student Reception and upstairs in the main atrium, where students can top up their accounts with cash. All methods add instant credit to an account.