At Washingborough Academy, we work very carefully to ensure our children have an excellent understanding of food and healthy lifestyles through our curriculum. We ensure our children are provided with healthy, fresh, quality meals through the fantastic work of our Aurum Cooks.
We are very proud to have been awarded with the Gold Catering Award by the Soil Association, meaning that all of our produce is sourced from Lincolnshire and the surrounding counties. We are the only school with an ‘in-house’ chef to have this prestigious award and we have retained if for the past 6 years! For more information about the work we have done to earn this award please visit: Food for Life – Washingborough Academy
We have also been featured as a case study on the Love British Food website which you can view here:
Our Head Chef is Michael Richardson who leads the kitchen team in preparing school lunches made from scratch using a variety of fresh ingredients and flavours that appeal to the children’s taste buds.
The vegetables are chopped by hand and we like to experiment with textures, such as carrots prepared in different ways such as batons, grated for coleslaw, and shaved into ribbons for salads. Our salad bar is available every day and our eldest children help serve the youngest children which provides a great social experience and encourages them to enjoy their food. Fresh fish is added to the menu every week, and we engage with the children by encouraging them to try new things and asking for their feedback. The menu is regularly reviewed and adapted based on the feedback received from the children through our Good Food Group.
Food Education and Enjoyment
Our aim is to introduce enjoyable food education to the school’s dining hall and facilitate interactions between kitchen staff and children in the classroom, where they can discuss cooking techniques and the ingredients used. This may involve growing a range of heirloom and heritage varieties of fruit and vegetables, as well as cooking and consuming them. We maintain a 300m² organic school kitchen garden, 70m polytunnel, an apiary, free-range chickens and a Lincolnshire Heritage Orchard and invite volunteers to participate in this initiative. If you are interested in getting involved, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
As part of our regular food education program, children are given the opportunity to use our children’s kitchen, where they can learn about food and nutrition, participate in age-appropriate cooking lessons using the teaching kitchen, and discover where their food comes from and how it is grown. They can also harvest and use fruits, vegetables, and herbs from the school’s expansive garden, orchard, and vegetable beds.
School Lunches
Please have a look below at our fantastic menus that are made from seasonal local produce to see what delicious food is available for our children this term! Each meal includes a dessert including our very own dehydrated fruit and a selection of healthy sides from our salad bar that is made fresh daily.
We also have ‘Ready to Rumble’ available for KS2 only, which offers a ‘packed lunch’ alternative.
These terms menus are:
Allergen Information – Week 1 – Winter 2022-23
Allergen Information – Week 2 – Winter 2022-23
Allergen Information – Week 3 – Winter 2022-23
Free School Meals Entitlement
If you believe that your child might be entitled to Free School Meals please click on the link below which will take you to the online application form on the Lincolnshire County Council Website.
www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/schools-and-education/free-school-meals/