Eating a healthy meal is known to improve behaviour, concentration and the ability to achieve. That’s why it’s especially important for children to eat a delicious, healthy meal at school.
A lot is asked of pupils and students throughout the school day. We believe that a balanced, healthy school lunch is vital to help make sure they’re nutritionally re-charged to work through the afternoon and able to deliver their best.
The London Borough of Barking and Dagenham’s award-winning team of menu development experts work with schools, pupils and parents to create appetising, healthy dishes that appeal to young tastes. Often these dishes are based on home favourites.
Each is tested, refined and nutritionally-analysed to ensure it fully complies with all legal requirements and good food guidelines before being added to our school menu.
Our Chef and her kitchen staff pride themselves on their ability to offer a delicious, healthy and well-balanced menu. At James Cambell we cook on site and the food is made from scratch. The hygiene rating for our kitchen is 5 star. Over 80% of our pupils have a school dinner every day. Our chef and her staff ensure that the menus meet all the current requirements. We try to cater for pupil allergies and please note that we are a nut free school.
Reasons for choosing a school meal
Menus that pupils like
To make sure your child enjoys our meals, we develop our menus in consultation with pupils, schools and parents. Our school meals meet all nutritional standards and guidelines, including Food for Life and the School Food Plan.
Fresh, tasty and healthy
Dishes are expertly prepared each day on the premises, using fresh, local, organic ingredients:
- we use only free range eggs
- our meat is farm assured (meaning it is sourced from farms with high standards of animal welfare)
- our fish responsibly caught from sustainable sources
Good food for all
We cater for all medically diagnosed special dietary conditions and aim to provide for a variety of cultural and religious requirements. In the first instance, speak to your school for assistance.
Meals for free
Many pupils are entitled to free school meals – including all infants (reception, year one and year two). This can save you hundreds of pounds and help boost funds for your school.
All primary school children in state-funded schools in London will get free school meals for the 2023/24 and 2024/25 school year.
As a school we feel the health, safety and wellbeing of children is paramount and we are always working to ensure that our children are educated in this subject.
Awards are given to schools in recognition of their achievements in supporting the health and wellbeing of their pupils. We have received the highest award- the Gold award. In order to achieve this, we had to show the impact of the changes we have made and that these are sustainable. The school also needed to show how we have engaged the wider community, and supported others to help children maintain a healthy weight, healthy lifestyle and wellbeing.