A specially designed school meals menu is provided for primary school pupils and a separate menu for nursery school children so that the changing needs of your child is met as they develop. Your child will have a choice of tasty and nutritional meals at a very affordable price.

Price
A primary or nursery school meal is great value at £1.80 a day. So for £9.00 a week your child will receive a wide range of freshly cooked hot meal options, dessert and a drink. Other options available include a salad bar, fresh bread, a deli tray and jacket potatoes.

Menu
The menus have been specially designed and tested to ensure your child receives a healthy, balanced diet full of nutrients and vitamins as well as carefully controlling the amount of fat, sugar and salt. The pdf icon primary school menu [303kb] and pdf icon nursery school menu [182kb] offer your child a wide variety of choices that change every day over a three-week period.

Children have helped to design the menus to ensure that foods they enjoy are served.

If your child requires a special diet for medical reasons such as food allergies or intolerances or for cultural reasons, please contact your child's school to discuss this.

Free School Meals
You may be entitled to free school meals for your child. If you are unsure whether your child is eligible for free school meals please refer to the Free school meals page.

If your child is entitled to free school meals you must complete and submit a free school meals application form. This form is available from your child's school, by telephoning Sunderland City Council on 561 1417 or in a downloadable format pdf icon Free School Meals application [68kb]. The Apply for Free School Meals is also available electronically where it can be completed and submitted online.

How to pay
If you pay for your child's school meals please speak to your child's school for information about when to pay and how.

Lunchtime Experience
As well as providing tasty and nutritious meals on a daily basis we try to make the whole lunchtime experience as enjoyable for the children as we can. This includes putting on a range of fun theme days throughout the school year, where a themed menu is served and the dining halls are decorated according to the fun theme the school and children choose. Among the theme days that have recently taken place are:

  • International Cuisine - Italian, French, Indian and Chinese
  • Beach party
  • Wild West
  • Pirates
  • Wizard of Oz
  • Leavers lunches
  • Packed lunch picnics and BBQs

The School Meals Investigator's programme is a pupil-led consultation exercise run in primary schools, where the children identify what they like and dislike about school meals and we then work in partnership with schools to make any necessary changes. Among the developments to come out of the School Meals Investigators programme are:

  • Music systems installed in school dining rooms
  • Dining halls painted and renamed by pupils
  • Children given plates and bowls rather than airline trays
  • Baked potato machines, smoothie makers, Panini machines, sandwich bars and fruit trolleys installed
  • Menus put on counters and white boards
  • Children eating school meals can sit next to children with packed lunches
  • Parents invited into school to sample meals
  • More fun theme days

All of this has resulted in more children in Sunderland having school meals than the national average.

If you are interested in getting involved in menu planning or have any new ideas for school meals, please contact 0191 561 4580 or email school.meals@sunderland.gov.uk.