Why should my child have a Rockmount school lunch?

Pabulum provide all of our school lunches. They have a reputation for excellent service and fabulous food. They ensure that only the freshest, finest, honestly sourced ingredients are used in their meals.

The food is not only delicious but very healthy too! Natural, home grown, organic produce is used wherever possible and every effort is made to ensure that producers have received a fair price for their goods.

They skilfully steam and simmer and sizzle, so even the particularly picky enjoy some goodness at mealtimes.

Every yummy mouthful served has been lovingly looked at, to make sure it goes above and beyond the Government's guidelines for nutritional standards, whilst tasting delicious. Pabulum only work with suppliers whose guidelines on growing meet our high standards.

Reception and KS1 children are entitled to free school meals. 

Our school meals are very reasonably priced at £2.50 each, £12.50 per week.

Lunchtime at Rockmount

In response to pupil voice, we continuously work on improving the dining experience. For example, previously our school council met with our chef to discuss future lunch plans and to provide feedback about the meal choices, following a pupil survey. As a result of the pupil survey, we made changes in the lunch hall including table cloths,   plants, soft background music and conversation cards.

The social element of eating together and enjoying food is important to us at Rockmount. To encourage this, we have our lunch at a circular table in order to enable the children to talk with each other easily. Staff also often join the children at lunch times, eating with them and joining in with conversations. Resources such as the conversation cards encourage a range of conversations to take place, encouraging children to have discussions with those on their table.

To continue to encourage the development of social skills, the school council and lunchtime waiters continue to develop new child friendly conversation cards. During lunchtime, children can access the cards on their tables to prompt their discussions about topics such as healthy eating, holidays and hobbies. The cards have been a great success and we love how creative the children have been. We are very excited about the new topics for conversation!

Previously, the school council also met with our catering company Pabulum, to discuss ideas to develop school lunch choices as a result of pupil surveys. The meeting was highly successful and as a result our home grown vegetables have been enthusiastically harvested, cooked and eaten by our pupils. The cooks now liaise regularly with staff and pupils and are very much part of  our whole school community.

Lunchtime Waiters 

Children can sign up to volunteer as lunchtime waiters. All waiters have receive initial training about their role and the responsibilities. If a child continues to volunteer for the half term to support lunchtimes, then at the end of the half term a special reward is arranged as a thank you to the children for volunteering an hour of their lunchtime each week. Previous rewards have included exciting activities such as creating an individual pizza with chef which the children then enjoy together. 

The responsibilities of becoming a lunchtime waiter include:

• Laying the tables and serving water
• Encouraging children to try new foods for example from the salad bar 
• Cleaning the tables and resetting for the next sitting

Pupil feedback shows a positive attitude towards the waiters and the role has supported the development of the lunchtime experience.