At St Anne’s R.C. Primary School, we want every child to enjoy a healthy, nutritious and safe lunch. To secure the success of our School meal Provision, eight years ago, St Anne’s made the move to bring our school meal provision in-house.  Part of this commitment to the pupils and staff at St Anne’s, was also securing our dedicated Catering Team, bringing with them over 30 years of catering experience, from various areas of the hospitality sector.

Devising nutritionally balanced bespoke menus, catering for all our school cultural and dietary requirements.  Ensuring that the food that your child is prepared is to a safe high standard. Our Menu’s contain a variety of homemade dishes from traditional roasts and children's favourites, whilst using only the best quality fresh ingredients, organic milk and yogurts, sustainably sourced fish and wherever possible fair-trade fruit. 

We also have themed days to celebrate events within school. We have had tea parties, whole school street food parties as well as delicious big breakfast for special occasions.  If you are interested in school meals, please have a look at our menu.

From September 2026, Free School Meal eligibility has changed.

Children from households receiving Universal Credit are now eligible for a free school meal, regardless of household earnings.

There are also other qualifying circumstances, including certain households receiving support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, the guaranteed element of Pension Credit and certain families with no recourse to public funds.

There are two important categories:

• Expanded Free School Meals: children in households receiving Universal Credit, regardless of household earnings.
• Targeted Free School Meals: children in households receiving Universal Credit with annual household earnings of £7,400 or less. This group also attracts Pupil Premium funding for schools.

How to apply

Applications are made through Oldham Council.

You can check eligibility and apply through the Oldham Council Free School Meals service:

Oldham Council – Free School Meals

If you live outside Oldham but your child attends an Oldham school, you should normally apply through the council where you live, unless you live in Manchester, where Oldham has specific arrangements.

If you have any questions about Free School Meals, Oldham Council can be contacted at [email protected].

Please apply even if your child is currently in Reception, Year 1 or Year 2. Although their meal is already free, registering for means-tested Free School Meals may provide important additional support and funding for your child and school.

The safety of children with allergies is extremely important to us.

From September 2026, new statutory allergy safety guidance applies to schools in England. These requirements strengthen the way schools identify, prevent and respond to allergic reactions and support children with allergies.

This is commonly known as Benedict’s Law, named in memory of Benedict Blythe, whose family campaigned for improved allergy safety in schools following his death from anaphylaxis.

As part of our whole-school approach to allergy safety, we:

• Maintain a whole-school allergy policy.
• Ensure staff receive allergy awareness and emergency response training.
• Maintain appropriate emergency arrangements for children experiencing anaphylaxis.
• Work with parents and carers to keep individual healthcare and allergy plans up to date.
• Consider allergy risks in classrooms, lunchtime, trips, clubs and other activities.
• Record and review allergy incidents and near misses.
• Support children with allergies to participate fully in school life.

Nuts and Strawberries

St Anne’s does not permit nuts or products containing nuts to be brought into school.

We also ask families not to send strawberries or products containing strawberries into school because of the serious risk posed to children with diagnosed anaphylactic allergies.

Please check food labels carefully before sending food into school.

We recognise that we cannot guarantee that the school environment will be completely free from every allergen. Our approach is therefore to actively reduce allergen exposure and maintain strong allergy-awareness procedures throughout school.

If your child has a food allergy or intolerance, please inform the school office and ensure that their medical information and individual healthcare plan are kept up to date.

To support our healthy eating approach and protect children with allergies, we do not ask families to bring sweets, chocolate or cakes into school for birthday celebrations.

Instead, families may wish to celebrate by donating a book to the class or another small educational resource that all children can enjoy.

Please inform the school in writing of any medical information that may affect your child's welfare, including food allergies, intolerances or other dietary requirements. This information should be kept up to date so that we can put appropriate safety measures in place.