‘Children’s Choice’ enables every child to have their choice of main course.

Our school meals are cooked on site in our kitchens.  We offer a choice of a hot meal and a dessert; or a Grab a Bag that contains a sandwich, fruit and a cookie or cake.  Children may also bring a packed lunch from home. 
 
You will see that the meat/fish main course on the menu has been labelled as RED, the non-meat dish as BLUE and a third choice as YELLOW.

  
When taking the dinner register, the teacher will tell children the menu choices for the day, together with the relevant colour. The teacher will ask all children in turn ‘What are you having for dinner today?’  Their response will be RED or YELLOW or BLUE.  They will answer GREEN if they are having a Grab a Bag and SANDWICHES if they have a packed lunch.  Shortly before the children go into the dinner hall, they will be given a coloured wristband or sticker according to the reply they gave to their teacher.  This will allow catering staff to know which main course they have selected. 
 
Children’s Choice will help develop the children’s independence. We will be alert to the choices that individual children make and will query a decision that does not fit in with known preferences, dietary/religious requirements or allergy issues.  We are happy for you to inform us on matters such as your child must have a hot meal and not a grab a bag, but cannot act on requests relating to an individual meal choice. Please take the opportunity to go through the menu with your child, perhaps guiding them on a daily basis as to which meal they may prefer.  However, the choice of food will be the child’s.  
 
If your child has a medical appointment etc in the morning, please let us know their meal choice when you contact us to say that they will be late in.  If we are not informed of a choice, we can guarantee that they will be able to have a hot jacket potato and filling but we cannot guarantee their choice of other meals on the menu, although we will try to accommodate them.

The current cost of a school meal is £2.40, payments must be paid via ParentPay. AIP do not accept cash or cheques as payment for school dinners.

You may be eligible for free school meals, for more information please click here.

Southcott Lower School currently has a food hygiene rating of 5. This was awarded in February 2023 by Central Bedfordshire Council.