Catering

School Food Standards guidance came into effect in January 2015, and we are pleased to confirm that our menu from our Catering Provider, Chartwells, complies with these regulations.

Chartwells understand that as secondary school students grow into young adults, it’s important that they have access to nourishing food that helps them make the most of their education, achieve their full potential, and develop brilliant social skills. As secondary school caterers, they know that the key to enriching their mealtime experiences and fuelling their developing minds is striking the perfect balance between the food they need and the food they enjoy.

Please see the current menu and the tariff information below.

Menus and Student Voice

Chartwells update their menus twice per year taking inspiration from the high street and other food trends to improve appeal to students, reduce the carbon footprint, and enhance nutritional profiles. In addition, they regularly run themed days and meal deals. We carry out regular student voice sessions and tastings with the catering team for our students to identify their changing preferences and feedback about service quality and provision as well as suggestions for catering initiatives.

Allergens

For young people affected by an allergy, intolerance or other medical dietary requirement, it is vitally important that they develop the skills they need to make safe food choices in all environments, whether at home, in school or other out-of-home settings. Chartwells believe it is important that young people recognise their responsibility to manage their dietary requirements as soon as they are able to and for many students, the progression into secondary education provides a welcome opportunity for this development.  The catering staff are happy to support any students enquiring about allergens and have information available about the 14 legal allergens in every dish on their menus. 

Chartwells do not prepare managed medical diet menus for secondary age students, instead, their focus is on providing a broad mix of balanced meal options that will enable all students to choose a nutritious school lunch, regardless of their dietary requirements or preferences.  Please see the  Chartwells Medical Diets Policy below for more information.

Chartwells never use any product containing nuts as an ingredient but will, on occasion, use products with a ‘may contain nuts’ declaration – providing there are no nuts present in the ingredients list.

Please contact our Welfare team with any queries or to provide information about any dietary allergies your child may have.

Cashless Catering with ParentPay 

In recognition of the busy lives that families lead and the preference for using online services, Beacon Academy operates a cashless system for catering and other Academy items using ParentPay. Therefore, we are not able to accept cash at the tills in Café Beech or at the balance checker machines.

Year 7-11 students are issued with a six-digit PIN number which they will use to purchase meals in the Café. Students need this PIN to add funds to their account and to buy food. Students should keep this PIN number secure; they should memorise this or put it in their mobile phone or notebook as a reminder. At the till point the canteen staff can see the student’s photograph to verify their identity.

Students can check their balance on their account at the balance checker machines. A daily maximum spend of £7.50 has been set for all students - no food above that limit can be bought.

If students are entitled to a free school meal their account will be credited daily with the amount allocated for a free school meal. Students can choose to spend more than the value of the free school meal up to the £7.50 limit, using funds in their account if additional money has been credited. Please note that credit for any under-spend or missed meal will not be carried forward to the next day. 

Certain data will be held on the system to enable accurate operation. This includes the student’s name, class, photo, account balance and meal entitlement. This data is handled under the guidelines of the Data Protection Act and is only used by parties directly involved with the implementation of the system.

ParentPay

In recognition of the busy lives that families lead and the preference for using online services, Beacon Academy operates a cashless system for many Academy items using ParentPay.

This includes catering, educational trips, exam re-sit fees, and booking and payment for Academy performances. ParentPay offers you the freedom to make payments whenever and wherever you like, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, safe in the knowledge that the technology used is of the highest internet security available. ParentPay accounts can be topped up online and parents can also check balances, view historic transactions and account statements. 

All parents are provided with a secure online account, activated using a unique set of activation codes. You will be prompted to change these and to keep them safe and secure as your username and password for future logins. If you have more than one child at a ParentPay school (even multiple ParentPay schools) it is possible to combine the accounts to create one set of login details for all children by clicking the “Add a Child” option from within your account. 

Parents of our new Year 7 students will receive a letter in the summer holidays providing details of their ParentPay account activation codes with a unique username and password. Making a payment is straightforward and ParentPay holds an electronic record of your payments to view at a later date; no card details are stored in any part of the system. Once you have activated your account you can make online payments straight away.

If you experience problems accessing your ParentPay account, please contact our Finance Department on 01892 603035. 

Free School Meals

Students who are eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) automatically have their account credited each morning with the full entitlement each day. Currently this is £3.12. Student are encouraged to use this to purchase the two course meal, however there are no restrictions on the items that can be purchased. If the entitlement is not spent during the day, the balance resets to zero, it does not carry forward to the following day.