Healthy Eating

New! Cashless Catering System introduced in February 2008.
In February 2008 GCH launched a 'cashless catering' system whereby our students' oyster cards (or GCH card for those without oyster cards) are used to 'pay' for their lunch and break time snacks. Essentially this ensures that the money you give your child goes on food and not on sweets and unhealthy snacks or other items on the way to and from school. The system also has other benefits including:

- A daily spend limit can be put on your child's account to ensure that they only spend the appropriate amount each day.

- It provides a quicker service and reduces queues.

- As there is no value stored on the card (all information relating to money used to top up the card is held on a school computer), should a student lose the card then this can be replaced with no loss of money after the time of reporting the loss.

- If a child is entitled to free school meals then nobody is aware of this - the student still has a card and money is loaded onto the card automatically each day.

- As a 'healthy school', it enables us to promote healthy eating by awarding 'healthy eating points' - pupils with the most points at the end of each term will receive great prizes.

Please contact the school office for further information.

Research has shown that ‘we are what we eat’. It has been identified that diet plays a vital role in how we behave, think and work. We recognise that a student who eats a healthy diet with plenty of fruit and vegetables, protein and complex carbohydrates such as pasta, rice and wholegrain breads will be able to concentrate better at their school work than a child who fills up at lunch on fizzy drinks and chocolate. This in turn leads to better results.

In response to school council requests and a general social and government shift towards healthier eating in schools, we recently appointed a new Catering firm called Caterlink.

Caterlink promise that at least 90% of their daily menu is fresh and made with fresh ingredients. There will be plenty of fruit and vegetables, salads, healthy sandwiches and jacket potatoes for example. You will find no turkey twizzlers here!

Sample School Lunch Menus - please click on one of the following links to download a sample weekly menu:

Menu 1
Menu 2
Menu 3
Menu 4

Advice on Healthy Eating
The government recommends at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day along with certain amounts of protein and complex carbohydrates. For more information please see the following websites: