We are always in the mood for good food!

We are Aspens Services, a market leading contract catering company specialising in school food. We are delighted to be partnering with Richard Taylor Church of England Primary School as the new catering service.

We only work in the education sector, so we know what our schools want.  Our kitchen team provides delicious home cooked food each day and caters for individual dietary requirements to ensure that every child enjoys their meal.

We make sure that our menus are packed with dishes that are familiar favourites, and, at the same time, we help pupils to take their first steps with new tastes to explore.

We will be working with the staff at Richard Taylor to educate children and raise awareness about nutrition, food and where it comes from, so that they can make informed and mindful choices.

Menus

The school menu rotates on a three-week basis and refreshes for Autumn/Winter and Spring/Summer seasons.  The menus will be available to view on the school’s website and Jo, our catering manager will always be happy to speak to parents about the menu on offer.

How school meals can support your child’s diet

All children need a nutritious, balanced meal to grow and meet their full potential.

School meals need to be compliant with the School Food Standards. These were created to help children develop healthy eating habits and ensure that they get the energy and nutrition they need across the whole school day. Therefore, parents should be able to trust that the school’s menu has been developed based on scientific nutrition research.

Click on the link below to find out more about the Governments School Meals Food Standards: https://www.gov.uk/school-meals-food-standards

Join Our Team

It takes some very special people to make sure that we give our school children and great food every day.  We are keen to add to our teams with talented people and so if you are looking for an opportunity to challenge yourself and learn new skills, let us know.

Special Diets/Allergies

Special diets are an integral part of our catering provision, whether because of an ethical or religious belief or a food intolerance or allergy.  To register any special diets as a requirement please complete and return the special diets form to the school as soon as possible.

The special diets form can be found requested from the school office.

Our Planet

We know that the school is proud of its focus on environmental education, and we will work closely with the team at school and our suppliers to be as environmentally friendly as we can. By making lots of small changes, we can make a big difference. We care about the future and continue to focus on responsible sourcing, using seasonal produce, increasing our focus on plant-based recipes, making our menus more sustainable, keeping waste to a minimum and reusing and recycling to reduce the impact we have.

Free School Meals – Key Stage 1

Children in Reception as well as years 1 &2 receive a ‘Universal Infant Free School Meal’ (UIFSM) provides funding for all government funded schools to offer free school meals to children in Reception, year 1, and year 2.

Universal Free School Meals – UFSM

For low income households school meals are free beyond year 2, below are the details for qualifying for this support.

Qualifying for free school meals

To qualify for free school meals you must fulfil one of the following criteria:

• Universal Credit, provided you have an annual net earned income of no more than £7,400, as assessed by earnings from up to three of your most recent assessment periods (£616.67 per month);
• Income Support;
• Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance;
• Income-related Employment and Support Allowance;
• Support under part six of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999;
• The guarantee element of Pension Credit;
• Child Tax Credit, provided you are also not entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual household gross income that does not exceed £16,190 (as assessed by HMRC); or
• Working Tax Credit run-on, paid for four weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit.

Please note that contributions-based benefits, including contribution-related Jobseekers’ Allowance do not entitle you to claim free school meals.

Free school meals claims cannot be backdated. They are awarded from the date we receive the application, once eligibility is confirmed. This is because there is a legal requirement for a request to be made, before a free school meal can be provided.

More details of UIFSM and FSM are available on the North Yorkshire County Council website – Free school meals | North Yorkshire Council

To check if your child can get free school meals in England and to find out how to apply on your local authority’s website please request the relevant form from the school office or click to find out more or click here: https://www.gov.uk/apply-free-school-meals    

Drinks and snacks

Children may bring a healthy snack for morning break. This should ideally be a pieces of fruit, rice-cakes, crackers or breadsticks.

Children in Early Years and Key Stage 1 can access free fruit or vegetables.

We are also able to provide milk, which is free for all children under 5. For children over 5 school milk can be ordered through the “Cool Milk” website www.coolmilk.com. Alternatively, children are allowed to bring water in a transparent sports bottle (no squash/juice or fizzy drinks please) to have during the day.

As we commonly have children who have nut and peanut allergies, we do not allow nut or peanut products into school.

Birthday Treats

Due to allergies and to respect the personal preferences of families in relation to foods their children are offered we are unable to facilitates the sharing of birthday cakes or birthday treats within the school day.

We are always delighted to sing to children on their birthdays and give our birthday stickers in our celebration workshop on a Friday.

Thank you for respecting and understanding our position in regard to this.