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Healthy Schools

What is a healthy School?

At New Mills we believe that being healthy, safe and cared for, as well as having a voice and influence, are fundamental prerequisites to being ready to learn and achieving true potential.  Healthy eating is a key part of this, affecting both physical and mental health.

Healthy Eating

New Mills School encourages all students to eat a healthy diet. Our dining hall is open before school and at both break and lunchtime offering a wide range of foods to students.  As well as the ‘Meal of the Day’, there is always a selection of salads, pasta, sandwiches and jacket potatoes.  No fizzy drinks, sweets or crisps are sold at school.

The kitchen works on a three week menu (choices are subject to variation).  Your child can have a hot meal deal for just £2.50, which includes a main course, sweet and drink.

Your Catering Service

Derbyshire Catering Service are proud to provide the catering service at New Mills School.

Our Promise to You

We are committed to providing you with nutritionally balanced meals that exceed government legislation on school food and also meet the strict quality criteria required to ensure that our menus are accredited with the Food for Life Award. This means that you can rest assured that the meals that we serve are freshly prepared on site and use fresh, locally sourced ingredients which are free from undesirable trans fats, sweeteners and additives. Most importantly of all we serve foods that you enjoy.

The Service

At New Mills School we have a spacious dining area with a large counter serving a selection of:

  • Traditional meals
  • Sandwiches/wraps/baguettes
  • Jacket potatoes
  • Hot & cold pasta
  • Home-made desserts, fresh fruit, yoghurt
  • Drinks

For those students in a hurry, there is an additional serving point dedicated to serving hot snacks and hand held items.

There is something on offer to suit everyone’s tastes. Our menus are carefully planned to provide maximum taste, premium quality and fantastic value that can be enjoyed before school, at morning break and lunchtime. Items can be purchased individually or as part of a meal deal. A meal deal is a two course hot meal and drink, two choices of hot main are available daily. Or alternatively, a deli option consisting of; your choice of sandwich and bread, dessert and drink.

The current meal deal price is £2.50 giving students outstanding value for a fixed price (correct as of 2020.)

The Menu

Involving all the right people, we have created a menu for specifically for you and your school. We have a process to safely provide medical diets to those who need it. Just contact Katie Woods on 01629 536702 or email katie.woods@derbyshire.gov.uk for further information.

Our meals are cooked by trained chefs who use ingredients from sustainable and ethical sources. So you can be assured that our meals really are the very best they can be. 

We use:

  • British farm assured meat
  • Fair trade products
  • Free range eggs
  • Reduced sugar recipes
  • Wholegrain products

To meet the Governments School Food Standards, we are unable to serve:

  • Chocolate bars/confectionary
  • Crisps
  • Nuts
  • Fizzy drinks - unless they contain more 50% fruit juice and are combined with carbonated spring water.

Please visit our website to find out more, alternatively if you have a query please fill in the “contact us” section: www.myschoollunch.co.uk/derbyshire

How to Pay

Payment for your meals couldn’t be easier. At New Mills School we use a cashless system provided by CRB Cunninghams Education Solutions. This means that a personal biometric account will be set up for you, so whether you enjoy free or paid school meals what happens at the till is the same for everyone. Free school meal allowances are allocated to accounts on a daily basis and for those paying cash, money is loaded up using the revaluation machines. The machines are cited outside the dining room doors near to the student services reception.

Parents can also make payments via the secure online payment system called ParentPay®. ParentPay® is the marketing leading online payment service for schools. This system allows payment using credit and debit card or cash at local stores through the PayPoint network.

The benefits of using a cashless system are:

  • Convenience of paying for meals
  • Discourages the misuse of spending dinner money in the shops on the way to school
  • Reduces issues associated with cash such as bullying, loss of money or theft
  • Queuing is reduced due to increased speed of service
  • Reports of student purchases can be created

For more information about CRB Cunninghams visit: http://crbcunninghams.co.uk/education-solutions/secondary-cashless or ParentPay® https://www.parentpay.com/

Other Aspects of Health

To promote physical well-being, students are encouraged to engage in physical activity both within the core provision and in extra-curricular time where a variety of activities are on offer (see C.A.P.A. section in ‘Academic Life’ and Extra-Curricular in the ‘Beyond the Classroom’ section).  Mental health is supported by the provision of a counsellor 1 day per week and close liaison with supporting agencies (see Extended Services)