School Meals

We expect students to remain on site during lunchtime. Students may either use the school canteen or bring a packed lunch.

Packed lunches must be provided in a box, clearly marked with name and tutor group. Packed lunches and all other food must be eaten in the dining hall or designated packed lunch areas and nowhere else. Many of our drinks are no longer supplied in plastic bottles but in cans. We will therefore allow cans in school but the school policy still stands with no fizzy drinks allowable.

Lunch arrangements from January 2021

Due to needing to keep year bubbles separate, this will be a more limited service than previously and will operate as a grab and go service. This means that each year group will have an allocated time to collect their food and then take this to their own zone to eat it. Cleaning will take place between each bubble entering the dining hall and the biometric device used to make payment will be sanitised between each student.

Year 10 have the opportunity to purchase lunch during their break time at 11am, however they still have their usual lunch at 1.20pm where they can eat their packed lunch and any food purchased at break. The Year 10s will have their lunch in the Year 11 quad to allow the Year 11s to use the catering pod.

Dining Hall

13.00 – Post 16
13.10 – Year 7
13.20 – Year 8
13.30 – Year 9

Catering Pod

11.00 – Year 10
13.20 – Year 11

Payment

Stanborough School operates a cashless cafeteria for the students using fingertip recognition technology. This enables each student to place their enrolled finger on a fingertip scanner to make payment. No cash or swipe card is required. During the enrolment process the software captures a digital signature of the student’s index finger which is broken down into data points, similar to grid reference points on a map. This is then turned into an alphanumeric code which is encrypted and stored onto our school server. It is important to point out that the fingertip recognition system does not take or store a fingerprint and the information collected will be solely for school use and held on school systems only. Please be assured that this software is very secure. Please click here for further biometric information

Students on free school meals will have their entitlement added automatically and this will be used before any other money is taken. All other students will need to either pre-pay using Wisepay via our school website or top up with cash payments at the machine in the canteen. Wisepay is an online system which allows you to directly credit your child’s account. Username and passwords will be sent out when your child starts at Stanborough. If you have forgotten your password please contact our finance team. The daily spending limit per student per day will be fixed at £5.

Hertfordshire Catering Limited

Our school meals are provided by Hertfordshire Catering Limited. HCL is a people-oriented company committed to delivering quality-driven on-site catering services to Stanborough School. The facility is led by a professional and highly innovative catering team who are entirely customer-driven and combine a “can-do” attitude together with the belief that the students, staff and visitors at the school deserve the best!

Working in partnership with Stanborough School, a rebrand and relaunch of the catering service was completed in February 2016. The dining room now has a High Street restaurant feel about it. To add further excitement, HCL launched a new Street Food concept which reflected the High Street trend of introducing the fresh unique flavours of world food to our customers. Quality ingredients are used to freshly cook a range of international dishes which offer healthy choices and represent good value for money for the students.

HCL are also keen to remain a forward focused company, and with this in mind, it is very important to us that we do everything we can to minimise the impact our business has on the environment. We are strongly committed to reducing our carbon footprint and strive to encourage staff and students to play their part in minimising waste and saving energy.

Our policy of buying fresh locally-produced ingredients reduces fuel consumption and transport costs. Fresh meat and vegetables are purchased direct from growers and producers with fresh fruit and vegetables being grown locally. We use Red Tractor accredited produce sourced from our local butchers using British reared stock. Our fish is caught in sustainable waters certified by the Marine Stewardship Council.

We have been awarded the Soil Association’s Food for Life Bronze Catering Mark and are currently working towards the Silver award. For our customers this means we use fresh food they can trust in dishes that are freshly prepared. Our meat can be traced back to the farm and we do not serve eggs from caged hens or any endangered fish.