At Ditton Junior’s we use Caterlink to supply our school meals. Caterlink offers the facility to pay for your child’s school meals online therefore, this is our preferred payment method. Cash payments are accepted via the School Office, but these should be in exceptional circumstances only. Paying for meals online brings many benefits to you, including but not limited to:
- Your child not having to carry cash
- You can pay for meals in advance, meaning you don’t have to carry change or worry about paying weekly; you can pay up to a term in advance.
- Monitoring when your child eats a meal – the system will update to show you when your child last had a school lunch
- View your child’s balance online; meals will be in credits, 1 credit = 1 meal. The system will be updated twice a week by Caterlink.
As a reminder school meals cost £2.70 per day and the cost of meals for the whole week is £13.50.
In order to pay online, you need to set up an account as a parent/carer and link yourself to your child. You need to set yourself up on the payment system by visiting https://meals.caterlinkltd.co.uk/meals/sign_in.
If you are visiting the system for the first time, you will need to create a new account. To do this click “Register a new account” and enter your child’s Individual Student ID (SIM) and last name (these can be obtained from the School Office). Upon doing this, the system will confirm back to you, your child’s first name and school. If this is correct you will then be required to enter a number of other details to create the account. If this information is not correct please contact the school.
Once the account is created you can log on and top up your child’s account at any time. Please note you can only create one account per child and if you have more than one child at the school, you will need to create one account for each child. If you claim Free School Meals for your child you will not need to register, your child’s account will be updated automatically.
If you have any questions about this system, please do not hesitate to contact the Caterlink team at meals@caterlinkltd.co.uk. Emails will be responded to within five business days.
Healthy School Meals
We ask that parents support the school to help the children establish good eating habits, by providing a ‘balanced’ and ‘nutritious’ packed lunch. To promote healthy eating, the children are taught about a balanced diet and why it’s important that we locally source ingredients, during PSHE. Children may bring another drink to have with their lunch, which is additional to their water bottles. They are not allowed to bring fizzy drinks or sweets to school.
Allergies
If you would like to know about particular allergens in foods, please ask a member of the catering team for information. If your child has a school lunch and has a food allergy or intolerance you will be asked to complete a form to ensure we have the necessary information to cater for your child. Caterlink uses a large variety of ingredients in the preparation of our meals and due to the nature of kitchens it is not possible to completely remove the risk of cross-contamination
Free School Meals
For more information about Free School Meals and applying for them please visit the Kent County Council website here.