As we head into the new academic year, our menus are always something to look forward to! We have some fabulous dishes to offer next term as you can see by our menus on Firefly. With our usual combination of nutritionally balanced meals and delicious flavours, we’re passionate about ensuring our girls are full of brain boosting nutrients and energy, and thoroughly enjoy their lunchtimes. Guest blog by Steve Evans, General Services Manager.

Highest Quality

As well as having a stunning, purpose built Dining Hall that’s bright, modern and run by our expert team of catering staff, all of the ingredients in our meals are of the highest quality and sourced from the Nottinghamshire area where possible. We’re proud to be a Nottingham school and to support our local area. All of our eggs are free range and locally sourced (so delicious for a breakfast treat!), all of our coffee is Fairtrade. Fresh meat is sourced locally and vegetables are grown within a 20 mile radius of Nottingham.

Ecologically responsible

For the first time next term we will be introducing Meat-Free Mondays on which our main food choices will be meat free, while we will continue to offer meat proteins on our salad bar, as sandwich fillings and for breakfast and mid-morning break. Of course, all of our menu options will be nutritionally balanced including healthy proteins; we’re keen to support our farming communities and to encourage our girls to eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day.

We’re also delighted to be providing only eco-friendly disposables from September. Everything will be 100% compostable within twelve weeks, from cups and takeaway pots to pizza trays.  We’re working closely with our refuse partner at a new site in Derby focusing on compostable refuse disposal.

Our girls are fantastic advocates of ecological responsibility, and we’re excited to share our plans with them through assemblies, presentations and displays.  Our Year 5 Eco Club girls are helping us to design and source re-usable coffee cups so we’ll keep you posted on that too.

Parents are welcome

As well as offering fantastic quality meals to all our girls, from Reception to Sixth Form, we also welcome our parents into our Dining Hall. We love to see our school community enjoying breakfast with their families some mornings, having a relaxing few minutes before school pick-up with a snack and a drink, or popping along to our SLT drop-in sessions for coffee and cake.

With our loyalty cards for hot drinks, parents and pupils can enjoy a drink on us. Our “Breakfast 6” can be very tempting, especially for a Friday treat. And even more irresistibly, all of our cakes are baked by our talented catering staff daily (and on offer with a hot drink, as if they weren’t too good to refuse anyway!)

Special Events

Our provision of delicious food doesn’t just stop when school finishes for the day. We have numerous open events, alumnae reunions and special occasions. Our dedicated and talented catering team come up with creative and mouth-watering special treats which are the envy of all of our visitors. They always receive a special hug from our visiting alumnae who remember them fondly. Some of our staff have been here for 30 years! We’re very grateful for all of the hard work that they do for us.