Lunchtime information
Lunchtimes at Brightside take place between 11.50am -12.50pm for our reception children and from 12.15pm-1.15pm for pupils in year 1 and year 2.
At Brightside we aim to make sure all children enjoy a happy, active, healthy lunchtime. In January 2023 Brightside Nursery Infant School achieved the Bronze Food For Life Award and the school is currently working towards the Silver Award.
Our playground offers different zoned activities for the children to participate in every day. It also provides calm areas where children can sit, talk with a friend or read a book. Our school hall provides the space for children to enjoy a hot or cold, healthy meal whilst listening to relaxing music.
Families can choose to provide their child with a healthy packed lunch or take the opportunity to have a free, healthy lunch provided by Taylor Shaw.
Taylor Shaw are proud to serve a variety of freshly made school meals each day on site for the children, under the Food for Life Bronze Award. They have become one of the UK’s leading specialist caterers in the primary education sector, using fresh and local produce to build a positive food culture amongst pupils, including fun theme days and food education events to contribute to the welfare of the young people in their learning environment.
With quality and well-being at the heart of the service, Taylor Shaw are committed to providing pupils with an exciting menu, tailored to the palettes and dietary requirements of our pupils. From field to fork, the menu available on site offers innovative yet responsibly sourced, seasonal ingredients from local suppliers with support from Taylor Shaw’s creative food development team.
At Brightside, our pupils are served by our dedicated catering team, Dawn and Louise. They are passionate food-lovers that pride themselves on a truly personal service that is compliant and nutritious. The foods they prepare are backed by a team of Taylor Shaw dieticians, Gemma Ewen, Hannah Allan and Hannah Dobson.
Each day Dawn and Louise provide (free of charge):
a hot lunch
a vegetarian lunch
jacket potato with a choice of fillings
a range of sandwiches
a salad bar is also provided for children to help themselves to
dessert or fruit
They also cater for children who require a specialist diet if this is supported by a health/medical practitioner.
Please see the current menu here
For the children who bring a packed lunch, we encourage them to bring a healthy, nutritious, balanced lunch which contains fruit and healthy snacks. Unfortunately we cannot allow any carbonated, high sugar drinks or fruit juice because of the high sugar content in these drinks. Please see our Healthy Lunchbox Leaflet.
Please remember Brightside is a ‘Nut Free’ school - due to a number of children having nut allergies and the safety risks through cross contamination.
We also encourage children and staff to drink as much water as possible throughout the day to help keep them hydrated and to support brain function while learning.
Knife and Fork Challenge
Some of the year 2 children have applied to support our younger children to learn to use a knife and fork. All lunch time staff and Taylor Shaw staff are promoting this too. Please help by encouraging your child(ren) to use a knife and fork at home too.
Thank you.
Lunchtime games mentors
From September 2023 our Lunchtime Supervisors are supporting our year 2 children to be games mentors for the younger children, showing them how to play safely and how to play different games. The Lunchtime Supervisors choose 4 children each half term to take on this role and guide them to be good role models.
School milk and fruit
All children are provided with a piece of fruit for their morning snack. School milk is available at playtime/snack time and is free until children are 5 years old. When children are 5 years old, school milk can be purchased termly by paying at the school office. We encourage children to bring water bottles to school to use in the classrooms.
Play time
There is a large playground at Brightside Nursery Infant School for the reception, year 1 and year 2 pupils to use at playtime and lunchtime. It has a range of play equipment for the pupils.
Reception and nursery children also have their own outdoor areas that are attached to their classrooms.
At Brightside we have developed different play zones to enable children to play happily as they learn to build relationships with others.
Our playground currently has:
- A quiet zone – a place where children can read, draw and write.
- A games zone – Lunchtime Supervisors lead a number of traditional games each day such as skipping, circus skills, throwing and catching, hopscotch and circle games.
- A school garden zone – a zone where children can support with gardening, make dens and explore.
- A team games zone – 3 separate areas to play football, basketball and skipping. Archers Sports Coaches support the children 3 days per week.
- An imaginative zone – this is an area where children can use material and other equipment to develop their imaginative play.
At playtime children are able to choose to enjoy their own free play or join in with the lunchtime supervisors and sports coaches.