We serve a school dinner every day and it costs £2.70, that is £13.50 per week per child. 

It helps the caterers and the office staff if a set pattern is ordered for each half term - but we realise this is not always possible. You can order for the term, the half-term or the week.

School dinners are paid for using the My Child At School app (MCAS) using the link below.

Click on the link below to find a quick guide on how to access the app.

All children in Reception and Key Stage 1 are entitled to free school meals.

If you think you qualify for a free meal you can get an application form from the office or apply online.

Children can bring a packed lunch to school if they wish. We ask parents and carers not to put sweets, chocolate or fizzy drinks in the lunch box. No glass bottles or containers please.

We also operate a No Nut Policy.  Please read our policy below.

Ashlyns Catering Partnership

In September 2011, Ashlyns and William Westley CE Primary School embarked on a mission to transform the meals being served at lunchtime.

Ashlyns were already working with a number of other schools in London and Essex with unparalleled success, so the decision to work together was a natural and easy process to undertake. Ashlyns is a family company based in West Essex. They have their own organic farm, farm shop, restaurant, training kitchen and many more initiatives. They have been supporting schools to help improve their school meal provision for some years now and felt that there was an opportunity to enhance the offering by creating a working partnership with each school.

The changes that we have made are significant but were easily introduced.

See their website for more information here.

Food

We now source all of the ingredients through a farmer co-operative that Ashlyns helped set up. Although Ashlyns has an organic farm it is impossible to use all organic produce in a school meal budget. This is why the co-operative was set up to source local produce to supply to the Ashlyns schools. The only organic ingredients used are milk and yoghurts and occasionally some vegetables when the price is cheap enough. The eggs are all free range and the meat, vegetables and seasonal fruit are all from local farmers where possible. The burgers and sausages are all made on the farm so that we know what goes into them.

All of the food is cooked from scratch using raw ingredients. The only items that are bought in are the fish pieces. Even the bread is made fresh on site every day.

Ashlyns have recently been awarded the Soil Association’s bronze Food for Life Catering Mark for serving fresh and healthy meals. The Catering Mark is a unique scheme which recognises restaurants and caterers who serve fresh food which is free from controversial additives and better for animal welfare. More and more, people want to know where their food comes from and how it was produced. The Food for Life Catering Mark offers a guarantee that fresh food you can trust is always on the menu.

Catering staff

The catering team have all received the necessary support and training to help them prepare the meals to the standard that Ashlyns demand. There is a lot of hard work that goes into producing quality meals and the catering team are now seeing the fruits from their labour by having very satisfied customers.