🥪 Packed Lunch Guidance for Parents

At Worle Village Primary School, we want to work alongside families to support healthy, balanced lunches that help children feel their best and enjoy their school day.

As a Healthy School, we promote good nutrition to support children’s health, behaviour, and learning. This guidance is here to help make packed lunches simple, practical, and stress-free for parents.

🚫 Nut-Free School

Due to allergies within school, packed lunches must not contain any nut products, including Nutella.

Thank you for helping us keep all children safe.

✅ What to Include in a Healthy Packed Lunch

Where possible, packed lunches should include:

• 🥪 One main item
  Sandwich, wrap, pitta, bread roll, pasta salad, rice or potato salad

• 🍗 A protein filling
  Cooked meat, fish substitute, cheese, or boiled egg

• 🍎 One portion of fruit and vegetables
  Fresh, chopped, or dried (e.g. apple, banana, grapes, carrot or cucumber sticks)

• 🧀 One dairy item
  Yoghurt, fromage frais, cheese, rice pudding or custard

• 💧 One drink
  Water is recommended and is always available in school

• 🍓 A small pudding option
  Fruit or yoghurt is best. A cereal bar, raisins, or one small chocolate biscuit bar is acceptable.

🍪 Healthier Snack Swaps

We encourage limiting foods that are high in salt, sugar, and saturated fat. Some easy swaps include:

• Fruit bread, malt loaf, tea cakes or currant buns (without icing) instead of cakes and chocolate

• Plain popcorn, rice cakes or vegetable sticks instead of crisps

• Raisins or chopped fruit instead of chocolate bars

🍞 Keep Lunches Interesting (and Easy!)

• Try different breads: wholemeal, granary, wraps, bagels, pitta or fruit bread

• Cook extra pasta, rice or potatoes at dinner and use them for lunch the next day

• Chop extra vegetables when preparing dinner to save time

• Freeze a yoghurt or milk carton to keep lunchboxes cool

⏰ Portion Size Matters

Please avoid packing lunches that are too large. Children have limited time to eat and we want them to enjoy their playtime too.

Large or unfamiliar lunches can cause worry or upset if children feel rushed or unsure what to eat.

💷 Cost-Friendly Tip

Simple, homemade packed lunches are often cheaper and healthier than pre-packaged foods.

🍴 Eating Well at School

At lunchtime, we encourage children to:

• Use cutlery where appropriate

• Develop good eating habits

• Enjoy a calm, positive lunchtime experience

Our shared aim is to support children to have a varied, balanced diet that promotes healthy eating habits for life