At Green Top, we are committed to promoting healthy eating and supporting the wellbeing of all our children. When preparing your child’s packed lunch, we kindly ask that you consider the following guidelines:

Healthier Choices

Please limit foods that are high in sugar, fat, and salt. This includes:

• Sweets, chocolate bars, and sugary biscuits
• Cakes, pastries, and doughnuts
• Crisps and fried snacks
• Sugary drinks, fizzy drinks, and flavoured milkshakes

We encourage healthier alternatives, such as:

• Fresh fruit and vegetables
• Wholegrain sandwiches with nutritious fillings
• Low-fat yoghurts and cheese
• Water or milk

⚠️ Nut-Free Policy

To protect children with severe allergies, please ensure that all packed lunches are completely nut-free.
This includes:

• Peanuts and tree nuts (e.g. almonds, cashews, walnuts)
• Nut-based spreads such as peanut butter or Nutella
• Snack bars or baked goods that contain nuts

We appreciate your support in keeping our school a safe and healthy environment for everyone.

Department for Education guidence for children under the age of 5 years:

*remove any stones and pips from fruit before serving
*cut small round foods (like grapes, strawberries and cherry tomatoes) lengthways and into quarters
*cut large fruits (like melon) and hard fruit or vegetables (like raw apple and carrot) into slices instead of small chunks
*cut sausages into thin strips rather than chunks and remove the skins (sausages should be avoided due to their high salt content)
*remove bones from meat or fish
*do not give whole nuts to children under five years old
*do not give whole seeds to children under five years old
*cut cheese into strips rather than chunks
*consider wholemeal or toasted bread as white bread can form a doughy ball in the throat, and cut all *types of bread into strips for very young children
*do not give children popcorn as a snack
*do not give children marshmallows or jelly cubes from a packet, either to eat or as part of messy play activities, as they can get stuck in the throat
*do not give children hard sweets

Here are some healthy lunch ideas for packed lunches on the NHS website.

https://www.nhs.uk/healthier-families/recipes/healthier-lunchboxes