School Caterers & School Meals

Great food fuels great learning, and at Newlands our on-site catering is in the very best of hands. Our kitchen and dining service is run by Innovate, part of the Impact Food Group, and led here at school by Andrea, Joe and their fantastic team, who know our girls by name and take genuine pride in feeding them well every day.

Innovate are specialists in school catering with a simple philosophy: fresh, healthy food that students actually want to eat. Every dish is prepared on site each day using quality, seasonal and responsibly sourced ingredients, and the menus take their inspiration from the best of the high street — from freshly made grab-and-go wraps, salads and paninis to hot meals, street-food favourites and plenty of vegetarian and vegan choices. Their quick, modern service also means less time queuing and more time for our students to relax and eat well together.

What makes Andrea, Joe and the team the perfect partners for Newlands is that they are so much more than caterers — they are part of our community. Warm, welcoming and endlessly hard-working, they share our commitment to the wellbeing of every student, and their care shows in everything from the daily menu to the way they look after girls with allergies and dietary requirements. Explore our menus and upcoming events below :

Biometric Information

At Newlands Girls’ School we operate a biometric recognition system in our canteen. This allows the till registers to recognise pupils using finger imaging, greatly improving security and efficiency. The benefits include:

Improved security when processing financial transactions in the school
No cost to parents and administration time to replace lost or forgotten cards
Reduction in opportunities for pupils using each other’s or lost/stolen cards or pin numbers
Pupils do not have to remember a pin or to bring a card
Reduction in queueing time

For further information, please refer to the two documents below:

Pupil Premium & Free School Meals

Pupil Premium funding was introduced in 2011 by the government to provide the school with additional money to support disadvantaged students. Pupils who have been deemed as looked after (LAC), adopted, and service children will also attract the Pupil Premium. These funds are to be used at the school's discretion to support these students.

Changes from September 2026

From the start of the 2026/27 academic year, the government has expanded Free School Meals to all children in households receiving Universal Credit, regardless of household income. There are now two categories of eligibility:

Targeted Free School Meals – your child will be eligible if you are entitled to receive any of the following:

Universal Credit, with an annual net earned household income of no more than £7,400
Income Support
Income-based Jobseeker's Allowance
Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
The guaranteed element of Pension Credit

Families with no recourse to public funds (NRPF) may also be eligible – please contact the school if you think this applies to you.

Students eligible under the Targeted category receive Free School Meals and also attract Pupil Premium funding for the school, as well as access to other support such as the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme.

Expanded Free School Meals – your child will be eligible if your household receives Universal Credit and your annual net earned income is above £7,400. Students in this category receive Free School Meals, but do not attract Pupil Premium funding.

Please note that the transitional protections which have been in place since 2018 ended in July 2026, so even if your child previously received Free School Meals, you will need to apply under the new criteria. Pupil Premium continues to be allocated for students who have been eligible for Targeted Free School Meals at any time in the last six years.

Students claiming Free School Meals have a wide choice of options every day – including fruit and healthy snacks. There is no fuss for students at the canteen tills thanks to our cashless catering system and all students go through the same process. Even catering staff cannot see the status of students' accounts.

Please note that we recommend students claiming Free School Meals use their daily monetary allowance in the Canteen on food and ensure they bring in a water bottle from home that they can refill at one of our water stations around the school site.

Apply for Free School Meals

*Schools are given autonomy to decide how best to use this funding. Nevertheless, there is an obligation for all schools to publish annually how the Pupil Premium funding has been spent or is intended to be spent. Schools are also required to outline the impact of this on the academic performance of those students.

Pupil Premium Strategy