At Kingsmead Primary School, our kitchen is dedicated to providing high quality, flavoursome meals inspired by a wide range of world cuisines, often using locally sourced ingredients. Each term, menus are carefully planned and updated to reflect the freshest seasonal produce. Students particularly enjoy popular dishes such as Caribbean Beef curry and our indulgent Chocolate cake, which are firm favourites at lunchtime.

Executive Chef Sergio Vitale oversees and supports the kitchen team, led by Head Chef Shernnett, bringing freshly prepared, balanced meals that children love to eat every day.

We aim to create a lively and welcoming atmosphere in the dining hall, where lunchtime is a fun and social experience. Teachers join students during mealtimes, encouraging them to try new dishes and enjoy their lunch. Shared salad boards are provided on each table make it easy and exciting for everyone to sample a variety of salads, along with freshly baked bread or focaccia. All meat served at school is halal. We place a strong emphasis on sustainability and quality, choosing organic produce whenever available. Our kitchen is proudly nut-free and we cater daily to gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan diets.

Our thriving Science Garden offers wonderful opportunities for children to learn about food, planting, and where it comes from. All students take part in planting, growing, and harvesting, linking classroom learning with hands on experience

Kingsmead children also have regular visits to the award-winning Hackney School of Food, which is situated on the site of our sister school, Mandeville. Here children learn about food from seed to plate  in Hackney School of Food's wonderful productive gardens and kitchen. With it's specially designed teaching kitchen, with height adjustable workstations, and trained Food Educators, the Hackney School of Food delivers a full cookery education according to the National Curriculum. These lessons take place throughout the year, making links to the produce grown in the School of Food gardens wherever possible. You can find out more about the Hackney School of Food on the link below.

Our school lunch menus change with the seasons. See attachments below for current menus.

You can find the LEAP School Food policy at the bottom of this page.

No Packed Lunches

At LEAP we have a No Packed Lunch policy. A copy of the letter sent to parents & carers explaining our rationale for this can be found below. 

 

Free School Meals

Since September 2023 all children have been receiving Universal Free School Meals, regardless of parental income or benefits, thanks to the Mayor of London's decision to offer Free School Meals to all London primary school aged children. However, we still need you to register for free meals if you receive benefits and are eligible to received FSM from Hackney Council, as Gayhurst’s funding allocation is directly linked to the number of families registered with Hackney for Free School Meals. There are also other benefits to Gayhurst families who are registered for Free School Meals - see leaflet below.

You can find more information about Free School Meals eligibility here:

 

 

To apply for Free School Meals you will need to first register. Please follow the link above, scroll down the page  and click on the Apply For Free School Meals button.