Our body is an amanah (a trust), due to this, at Unique Academy, we are dedicated to establishing a school environment that promotes healthy eating and enables pupils to make informed food choices. Healthy eating
promotes excellent physical health and mental wellbeing, and we hope to achieve this by a whole school approach to food provision and food education with the support of our parent community.

The main aims of our healthy eating policy are:

• To support pupils to make healthy food choices and be better prepared to learn and achieve
• To ensure a consistent approach to healthy eating across the school community including pupils, staff and parents/guardians

Breakfast
Breakfast is an important meal that should provide 25% of a child’s energy requirement and supports pupils to be ready to learn at the start of each day. We encourage parents to ensure that their child has been provided with a healthy breakfast each day before they come to school.

Packed Lunches
At Unique Academy, pupils must bring a healthy packed lunch to school each day. We use the guidance from the Children’s Food Trust which aims to support pupils to have a balanced lunch and best prepare them for
learning in the afternoon. The guidance advises that packed lunches should aim to include:

• Some starchy foods such as bread (sliced bread, pitta bread, wraps, bagels), pasta, potatoes, couscous;
  choose wholegrain where possible
• 1 portion of fruit and 1 portion of vegetables or salad
• Dairy food such as cheese or yoghurt
• Meat, fish, or another source of protein such as eggs, beans and pulses or hummus
• Oily fish once every 3 weeks e.g. sardines or salmon

Packed lunches should not include:

• Crisps or crisp type snacks e.g. flavoured rice cakes or cheddars
• Sweets
• Any items containing chocolate including bars, biscuits, cakes or yoghurts/desserts

Snacks
At Unique Academy, we understand that healthy snacks can be an important part of the diet of a child, therefore, pupils are able to bring fruits to school to eat at break-times.

Drinks
At Unique Academy, we will take part in the free milk entitlement for pupil’s programme, as we believe that milk is an important part of a balanced diet. Milk is crucial for supporting healthy bone development which is particularly important for young children. Milk is also encouraged in the Sunnah.

Pupils must also bring bottled water every day to drink during the day (as necessary) and at lunchtime.
Maintaining hydration is an important part of healthy lifestyles, and parents will be asked to pack bottled water in their bags each day.