Ordering and payments
At Ark Blake we pride ourselves on providing flavoursome, nutritionally balanced food to our pupils.
Break time
Pupils can buy snacks in the dining hall during break time when you add credit to your child’s account. Don’t forget to set up alerts so you can top up when the balance is low. To help pupils with budgeting and provide certainty for parents that no unauthorised spending can happen, we do not offer credit facilities, meaning no pupil is able to purchase items with insufficient funds. There is also a daily spend limit so pupils cannot spend of all their allowance at once. Parents and carers can view daily expenditure in the iPayImpact system.
Lunch
We ask all pupils to join with their House for a hot lunch each day. Once a week, we hold ‘Family Dining’, where we introduce a topic of conversation and pupils serve each other, taking responsibility for a great dining experience. We offer pupils a range of hot options during our lunch service; these are paid for in the same way as breaktime by topping up on IPayImpact. Parents/carers can pay on iPayImpact anytime or apply for free school meals – see FSM section of our website for further information.
Healthy eating
Fizzy drinks, crisps, sweets, chewing gum and other confectionary are banned from Ark Blake Academy. Thank you for your support on this. In addition to this, at the end of the day pupils are prohibited from visiting local shops to buy sweets or junk food: they should go straight home.
Dietary Requirements
The academy is committed to accommodating different dietary requirements. For example, we offer vegetarian, vegan and gluten free options, and all meat is halal and kosher. If your child has an allergy or special dietary requirement, please email our kitchen team directly with this information and they will do their best to accommodate (kitchen@arkblake.org).
Breakfast club
We run a free breakfast service from 8am to 8.20am each morning in the dining hall, where pupils can share a nutritious breakfast with other members of their house.
Applying for free school meals
Some parents may be entitled to receive free school meals for their children.
In order to determine if you are eligible and to apply please click here.