School Meals
We have our own catering facility on site offering a wide variety of healthy food options. We provide for allergy sensitive and vegetarian diets. There is also a Food Cube that requires cash to purchase warm snacks during break times. Menu options are detailed below.
Some children may prefer to bring sandwiches and supplement them with items from the cafeteria. Provision is made for all food to be eaten in the designated dining areas.
Rye College offers a daily FREE Breakfast Club to all students. Between 8am - 9am, students can enjoy hot drinks, juices, cereals, crumpets and toast. The perfect start to the day!
Cashless Catering
Rye College uses a cashless catering system. This system has till terminals integrated into the catering facility. The system is based on a five-digit numerical code.
How it works
We will issue the code to your child on their first day of term with us, until then your child will be able to use cash; if your child is entitled to Free School Meals, the canteen will be informed.
There are 2 ways you can add money to your child’s canteen account:
- Your child puts cash into the machine in the canteen using their code to identify their account.
- You can add money to your ParentPay account which will be set up for you with log in details emailed. Once logged in you can then add money to your child's account.
In the canteen, having selected their choice of food, they enter their code at the canteen till and the account is debited the appropriate amount.
Canteen Menus and TariffSchool Meals MenuChartwells Tariff
Free School Meals
Did you know…
School meals are free to lots of our families.
Just registering your child for free school meals means that the school gets extra money, not just for the provision of a healthy cooked meal but some could be used to support your students in the following ways:
- Learning resources and equipment
- School trips
- After-school clubs and activities
- Plus all sorts of other educational costs
Along with a free meal everyday, your family can also benefit from:
- Holiday food vouchers from East Sussex County Council
- Access to free local holiday clubs
This is totally confidential between yourself and the school – your child’s friends will not be aware of their entitlement. Your child does not have to take up the free meal option for the funding to be made available, you just have to register. Registering is quick and easy – if you think you qualify please contact our school office.
It is easy to find out if you qualify:
- Contact our school office team. They will provide you with a short form to complete. Using this information, we can check if you are in receipt of a qualifying benefit and, if you receive Universal Credit, that your earnings do not exceed the threshold.
- You can search online here to check whether your child can claim free school meals, and then apply on our your local authority website - see links in the following section for both East Sussex and Kent County Councils.
How does it work?
- First, check if you qualify – it is not just if you are unemployed, so please look at the 'Do you qualify?' section below.
- Registering is really quick and easy – if you think you qualify, contact Reception at Rye College who will help you register.
- If you want your child to have a free, healthy meal at lunchtime that’s great – they will get the free meal (saving you more than £450 a year).
- If you don’t want your child to have the school meals they can continue as normal – as long as you qualify and are registered, the school still receives the Pupil Premium.
No one will know you have registered and it will not affect any other benefits you are claiming.
Do you qualify?
You can register your child for Free School Meals if you get any of these benefits:
- 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;
- Child Tax Credit (provided you’re not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190);
- Working Tax Credit run-on - paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit;
- Universal Credit - if you apply on or after 1 April 2018 your household income must be less than £7,400 a year (after tax and not including any benefits you get).
Children can also register the Free School Meals if they get any of these benefits themselves.
Come and talk to us if you’re not sure.
If you are not in receipt of Free School Meals now but have been anytime in the last 6 years, please let the School Office know as we will still benefit from this extra funding.
Apply
Click the link below to apply online today and find out more information about free school meals from the East Sussex or Kent County Council websites.