girls outdoors

Food

Food is a very important part of life at Bute House. We outsourced our Catering Department in October 2016 to Chartwells Independent, following a rigorous selection process.

Chartwells bring expertise in cooking fresh, seasonal ingredients each day on-site to provide healthy, nutritious and tasty home-cooked food for the girls. In addition, Chartwells has the capacity across its organization to provide education around healthy eating, and to create menus which link with both curricular, and festive or religious days. 

We have three lunch sittings every day:

  • 12.00pm Lower School Lunch is family service, where girls sit at tables of ten and are served by a Lunchtime Supervisor or a member of staff
  • 12.30pm Middle School Lunch is family service; girls sit at tables of ten and are served by a member of staff or an older girl.
  • 1.00pm Upper School lunch is counter service where the girls queue up for their hot food and can select salad from their own salad table, before taking a seat at one of the tables already set with cutlery etc.
  • The girls help to clear and wipe the tables and, in the case of those going to Lower and Middle School lunch, help lay the tables for the next sitting.

All staff at Bute House enjoy a school lunch every day and sit in the Hall at a staff table to eat their lunch. The members of staff are excellent role models for the girls, eating their lunch and enjoying conversations with other staff thus reinforcing for the girls that mealtimes are social times.

Menus are prepared on a weekly basis and provide pupils with two choices and a daily selection of vegetables and fresh bread. It is good to see that the children, when choosing from the menu items, are willing to try new tastes and enjoy the selection of vegetables and salad bar each day. Fruit is available every day as an alternative to the main pudding choice.