Allergies Providing a suitable menu that is safe from any allergies listed by students, group leaders and team members is of paramount importance. All agencies will provide us with a list of allergies for each student, and it is your responsibility to ensure that meals free from these allergens is provided at each mealtime. Remember, students will be unfamiliar with British food, and possibly unable to read labels in English, they are relying on you to provide the correct food. 

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You may encounter a wide range of allergies throughout the summer, but the most common will be food-born allergies. 

Part of your role during mealtime supervision is to check that there are options available free from the listed allergens, and where necessary, to point out each option to the student.   

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The UK Government lists the following allergies as necessary to list in the ingredients of any meal, but Language in Action will cater for more if required. 

The allergens are; celery, cereals containing gluten (such as wheat, barley and oats), crustaceans (such as prawns, crabs and lobsters), eggs, fish, lupin, milk, molluscs (such as mussels and oysters), mustard, peanuts, sesame, soybeans, sulphur dioxide and sulphites (if the sulphur dioxide and sulphites are at a concentration of more than ten parts per million) and tree nuts (such as almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, Brazil nuts, cashews, pecans, pistachios and macadamia nuts).

Aside from the above allergy requirements, other dietary requirements are likely to be for medical reasons (e.g. diabetic students), or for religious reasons. You can speak with your Welfare Manager to fully understand what is and is not suitable for a student to eat, and maintain an open dialogue about it throughout the summer.

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The largest non-allergy related dietary requirement you are likely to encounter is a request for a Halal diet from practising Muslims. Some key factors to note are that all meat and poultry must be labelled as Halal, and no pork or food containing alcohol is permitted. You can read more about a Halal diet here. 

Language in Action aims to support and welcome students who have a physical or learning disability and to minimise the impact that their disability has on their learning and overall experience at the school. 

Your Welfare Manager will share any information you may need to know.

For more information on disability management and policies, see the Language in Action Staff Handbook available on your HR Portal.