Vegetarian school lunch ideas with more protein beyond sandwiches?

Cranks lentil loaf is delicious cold, especially with pickle. Chickpea salad nutritious and filling.

A good thermal lunchbag and some of those mini frozen ice packs for lunch boxes are perfect if you're worried about things warming up, OP.

Wraps made from grated carrot & tinned corn, topped with grated mozzerella and baked, then spread with cream cheese and roasted, spiced veggies.

Falafel and giant couscous with humus and flatbread.

A mixed bean, veggie or egg salad with nachos to scoop it up with.

Veggie sushi or a rice bowl with satay sauce.

Daal or a bean curry with chapatis.

Veggie chilli and brown rice with nachos and sour cream.

Baked beans and chunks or veggie sausage with cold toast squares.

My son loved days when he has his chubby food flask of sausage and beans!

we like chickpea and feta salad. Hummus, salad, take lotta to dip. Fattoush with halloumi. Quiche and salad. Pasta salad.
I’m not a fan of fake meat / quorn type things (also not veggie)

Fritters of various kinds. Make a pancake batter, add in drained tinned veg, sweetcorn works well and fry on both sides.

Stop panicking over the eggs.

Been burgers or balls. Tinned aduki beans draied. Season, mash half then mix in the unmashed beans. I would fry and eat hot but I think unfried would be fine.

Risotto. Cheese with a couple of crackers, veg chilli, a slice of lentil loaf, flat bread made with greek style yoghurt.

Soup, stew with dumplings, Asian dumplings?

I don’t think there’s much food hygiene risk with egg being out of the fridge for say 4hrs then eaten. I’ve eaten hard boiled eggs that have been in their shells, after having carried them about for a couple of days!

It’s really not a problem @Advice5 . I make my Spanish omelette or egg muffins on a Sunday afternoon, take them out of the fridge each morning and put wrapped in an insulated lunchbox and they are fine all week.

my egg muffins include eggs and egg whites from a packet, a pot of cottage cheese, some porridge oats & baking powder then whatever veg I have on hand sautéed down plus grated cheese then more cheese and halved cherry tomato on top. Cottagw cheese and eggs whites up the protein if your really worried about it but I’ve been veggie since early teens & never had an issue but weight training now so trying to up mine.

As an alternative do tofu deli meat, slice very thinly extra firm tofu (use a peeler) stick in a pan with stock, spices and nooch (more protein) and cook down in a large pan gently til all liquid absorbed and you can in sandwiches. Grated tofu with spices, cornstarch and a bit of oil also roasts up to a nice, crunchy topping for salads.

Look up how much protein children of their ages actually need. It's nowhere near what an adult needs.

You could always up the protein at breakfast and dinner to take the stress out of lunch.

Thick Greek yoghurt is high in protein - I serve it with fruit eg berries to make it sweet.

I also make higher protein and fibre sweet snacks like flapjacks with hemp and seeds, muffins with Greek yoghurt in etc.

My DC will eat tofu IF prepared in certain ways. Could you consider that?

We typically do egg, cheese, hummus, tofu sandwich / wraps, 5th day might be a repeat of one of those or it could be eg minestrone or lentil soup and crackers, or maybe pasta and sauce. Yes they eat a lot of wheat, but they need the carbs and don't like rice or cold potatoes.

Veggie sausages with a dip
Veggie samosas.
Cheese & Onion/Cheese & Tomato/Cheese & Spinach quiche.
Falafals.
Margarita pizza.
Stuffed tomatoes or peppers.

Don’t panic about the protein helps them grown rhetoric! I’ve been vegetarian since 12 and my teen DS’s since toddlers who are both now over 6ft (my youngest is 14) unless you starve your kids their grown is determined by genes, not trying to be difficult but reassure you after being told for many years myself I was stunting myself and my kids!

What about pizza roll ups, or mini vegetable quiche?? Soup in a flask?? Chinese style noodle salad??

Greek yoghurt. With honey, jam or fruit.

A slice of quiche
Salads made with one or more of tofu, pulses and quinoa
Coronation chickpea is a great veggie vegan sandwich filling. Or you can easily can make hummus-type spreads with all kinds of beans. Try butter beans mashed with olive oil, lemon zest & juice, chopped rosemary and salt.

Some ideas here (ignore the nuts)
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5507061-a-very-loose-and-easy-recipe-for-those-that-prefer-a-savoury-breakfast-hear-me-out?page=2&reply=151265677

Cheese and veg pasta bake or Mediterranean pasta orzo with feta my vegetarian teen’s love both instead of sandwiches. Why more protein? Just curious both my teens have been vegetarian since toddlers and they have had very similar lunches to any other child for example cheese and tomato sandwiches and crisps fruit or veg sticks and sweet treat?

Wraps/bagels/flatbreads that have extra protein in?
Warburtons branded or Aldi have their own versions of these.

Mine takes a protein yoghurt in a pouch with her lunch now

My dd is veggie and she normally takes pasta and pesto with some chickpeas mixed in.

Or she’ll take leftover curry, soup, pasta with veggie bolognese, bean chilli or whatever we’ve had the night before.

We have those insulated food pots which are good.

Cheese & onion quiche