Is your child eligible for free school meals?
August 15, 2023
If your child is eligible for free school meals, and you claim for them, your child’s academy receives extra funding called ‘pupil premium’.Pupil premium is funding from the government that is given to academies to help students to reach their full potential, regardless of their background or financial situation.
Academies receive £1,455 for primary students and £1,035 for secondary students who are registered for free school meals. The funding must be used by the academy to enhance the individual learning of the qualifying student, and can be used in many ways including:
- Extra one-to-one or small group support within classrooms
- Employing extra teaching assistants to work within classes
- Running targeted intervention sessions for those who need extra help
- Providing breakfast
- Providing extra tuition in Numeracy and Literacy
- Providing music enrichment for families who cannot pay for them
- Investing in resources that support individual learning
Students who are registered for free school meals do not have to eat them and cannot be identified as being registered for free school meals in anyway within the academy. However, the academy cannot claim the extra funding unless the student is registered.
Your child might be eligible for free school meals, and therefore pupil premium funding for the academy, if you access:
- 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 – your household income must be less than £7,400 a year (after tax and not including any benefits you get)
Children who get paid these benefits directly, instead of through a parent or guardian, can also get free school meals.
For further information click the link below:
https://www.togetherforchildren.org.uk/article/21204/Free-School-Meals
To register your child for free school meals use the application form below, to ensure the academy receives the relevant funding it is entitled to. Academy staff are happy to support with any applications. Applications must be made as soon as possible, and ideally by 22 September 2023.
