Universal free school meals 

From September 2014, all children in reception, year 1 and year 2 in state-funded schools in England will be eligible for free school meals. 

 

 

Means-tested free school meals 

Eligibility:

You can get free school meals if your child attends a local authority maintained school like ours, Glodwick, and you receive one of the following: 

• Income Support (IS) 
• Income-based Jobseekers Allowance (IBJSA) 
• An income-related employment and support allowance 
• Support under part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 
• Child Tax Credit (provided you are not entitled to Working Tax Credit) and 

have an annual income (as assessed by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs) 

that does not exceed the current year’s level 

• the Guaranteed element of State Pension Credit 
• Working Tax Credit during the four-week period immediately after your 

employment finished, or after you start to work less than 16 hours per week. 

• Universal Credit

 

Additionally: 

• You, as the parent or guardian, must Receive Child Benefit for the child you are responsible for. 
• Children who receive IS or IBJSA in their own right are also entitled to receive free school meals. 
• Children who receive “education suitable for children who have not attained compulsory school age” will still need to satisfy the additional requirement of “receiving education both before and after the lunch period”, before being eligible to receive free school meals. 

There are also cases where the parent/guardian whose children may be eligible for free school meals is not on Housing Benefit/Council Tax Reduction, i.e. where they are not the householder. This is generally the case where the pupils’ parent/guardian lives in another household. 

 

 

Apply: 

You will also need to apply if you are getting any of the other benefits listed above. You need to complete an application form and submit it to Access Oldham: 

From the Autumn Term Census 2018, we currently have 27 out of 264 infant aged learners eligible for Pupil Premium and another 3 Pupil Premium Plus, which makes 30 eligible children.  This is 11.3% which generates an individual allowance of £1320 for each child from the Department for Education. The school uses this allowance to ensure that these children achieve at least their potential. It provides opportunity for one to one teaching and learning, first hand experiences, as well as learning within a small group. Learning outcomes are monitored by the teaching staff and we have extremely high expectations of our young learners. The analysis of learning progress provides us with the information to deliver additional interventions and support where appropriate. 

This enhanced provision makes a positive difference to the learning outcomes and although we do strive to maintain this position without the funding, it plays a significant part. 

 

 

Year	Pupil Premium
2014	£93,600
2015	£74,260
2016	£51,480
2017	£43,560
2018	£42,240

 

 

This funding is used to support the eligible children by providing interventions and bespoke learning packages within their year group by teaching and support staff. 

The reduction in funding is due to the Universal Free School Meals Offer from the Government. This has resulted in many parents not registering their infant children for the free school meal benefit. Also, the changes in the benefit system mean that our families miss the threshold for eligibility by a very small margin. 

At Glodwick, according to the Multiple Index of Deprivation all of the pupils at Glodwick are in the most deprived 67%. The pupil premium funding is allocated to those eligible children to enable them to achieve their personal best progress from their starting points. In terms of data outputs this is not always transparent. Careful monitoring of the impact of interventions at child level demonstrates the positive difference the pupil premium funding makes to the eligible children. 

Please check your eligibility and sign up your child for free school meals if you are entitled. It means we will receive the extra funding in school to educate your child better. 

Please help us by making an application for this benefit if you think that you may be entitled. Thank you.