Strange school letter

peachyprice

elvis86 wrote: »

If this isn't the case, and the funding is actually allocated to generally help the school support children from low income families, then I take back what I said.

School dinners are £9ish per week, 39 weeks of the year, so £350ish, that leaves another £130 per child for any extra help they may need as a result of parents being on a low income.

As you can imagine not every FSD child will need all of their £130 so all the other children in the school will benefit.

clearingout

it is new this year, elvis. Was in the Education White Paper last year - it's a premium for schools to do what they want with. There is a lot of stigma being on free school meals and many parents will choose not to claim (particularly if their eligibility is short lived) because they fear the affect it will have on their children - either from other children, other parents or how the school staff view them. Although my children wanted packed lunches when I was on Income Support and therefore eligible, it's hard enough having to admit you're a 'single parent' without having to admit you're a 'single parent on benefits'. When I had a husband, it would never have occured to me that people with authority (teachers, GPs, health visitors...) might judge my parenting, but once I had the stigma of 'single mum on benefits' stamped all over my head ('cos thats what it feels like!) I felt incredibly vulnerable. That should say an awful lot about how society generally treats the less well off and why schools feel they need to send these letters out - they know that there are parents out there who are not claiming and therefore the school misses out...

clearingout

peachyprice wrote: »

School dinners are £9ish per week, 39 weeks of the year, so £350ish, that leaves another £130 per child for any extra help they may need as a result of parents being on a low income.

As you can imagine not every FSD child will need all of their £130 so all the other children in the school will benefit.

It's an additional payment to anything the school gets back in free school meals. So will always be for the full amount per child, regardless of whether they are claiming school meals. The school just needs to be accurately able to identify the number of children they have on their registers who qualify.

Nicki

Yes you have misunderstood elvis. The new government changed the way in which schools were funded when it came into power. Schools budgets are now based in large part on the Pupil Premium, which is an allocation of money to the school for each child in the school based on certain demographic details such as age, SEN and eligibility for school meals. So it benefits the school considerably if everyone who is eligible for free school meals applies for them, so that the school has all the relevant statistical data to send to the LEA to enable them to calculate the pupil premium correctly.

Once you have been deemed eligible for school meals, you then decide whether you want to take them up or not. The school only pays for the meals which are ordered on a daily basis. If a child is eligible for a FSM but doesn't request one in the morning because they have a packed lunch, then the school does not order a meal for that child and no payment is made for it by anyone.

The reason why the pupil premium takes into consideration eligibility for FSM is because statistics over a very large number of years show that schools who have a high proportion of FSM children do less well academically and have higher rates of non attendance. I'm not going to try to explain why that might be the case, just to say that the statistics do show a very strong correlation.

sarahk100574

This extra money is in NO WAY related to the cost of FSD's.... that is another budget entirely!! (LEA's provide FSD's from a centrally controlled budget in each area; directly to the catering company, whether that be in-house council contractors, OR other providers of meals in schools.... told you public finances are a minefield lol!)

It is money provided to school, on a basis of how many are entitled to free school dinners, for the reasons I stated earlier.... it is easier to ask schools how many are entitled to free school dinners, than to ask them to collate the household incomes of all their pupils!! The problem arises where many parents entitled to FSD do not take them up.... the school may know that it has pupils in the qualifying bracket for FSD's, but they cannot claim the additional funds unless the parents register as such....

A council may know it has (say) 15% of its pupils living in households with the lowest incomes, but it does not know how those pupils are spread accross all of its schools unless the parents tell them; ie by registering for FSD's.... If only 5% of the pupils are registerd for FSD's because the other qualifying children are all taking packed lunches/paying themselves etc, then the overall budget allowed is not released to the schools that have the intended recipients of the additional funding beacuse no-one knows where those intended recipients are.... simples!!:j

GobbledyGook

This payment is a one off payment of £488 per child who has a recognised and registered entitlement to free school meals. It is not to pay for the school meals. The only link with free school meals is that entitlement to free school meals is the easiest and best way to work out which children should entitle the school to this amount.

School meal costs are dealt with seperately and a school cannot charge for meals which are not taken up.

elvis86

GobbledyGook wrote: »

This payment is a one off payment of £488 per child who has a recognised and registered entitlement to free school meals. It is not to pay for the school meals. The only link with free school meals is that entitlement to free school meals is the easiest and best way to work out which children should entitle the school to this amount.

School meal costs are dealt with seperately and a school cannot charge for meals which are not taken up.

In that case I think the OP was mistaken, and I in turn based my comments on my understanding of his post.

ukjoel

peachyprice wrote: »

School dinners are £9ish per week, 39 weeks of the year, so £350ish, that leaves another £130 per child for any extra help they may need as a result of parents being on a low income.

As you can imagine not every FSD child will need all of their £130 so all the other children in the school will benefit.

Thats part of my issue - the letter says If you want your child to have a free healthy meal at lunchtime (saving you £350 a year) , extra benefits, and the school gets £488 EXTRA.

I dont know what the extra benefits is all about but it reads to me as the £488 is on top of the free school meal.

Harrietxxx

I'm happy for my child's school to claim every penny they are entitled to, at the end of the day my child will benefit.

One teacher was telling me the other day that the allowance the school gets for building and maintenance is allocated on pupil numbers. Our school buildings are old and require lots of maintenance, yet we get the same money as the the brand new school down the road, how is that fair?

olgadapolga

I've had letters from the Local Authority encouraging me to register for FSM . . . . my child has been educated at home for the last four years (which the LA are aware of!).

Wonder how much tax payer's money was wasted sending that out to me?