Free School Meals & Pupil Premium

Free School Meals Information

GCC Free School Meal Poster

Please read the information below which gives details of our Pupil Premium Grant and how we allocate the funding.

Free School Meals

Your child may be able to get free school meals if you get any of the following:

• 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 - if you apply on or after 1 April 2018 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.
Your child may also get free school meals if you get any of these benefits and your child is both:

• younger than the compulsory age for starting school
• in full-time education

Infant free school meals in England

Your child will be able to get free school meals if they’re in our school and in:

• Reception class
• Year 1
• Year 2

Tell your local authority if you also get any of the qualifying benefits.

Please tell school if you do this as school can apply for extra funding as well which will help your child.

Please click here on this link to apply for free school meals.

Pupil Premium

If any child is eligible for free school meals, then school can apply for extra funding called Pupil Premium.  It’s designed to help disadvantaged pupils of all abilities perform better, and close the gap between them and their peers.  This funding is given directly to school in order to improve the quality of the education that disadvantaged pupils receive.
At the GPP Federation we are committed to helping support the children within our community, in the way that will improve their long term learning, their long term well-being and their long term view of themselves.  We want to improve their feelings of safety in school, in the community and in their own homes.  We want to improve their understanding that they can make important contributions to society, to their own family and to school.  We want to remove any ceilings on their ability to reach a higher level of education.  We want to assist disadvantaged pupils to be articulate, caring and self-motivated adults who will be able to make real choices and debate their ideas.  We want to encourage creativity and foster hope.

Our foremost commitment is to improving reading, writing and mathematical skills.  However, we realise that this can be achieved in many different ways.  First, we commit to improving the reading skills of all disadvantaged children, particularly their comprehension and enjoyment of reading.  We also want to improve the levels of spoken language and their understanding of language.  We want them to be able to question the ideas they are given.  We want them to have shared experiences with their peers, without the fear of missing out or the anxiety of now knowing what is coming next.  We want all children to have the basic skills which will help them in the wider world, such as tying their shoe laces, using a knife and fork, speaking in full sentences or knowing how to form letters correctly.
We also want to ensure that children experience the best that our local environment offers.  We will be taking pupils for walks in the woods, for boat trips and for trips to the theatre.  We will invite local authors, sporting heroes and religious leaders to our school to share their life experience with us.  We will attend festivals and fairs.  We will ensure that our pupils know about their local community.

School will receive £1,345 for each child who has ever been eligible for free school meals.

Schools will receive £2,345 for any pupil:

• identified in the school census or the alternative provision census as having left local authority care as a result of:
• adoption
• a special guardianship order
• a child arrangements order (previously known as a residence order)
• who has been in local authority care for 1 day or more
• recorded as both eligible for FSM in the last 6 years and as being looked after (or as having left local authority care)

It’s designed to help disadvantaged pupils of all abilities perform better, and close the gap between them and their peers.
This funding is given directly to school in order to improve the quality of the education that disadvantaged pupils receive. 

At the GPP Federation the Executive Head Teacher, Deputy Head Teacher, SENCO and the School Governors strategically plan the spending of the pupil premium and monitor its impact of the spending and interventions.  However, within our school, all staff have the responsibility to ensure that the pupil premium has the biggest impact possible for disadvantaged pupils.  Each financial year, we create a strategy for spending based on the needs of the children who are in our school.  We forward plan each penny of the funding, but we also ensure that we are flexible with supporting each child individually.

Picklenash PP strategy statement 2023-24

Picklenash Pupil Premium Statement 2022-23

Picklenash Juniors Pupil Premium Strategy Statement 2021-22

Department for Education

 Articles and advice for children and young people.