Free School Meals (Selected Students Only)

Dear Parent/ Carer

If your child is in receipt of  a ‘Free School Meal’ (FSM) allowance, this will  only be available for your child to spend at lunchtime (12:40 – 13:20). This is in line with local primary schools as well as several CLF secondary schools.

Our reasons for this are that;

• Many students are spending their FSM money at breaktime which means that they are unable to purchase a main meal at lunchtime;
• Items that students purchase at breaktime tend to be toast, fizzy flavoured water and cookies which are not as nutritious;
• Students are finding it difficult to budget their money accordingly to ensure that they have enough for lunchtime and are therefore eating very little at lunchtime.

If purchases are made at morning break (10:40am to 11am), then students have to pay from the funds uploaded by their parent/guardian via SCOPAY or by themselves with cash using the cash loader machine on the wall in the canteen.

If at lunch break students purchase food which exceeds the £2.40 daily allowance, then the excess is charged and paid from funds uploaded by you. If purchases do not add up to £2.40, then any residual balance is removed at the end of lunch. Then the next day £2.40 is added at noon, and so on.

To support our students with having enough to eat we provide the following:

• A breakfast club each morning before school/ before tutor-time in the Student Hub with the Pastoral Leaders. This is for students who haven’t eaten breakfast due to financial constraints at home or they haven’t had enough time to get food. There is a variety of food available, and students can also suggest items that can be purchased. We also provide cereal bars and fruit that can be taken away and eaten at breaktime later if students prefer to do this instead.
• In the canteen a ‘meal deal’ offer of a drink, main meal (hot meal or jacket potato) and a sweet item (e.g. flapjack, fruit) for £2.40. Students can also purchase a sandwich instead of the main meal.
• Free water in the canteen and foyer with cups to refill and bottle refill stations so that students do not need to spend their FSM allowance on drinks.

We hope that this information will further support you and your child with their FSM allowance.

Yours sincerely

Mrs R Gardner| Assistant Principal