Free School Meals has a big impact on funding for schools. In the 2014 to 2015 financial year, schools receive the following funding for each child registered as eligible for free school meals at any point in the last 6 years:
- £1,300 for pupils in reception year to year 6
- £935 for pupils in year 7 to year 11
It is essential that schools record this information correctly - please ensure that all pupils eligible for a free school meal have a start date recorded on SIMS. Equally, when a child ceases to be eligible for free school meals, you need to ensure that the end date is entered in a timely manner to enable the information to be picked up in your termly School Census returns.
The DfE publish a list that allows schools to see how many of their pupils have been eligible for free school meals at any point in the last 6 years on the Key to Success website.
You can use this list to estimate how much pupil premium funding you’ll get.
Please note that this information is updated annually, and the last update was July 2014, based on the January 2014 School Census.