Pupil Premium and Free School Meals

Pupil Premium and Free School Meals

Free School Meals

Free school meals are available to pupils in Years 7 to 13 who meet the eligibility criteria.

Eligibility criteria for free school meals

Free school meals are available to pupils in receipt of, or whose parents are in receipt of, one or more of the following benefits:

• Universal Credit (provided you have an annual net earned income of no more than £7,400, as assessed by earnings from up to three of your most recent assessment periods)
• 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 guarantee 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 four weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit

In addition, pupils who have been eligible for free school meals at any point since 1 April 2018 will continue to be eligible until the end of the 2025/26 school year.

How do I apply for Free School Meals?

In order to apply for free school meals, you will need to complete an online form which can be found via the Trafford Council OFSM portal and you will need to complete a separate application for each child.

Please note that the decision is not made by the school as to whether you qualify, and therefore any questions related to the application cannot be answered by the school.

Pupils moving to Sale Grammar School

If your child attends a school in Trafford that is using OFSM then the school they attend can go onto the OFSM system and transfer the student’s eligibility to Sale Grammar School. Once they have done this we will receive a notification from the OFSM system and will be able to provide free school meals for your child.

If the school are unable to do this, or, if your child attends a school that does not use OFSM then you will need to apply via the Trafford Council OFSM portal.

What happens once it is confirmed that my child is eligible for free school meals?

• The OFSM system will alert us that your child is eligible for free school meals
• The current free school meals allowance is £3.50.
• Your child will present themselves at the till in the school refectory or sixth form café to pay for their food in the same way as any other student would. It is not possible for students to identify which other students are eligible for free school meals.
• Up to £3.50 will be credited to your child’s ParentPay dinner money account at the end of each day.
• Your child can choose to spend than their £3.50 free school meal allowance. Therefore, you will need to ensure that funds are available in child’s ParentPay dinner money account to account for any surplus expenditure.
• Any of the £3.50 free school meal allowance that has not been spent by the end of the day will not be carried over to the following day.

School holiday food vouchers

Students who are in receipt of free school meals have recently been able to receive vouchers from the local authority to support with food costs over the school holiday periods. The school will send out information in relation to this, as and when we are notified by the local authority.

Pupil premium funding

Pupil premium funding is provided to schools to help all pupils reach their full potential regardless of their background or financial situation.

The eligibility criteria for pupil premium funding is:

• pupils currently eligible for free school meals
• pupils who have been eligible for free school meals at any point in the last 6 years
• children previously looked after by a local authority or other state care, including children adopted from state care or equivalent from outside England and Wales

Further eligibility criteria exists for pupils who:

• have a parent serving in the regular UK armed forces
• have a parent serving in the armed forces of another nation and is stationed in England
• have a parent who has died whilst serving in the armed forces

How is the pupil premium funding used?

Pupil premium funding is paid directly to the school, who decide how the funding should be used. The school has a three-year pupil premium strategy, which is outlined in the documentation below. 

Specific support is provided to students who meet the pupil premium eligibility criteria. This typically includes support towards: uniform costs, study guides, educational visits, after-school sports clubs; and music tuition.