Free School Meals

Having a healthy lunch is important in helping students to maintain concentration and focus in lessons whilst in school. Free school meals (FSM) are nutritious lunches provided through government funding to eligible students in state-funded schools. They are available to students whose families who meet the criteria below.

As a parent, you can apply for FSM if you believe your child qualifies.

Who can apply for FSM?

A parent or carer can apply for FSM for their child if the child:

• attends a Kirklees school
• attends school full time
• is of statutory school age

and the parents or carers receive one or more of the following:

• 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
• Child Tax Credit, but are not entitled to a Working Tax Credit and your annual income (as assessed by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs) is less than £16,190
• Support under Part V1 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
• Guaranteed element of State Pension Credit
• Working Tax Credit run-on – paid for four weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit.

How can you apply for FSM?

• Applications for FSM are administered and must be submitted via Kirklees Council
• Complete the Apply for free school meals Kirklees Council form – this should take around 10 minutes. To do this you will need both your and your partner’s National Insurance Number or NASS (National Asylum Support Service) number.
• If you have queries regarding your application, please contact Kirklees Council on [email protected] or 01484 221000.

What happens after you’ve applied?

If you meet the eligibility criteria, Kirklees Council will contact us to tell us the start date of your FSM entitlement. Kirklees Council will also email you to inform you of the start date. If you have had a recent change in circumstances, you will need to notify the Department for Work and Pensions. This will need to be processed before we can assess your entitlement to FSM.

How does FSM align with HGS’s cashless catering system?

Once we receive notification of your child’s eligibility for FSM from Kirklees Council, we will update our student data system and cashless catering system to ensure a daily allowance is set up for your child.

• FSM allowances are added to the cashless catering system daily. Unspent allowances are not carried forward to subsequent days.
• The FSM allowance is the same price as a meal deal available in the serving areas at lunchtime.
• A meal deal includes the choice of a hot or cold main meal plus drink and/or dessert options depending on whether the student selects a pink meal deal (2 items) or a blue meal deal (3 items).  Items are marked accordingly as to which meal deal they are part of.
• The FSM allowance can be used at the break or lunchtime service. However, students purchasing items at break from this allowance will not leave themselves sufficient funds for a meal deal at lunchtime.
• If you wish your child’s FSM allowance to be used at lunchtime only, please let us know. Email [email protected] with details of your child’s name and year group so we can prevent usage at break times. If you do not set any limits, we would strongly advise using ParentPay to ensure your child has sufficient credit available to cover any spend over the FSM allowance.

What is the relationship between FSM and Pupil Premium status?

Students who are eligible for FSM will also meet the criteria for Pupil Premium status. You can learn more about what this means on our Pupil Premium Page.