Free School Meals (FSM)

It is easy to apply for Free School Meals. Guidance and information on how to apply for Free School Meals can be found on Cambridgeshire County Council's website here. The application form is easy to complete, but please contact us if you would like further assistance.

Pupils who receive free school meals have £2.35 placed on their canteen account every school day. This can be spent at break or lunchtime in the canteen. The process is private and the pupil cannot be identified as receiving Free School Meals when they use their biometric identity.

When you register your children for Free School Meals, the College will receive a sum of money from the government for each child. This is fund is called Pupil Premium.

If eligible for Free School Meals, families can save around £450 a year per child.

Pupil Premium

The Government believes that Pupil Premium (PP) funding, which is additional to main school funding, is the best way to address the underlying inequalities between children who are eligible for free school meals (FSM), or who have been eligible in the last 6 years, and their peers.

For the academic year 2023-24 the government is also adding a ‘Recovery Premium’  to help schools meet the demands of ensuring all pupils catch up after the Covid pandemic.  The Recovery Premium provides additional funding for state-funded schools in the 2023 to 2024 period and, through building on the Pupil Premium, this funding will help schools to deliver evidence-based approaches for supporting disadvantaged pupils, but it is not solely to be used on disadvantaged pupils.   

The Recovery Premium is calculated on a per pupil basis and all mainstream schools will get £276 for each eligible pupil in mainstream education. Very much like the pupil premium, schools can:  

• spend the Recovery Premium on a wider cohort of pupils than those who attract the funding.  
• direct Recovery Premium spending where they think the need is greatest.  

Schools also receive funding for: children who have been looked after continuously for more than six months and students who are were looked after and are now no longer in care. Students who are the children of either currently serving member of HM forces, or who have retired on a pension from the Ministry of Defence qualify for  ‘Service Premium’ is not classed as Pupil Premium but is allocated to help with pastoral support.   

The Pupil Premium (PP) and Service Premium currently stands at:  

• £1035 for every secondary age pupil who claims free school meals or who has claimed free school meals in the last 6 years.  
• £2,530 for every pupil who are within local authority care.  
• £2,530 for every pupil who has left local authority care through adoption, a special guardianship order or child arrangements order.  
• £335 for every child of either a serving member of HM forces or retired on a pension from the MOD.  

The PP funding is used to help fund a range of educational benefits for pupils across the school such as targeted small group interventions, additional pastoral support, or inclusion in school activities such as extra-curricular clubs, school trips and music lessons.   

It is a requirement for the academic year 2023-24 that the school publishes both how the money was spent in 2022-23 and how it is going to be spent in the coming year 2023-24.  The coronavirus has, for the past 2 years, interrupted a considerable number of planned activities for pupils in receipt of PP funding but there have still been considerable efforts made to ensure that those in receipt of PP funding have received additional support.     

The strategy document can be found in the side panel and here.

Further information can be found of the County Council website, here.