Dear Parents and Carers
Re: Free School Meal Provision
We do appreciate the work done by Cradle to Career/ NBDT to put together and deliver food hampers over the Christmas period to families who are entitled to Free School Meals but are conscious that it did have some limitations.
The government had suggested that food hampers was also a means of delivering Free School Meals in the new lockdown. Given our concerns, we have been campaigning for the government to return to a voucher scheme for Free School Meals as our preferred alternative to food hampers.
This afternoon it has been announced that the government will be supporting the setting up of a new voucher scheme but they have not committed to a start date yet.
We don’t believe our families can wait so we are purchasing £23 Asda vouchers for all our pupils who are entitled to Free School Meals to cover this week and next week. (We receive a £2.30 allocation per day for a child’s Free School Meal.)
The Asda vouchers will be emailed out to families whose children are entitled to Free School Meals, where we have an email address, or posted if we don’t.
We hope that the government scheme will be up and running by the 18th January but can’t promise this. If, for example, the option the government approves a previous provider eg Edenred, then this should not have the same teething problems as when they were first introduced. If a child is attending school then they will be receiving their free school meal in school so would not be entitled to receive a voucher as well.
I will be in touch again as soon as we have any information regarding the government’s new voucher scheme.
Yours faithfully
Mr A Boyle
Headteacher
