Who knows if a child is on FSM?

[orchidsonabudget]

we have just received UC - I understand I can apply for FSM but I want to know who would know if they are receiveing it?
Kids at small village primary
Also older DC at secondary

The office administrator, head teacher and class teacher. That's it.

Why would it matter though?

The teachers. The admin staff.
BUT
You are not alone and you are entitled to it.

Look up the schools and you'll see how many other families are in the same place as you (FSM is a standard metric)

What twinkle said. There is no reason why the children, kitchen staff or midday supervisors should know.

Depending on if catering is outsourced, kitchen manager will know, as it has to go through our book work.

Other kids wouldn't know, when items are scanned it doesn't show differently.

It's strictly on a need-to-know basis.

I'm a TA in a primary school and have no idea which of our children are receiving FSM.

The system at my DD's secondary school means that no students know who else has FSM. Everyone 'buys' food using a pre-paid card. No one would know whether the cards had been topped up by parents or FSM funding.

The school will be very pleased to receive your application as they will receive further funding from the Government. You can usually apply through the Gateway app if your school has it and you don’t want to speak to anyone directly about it.

Slightly different in our school, the HT, office, class teacher and whoever administers lunches - which is TA's (who are also MDSAs) in our case- purely from the software print out for lunch collections. It totals packed lunches, FSM, and paid school meals - but none of the abbreviations are obvious.

Children and kitchen staff don't know, and it's not a big deal to anyone. As a TA and MDSA I'm too busy trying to ensure I've collected the right number of hot dinners to notice anything else on the list!

I dont know in a secondary but in a primary the person in the office that runs the actual checks and sorts out things like trip payments would know. We also sort out meal vouchers and we are often given things like panto tickets or toys to distribute this time of year. We are very discrete. The class teacher knows but they forget all the time as they only use it for certain data reporting so unless they are doing the data its not interesting to them (which become anonymised). Other teachers and TAs wouldn't know. The HT and other SLT might need to know if they are tracking progress.

It really helps with school funding.

I know how important it is for school funding so I do want to do that for them but don't want the kids to be treated any differently.

Thanks for your reply.

I've dealt with FSM, checking their applications etc & it wouldn't even cross my mind to think of the children, let alone treat them differently.

Only staff. So office staff, potentially class teacher/TA and kitchen if they need it for their records.

In ks1 everyone gets them anyways. In KS2 as a pupil at least there's no way to know. Some FSM children have packed lunches every day anyways, very few children pay on the day,it's mostly done online , some children have school meals daily but they pay for it etc. So there's no "x pays ,y doesn't " or "x is always school meals so he must be FSM" or anything like that.

As staff we do not talk about it or discuss it. There's never a reason to.

Forgot to add, if I'm entirely honest I don't even know off the top of my head all the FSM children in my class, much less treat them differently.

Children who receive Pupil Premium are considered as a separate group for school performance accountability measures, so in my school, and many others across the land, all adults will be able to easily identify which they are. It's not uncommon for them to have stickers on their books to make them easily identifiable. I have fought against this in my school.

@orchidsonabudget

I know how important it is for school funding so I do want to do that for them but don't want the kids to be treated any differently.

They would not be treated differently. There is no reason why children on Fsm should be. Do not let that fear stop you from applying for it. Your children would get a hot meal at school leaving you with more money for other expenses at home. I would not give it a second thought personally.

That's a really unhelpful comment below about stickers on books. OP I can assure you absolutely nobody will think twice, or any differently about your child. Please please apply

As staff we do not talk about it or discuss it. There's never a reason to.

You mean except in your pupil progress meetings when SLT are asking you how your PP children are doing?

@reefedsail

Children who receive Pupil Premium are considered as a separate group for school performance accountability measures, so in my school, and many others across the land, all adults will be able to easily identify which they are. It's not uncommon for them to have stickers on their books to make them easily identifiable. I have fought against this in my school.

What stickers, what do they look like?

I have never , ever seen stickers on FSM or pupil premium books!! I find it very difficult to believe that schools are doing this. What on earth is the point of that? In my secondary school all staff with access to SIMS will know which children are on FSM - as pps have said we have to collect data on pupils under different categories - boys, girls, fsm, sen, lac, g and t. It makes not one bit of difference to me who is on fsm - I had them myself as a child.

I really would not worry unduly about this. There are probably far more children on fsm than you realise - and sadly this number is set to rise as the economy continues to take a dive.

I'm in secondary and it's strictly need to know, I only know as I work in Finance, no one judges or treats you or you children any differently, people's circumstances are what they are and can change for any number of reasons honestly I don't even register I just do my job.

Please apply if you are entitled to it you should have it.

@reefedsail

Children who receive Pupil Premium are considered as a separate group for school performance accountability measures, so in my school, and many others across the land, all adults will be able to easily identify which they are. It's not uncommon for them to have stickers on their books to make them easily identifiable. I have fought against this in my school.

But they may have Pupil Premium for a variety of reasons so, even with a sticker, wouldn't necessarily mean FSM.

What is FSM

Oh sorry just realised

Whilst children in receipt of FSM are in the pupil premium group, there are other criteria for this, so pupils tracked as PP are not all FSM. Also, only school staff who work with a class would know, and would not treat them any differently.