What is this craziness with the school census day?

[JuliansFinger]

School census day is this Thursday and part of the funding is on how many children have a school meal that day.

Some schools run incentives to encourage more children to take up a meal that day and I don’t blame them. What nonsense is this?

If someone can explain to me why on earth they aren’t just looking at how many are on the school register then I would appreciate it as I can’t work it out.

I would like to encourage parents to order a lunch for their child on Thursday this week as every penny counts at this point.

Schools get extra funding for pupils on free school meals. Eligible parents who claim attract money for the school. Parents who send in packed lunches don't. The census day is an appropriate day to encourage parents to get their children to try school lunches again.

My kids' school is doing free school dinner on Thursday - they always do on census day. I don't really understand it though. We don't qualify for free school meals, so what difference does it make?

@floataboat I’M a school governor. We do free school meal day to remove the stigma of free school meals to encourage take up of free school meals. We get more funding for the pupils that need it.

terribly written- am multitasking bedtime!

My kids school swapped Friday fish and chips day to a Thursday fish and chips day so more kids would have the school dinner on census day.

Schools are paid for the universal infant free school meals on the assumption that the same number who eat on census day will eat every other day. If you can boost the numbers on census day, you get extra money. The first school I worked in refurbished their kitchen by "saving" this extra money over a few years (achieved my making census day fish fingers). It can make a big difference.

Some schools find that it nudges a number of parents to apply. If you don't qualify, your children will benefit. But that's inevitable - schools can't just give a free meal to children of parents they judge as possibly eligible. Imagine the kicking they'd get!

@Cynderella is ALMOST right.

(all the below is for a school in England)

We get the finding for children who qualify for free school meals (the income based) regardless of whether they are in school on census day and whether or not they have a school meal.

The important figure on census day is the children on Universal Infant Free School Meals (UIFSM) which children get, regardless of household income, in reception, year one and year two (KS1). If, for instance, we have five children from KS1 off sick on Thursday then our funding will be reduced by five pupils worth of meals! Very unfair.

The money we get towards providing these meals IS decided by the number of children receiving a school meal on census day. BUT even then it doesn’t actually cover the cost. In 2021/22 the amount we got from the government was £2.34 while we were charged £2.50 per meal by the catering company.

That’s why we often have “special” menus on census day and we generally don’t have trips for KS1 children on census day. KS2 children meals have no impact.

Also if a child starts at our school AFTER Thursday then we effectively educate them for free as they aren’t on our roll on census day…..

Wow I did not realise this, absolutely crazy!

Also just wondering op are you a fan of ghosts by any chance? I'm loving the latest series!

Some parents don’t declare that they’re eligible for free school meals because of a perceived stigma, or that they don’t actually want the meal. But schools get loads of extra funding if parents do declare it so whether they take the food or not, it can make a huge difference to resourcing, staffing etc.

It’s a shame that it’s not done automatically by the government as schools are left trying to coerce parents to tick the box just to employ teaching assistants etc. It means schools and pupils could miss out on funds they could be entitled to just because some parents are truculent or can’t be arsed.

I understand that giving a one off free school meal might encourage more to apply in the long run, but surely they would need to do this before census day in order to get people to apply in time?

What @HideTheCroissants says makes sense - I suppose in an ideal world, they'd just give the free meals to KS1, but that wouldn't look great so they whole school is having free pizza on Thursday!

This isn't about people who qualify for free school meals because of low income, it's about the free meals that all infant children are entitled to.

Schools are funded to serve the same number of meals all year that they serve on census day. If they serve extra on census day, compared to an average day, they get "spare" money. I.e money they won't need to spend on meals they won't be serving.

We have a section on our application form for parents' NI and DOB so we automatically check them for FSM (with their consent obviously).

Ah this is why my dc’s school is having a ‘special’ themed lunch this Thursday. It seemed quite random so it makes sense why they’re doing it now.

If every Reception-Yr2 child 'tries' a school lunch on census day, even a bite of pizza, they can be recorded as having a school meal on census day. Parents are invited in to have lunch with their kids, teddy bears picnics take place, I've known schools where all of these children are encouraged to have school meals every day anyway and only very few opt to have a packed lunch. Some schools try and advertise it as an exciting surprise for the kids, but more and more are more open now and are just saying we need the kids to have a lunch to get as much funding as possible! I find that'll get the parents on side better anyway.

KS1 get their meals for free regardless. We use special menus to encourage them to opt for the meal rather than a packed lunch so that we can get as much funding as possible.

We also have a section on our application for where we get the parents details and permission to check their entitlement. Nearly all our parents complete that info and we can then run the check with no fuss and if they come up as eligible we just don’t charge them for meals once they are on KS2.

Can anyone explain why there is stigma attached to being eligible for free school meals please? Surely most schools have lots of children who have school meals for other reasons (parents too busy to make packed lunches in the morning, or the DC prefer school dinners) and pay for them, and since the payment is usually made online and in advance, how can anybody tell who is on free school meals and who pays for it themselves?

@HideTheCroissants What you are saying makes sense to me now, As I already knew about the extra funding for the children with families entitled to free school meals regardless of their age.

Now I know that KS1 free school meals for all is the reason/ focus, I can see the link with the funding and how the school can be left funding meals that are meant to be free/ paid for by the government. I suppose schools need the money upfront and can’t put a bill in yearly as they just won’t have the money and billing the government monthly would probably not work either.

Maybe as a pp has said, all children order a lunch, have a try and then eat their packed lunch. It seems wasteful but it all comes down to pennies at the moment.

@Cornishbelle
yes, I am a massive fan of Ghosts and saw someone had PatsArrow as a username and it gave me the idea. I just love the “shawoddy woddy” bits. 😂

At primary - on school trips, kids on FSM get a really basic lunch in a paper bag whereas everyone else takes their own. Not sure the kids are particularly bothered though.

By secondary - I worked in a school where you had to queue for a token for a FSM, then queue again to get your actual food. Unsurprisingly few of those that were entitled ever bothered to get their free meal, even if they really needed it. This was quite a while ago - but still 10+ years after schools in affluent areas had gone over to cards or finger print systems. Also even with a card/print system, queuing for food often takes most of lunchtime. Few kids would do it voluntarily every day unless they were on FSM.

There are 2 bits to this census day, the school meal funding and who is on the school roll. So normal funding for schools next year is based on the number of children on roll on census day (they don’t have to be in school that day just on roll). Always annoying when you get in year admissions after census day or children leave before census day

I didn't realise this was a thing! Just looked at our school menu and it's pizza and chocolate brownie for lunch on Thursday. Cunning!

I don't understand why the government doesn't just pay the catering bill for the UIFSM children

DD goes to school in a more affluent area but gets universal free school meals. I’ve often wondered if the more crappy food on census day puts parents off.

@MissVantaBlack I think the stigma backs to previous generations and the parents own memories of school when there were separate lines for FSM and paid for meals. We always had packed lunch despite being eligible for free school meals as my mum didnt want anyone thinking she and my dad couldnt provide for us.

@JuliansFinger brilliant yes love those bits too, a well needed laugh on TV when the rest is so depressing!