Free sch meals

[Lordhavemercy]

I did not sch in England but have lived here more than half of my life. There is a question I have always wanted to ask and I hope I get an answer here.
I am wondering why they ask on some forms if one had free schools meals when at school. This in it self will make me never to claim free meals for my kids even if they qualify because it seems like a stigma.

Take up of free school meals is a measure of disandantage. There are many opportunities that give priority access to disadvantaged young people..For example, disadvantaged children are able to get priority places on University summer schools, work experience programmes run by big companies, and contextual offers (i.e. lower grade requirements) for university places. The people who run these things all want/need to be able to show that they are helping young people from more difficult home circumstances to succeed.

*disandvantage not disandantage

It is not meant as a stigma. For the school it is important as pupils who are eligible for FSM mean more funding for the school. The way it is worked out means you only need to be eligible for FSM once for the school to be able to claim the funding for up to 6 years.
It is accepted that pupils who are eligible for FSM are more likely to be needing extra help in lessons so any extra funding is helpful to both the school and the pupil involved.

It's worth clarifying that schools don't assume everyone on FSM need more help, or that children who arent't on FSM don't need help. The FSM money isn't usually targeted at individuals, but at groups of students who are at risk of underachieving, whatever the reason. Our school has a broader definition of 'disadvantaged' which includes FSM, among other things.

There is no stigma. No one knows unless they directly need to eg finance officer.

Technically true, but the people who need to know includes teachers. They need to know which students in their class are disadvantaged, so that they can provide differentiated teaching where necessary to "close the gap" in attainment and progress, if a gap exists.

At the school where I am a governor, each teacher has a seating plan in a folder, which has photos of children and coded info on things like SEN, FSM, Medical Needs etc. If a visitor, such as an Ofsted inspector, enters the classroom to observe a lesson, they will expect to see this information too, and may be interested to speak with children in disadvantaged groups, to see how well they are learning.

Thank you @shabbadabbashoe @admission @PurpleandPlatinum @Crazylazydayz for the reply.

I am curious and want to find out what code they have got written next to my kid's names at school.
Is there any way I can find out? Ask the teacher, email the school office? And how do I even frame the question?

You could put in a Subject Access Request for all of the information the school holds on your child in their Management Information System, but that might be a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

Management Information Systems, such as BromCom, store student data and can print out reports to meet teachers' needs, e.g. see here: docs.bromcom.com/covid-19-guidance-support/creating-simple-lists-for-students-e-g-fsm-recipients/. However not all staff will have access.

Basically, if you have told the school (or the previous school) that you are elligible for FSM in the last 7 years, then there will be a code representing that in the database.

At my school, it simply says FSM on the register next to any children receiving free school meals.