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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Free school meals-is there really still a stigma attached to having them?

40 replies

FuriousGeorge · 12/01/2010 20:37

I was reading the dd's school OFSTED report today and it mentioned that none of the pupils were entitled to free school meals.I was surprised and mentioned it to my sister who works in a similar school a few miles away and she said that there is only one child who has free school meals there,but there are more who are probably entitled to them,but won't claim them 'because of the stigma attached to them'

I was really surprised in this day and age,that people would think that it is something to be ashamed of,and surely the other children and parents wouldn't know who was or wasn't getting them anyway?

Any thoughts?

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rosieroseanna · 21/01/2010 18:48

I have 12 out of 22 in my class on free school lunches and we have 87 in the school. All the teachers know who has free school lunches as it says F on the lunch register but the children would never know.

rosieroseanna · 21/01/2010 18:49

FYI the government is doing sheme where if you are entitled to free school lunches you get a free laptop.

cupofteaplease · 21/01/2010 18:56

I was really shocked on my PGCE last year that there are statistics linked to free school meals and attainment. We were told that, statistically, children who receive free school meals are lower attainers. I was really shocked that this was a) true, and b) reported upon I couldn't see the relevance of linking the two things.

I know which children in my class have free school meals but the children have no clue- they are Year 2 so don't notice these things yet!

overmydeadbody · 21/01/2010 19:01

cupofteapleae there is not a link between the two, just a correlation, lower attaining children are also more likely to receive free school meals. Makes perfect sense really, they are more likely to come from deprived households and those households are more likely to acheive lower at school. Sad but true.

overmydeadbody · 21/01/2010 19:03

Kids would never know who got the free meals and who had paid, and neither would other parents know.

I guess some people may be embarrassed about claiming them to the school rather than there being a stigma attached to them.

Disenchanted3 · 21/01/2010 19:08

I got free school dinners at primary and never realised it!

When I got to High Scool there was a woman sat at a small table with 'tcikets' and you had to sign for your ticket, was very

DS has school dinners now.

GrimmaTheNome · 21/01/2010 19:15

You'd have hoped it would be discreet by now. 40-odd years ago, when I was at school it wasn't - you went up and handed your money over to the teacher if you paid. My mother was a teacher and used to think this was pretty bad, so she'd tell her class to come up unless 'their mummies had paid the office' or something like that.

rosieroseanna · 21/01/2010 22:02

I know which children in my class have free school meals but the children have no clue- they are Year 2 so don't notice these things yet!

^ Of course they are linked. I am in a very deprived area and we have a huge number of children on free school lunches as well as not great results. Children who are on free school lunches are usually from parents on benefits because they choose not to work and often there are child protection issues etc and the parents themselves are not educated thus the children do not do well at school. It's a vicious cycle.

The reason it is reported on is because it explains results. In my last school we got fantastic results but were in a church school in a village that was affluent and had no free school lunches. Explains itself really.

scanty · 21/01/2010 23:06

this might not be popular but it was one of the things I used to look for when reading ofsted reports when searching for schools. I don't care if my child's friends are on free meals (don't know anyway)as I take each child individually as with their parents but when choosing a school I'd rather avoid one with a high percentage of free meals.

SecretSlattern · 21/01/2010 23:16

SparklyGothKat · 21/01/2010 23:34

My kids are on FSM, no one in the primary school know, as the office deal with it and the kids just say dinners or packed lunch in the morning., The school provide a lunch bag for school trips.

Ds1's school is a biometic system, they use their finger prints, and the school add £1.70 a day to Ds1's account, we add £5 a week on it so he can get a hot drink in the morning as he gets to school early as transport taxi gets him there early

CardyMow · 22/01/2010 00:14

Primary-all done by the office, children don't know one way or the other. Secondary-they go to the canteen, and have to announce (loudly) that they are 'on the list'. Now what gets me is that I left secondary school 16 years ago, and MY secondary school had one of those systems where you have a chip and pin card that the office put your money on, and the parents could add extra for breaktime if they wanted to/could afford to. That way no-one knew who was on free school meals. I fail to see, if my tiny (450 pupil) secondary school could do this 16 years ago, why a huge school with almost 2000 pupils in couldn't absorb the setting up costs to avoid the situation where all the children KNOW who's on free school meals (in a relatively 'posh' area, so limited take-up of them, even in people 'entitled' to them IYSWIM, due to the bullying). In fact, I may even ASK why they are still doing this when the technology was available when I was in secondary to avoid this, and they're supposed to be a specialist computing thingy.....

scanty · 22/01/2010 00:28

Loudlass, have you approached the school about this as they seem out of line compared to what others have stated here? Maybe time for them to rethink their policy.

SparklePrincess · 22/01/2010 23:21

Quote rosieroseanna

"FYI the government is doing sheme where if you are entitled to free school lunches you get a free laptop"

Thats interesting. Do you or anyone else have a link about this?

rosieroseanna · 23/01/2010 09:59

The letters about it went out on Thursday, I will grab one with all the details and post ehre on Monday. You can do it individually or through your school, if you do it through the school the school gets money.

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