Free school meals and Smart Cards???

[Sarannie]

Hi, my daughter is entitled to free meals at secondary school and has just moved to a school where (hurrah!) they have introduced Smart cards.
Please can someone explain how they work. I believe that the daily meal amount is put on each day but after break so that children can't spend their allowance on snacks. Can I put extra money on to the card so that she can buy something at break?
Thank you

Hi, my eldest is at secondary school and gets free school meals. Her account is credited with £1.90 every day and she can spend it at break or lunch.

I top it up so they she can spend £2.50 a day though because £1.90 doesn't actually cover a whole meal and a drink at her school.

at our school, yes you can top up the cards, but the daily free meals allowance is only valid on that day (so you can't save it up and have a blow out on a Friday for example). Anything you top up yourself stays though.

Ah thanks very much. Yes I agree £1.90 isn't much for a teenager.

Our smartcard is £2 a day, but mine don't get free meals. If they go over the £2 they pay with cash, but they tell me it's never more than about 10p

We have a choice of freechoice or meal of the day where the dcs are limited to a proper 2 course meal.