Free School meals - Sheffield City Council

School Meals

The catering at Stocksbridge High School is provided on site by Taylor Shaw and is part of Elior Group specialising in providing fresh, healthy food.

Taylor Shaw is one of the UK’s leading specialist caterers in the education section. They provide freshly prepared food that contributes to the wellbeing of young people in their learning environment. If your son or daughter has a particular dietary requirement do let them know and they will do their best to cater for this.

At Stocksbridge High School, we also believe that good nutrition and nourishment is key to optimal teaching and learning. As such, our services include a mid-morning break service and lunch.

The provision of free school meals (FSM) for those who qualify helps to ensure that most children have at least one balanced, nutritious meal during the school day, irrespective of parental income. The range of choices for all pupils, either paying or entitled to free school meals is the same. Each day the catering services in school provide a range of choices of hot meals, filled jacket potatoes and baguettes, fruit and even pack lunches can be provided.

Biometric Cashless System

It is recognised that the service provided needs to be quick and friendly, as pupils want to get in, eat and still have time to socialise. To this end the school uses a Biometric Cashless System, with each pupil having a personalised account.

The key features of the system are:

• Pupils in receipt of free school meals are not identifiable, which can help to avoid a pupil being stigmatised.

• Pupils do not need to remember to bring cash with them to the canteen and therefore nothing can be lost.

• Detailed usage of the system per individual pupil (date and time of use) is available.

• Parents can find out how much their children are spending and what they are eating, if desired. Parents may request the system to be programmed to prevent their child from purchasing certain items, using a particular facility or exceeding an agreed daily spending limit. Pupils with allergies can be restricted from buying items that will adversely affect them.

Free School Meals 

Are you eligible to apply for Free School Meals for your child?

If you are eligible, please make sure you apply – your child will get free meals and the school will also benefit from extra funding.

If the following applies to you, make sure you get your entitlement.

Children and young people who:

• Attend full time at a local authority school or sixth form

• Are under 19 years of age

If you have a child attending a Sheffield school or maintained nursery and receive these benefits, you may be entitled to free school meals:

• Universal credit (provided you have an annual net earned income of no more than £7,400, as assessed by earnings from up to three of your most recent assessment periods)

• Income support

• Income based jobseeker’s allowance

• Income related employment support allowance

• Support under part vi of the immigration and asylum act 1999

• The guaranteed element of state pension credit

• Child tax credit as long as you have a yearly household income of less than £16,190 (as assessed by hm revenue and customs) and do not get working tax credit

• Working tax credit run-on (paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for working tax credit)

In addition, the following pupils will be protected against losing their free school meals as follows:

• From 1 April 2018, all existing free school meals claimants will continue to receive free school meals whilst Universal Credit is rolled out. This will apply even if their earnings rise above the new threshold during that time.

• In addition, any child gaining eligibility for free school meals after 1 April 2018 will be protected against losing free school meals during the Universal Credit rollout period.

• Once Universal Credit is fully rolled out, any existing claimants that no longer meet the eligibility criteria at that point (because they are earning above the threshold or are no longer a recipient of Universal Credit) will continue to receive free school meals until the end of their current phase of education (i.e. Primary or secondary).

Please see the Sheffield City Council web page for full information on how to apply for free school meals.

Remember that children on free school meals are automatically entered onto our cashless computer system. Only the school computer will know which child is on free school meals, and accounts are credited automatically each day.

If you would like more information, or help completing an application form, please contact the school’s Business Support Manager (Mrs Parkin) who will be happy to help.