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Free School Meals

We want to make sure that we are providing your child with the best education and support we can. Healthy school food has obvious health benefits and can help pupils establish healthy habits for life. Healthy school food can also help to improve pupils’ readiness to learn.  

Families who receive certain benefits may be eligible for free school meals.  Your child is eligible for free school meals if you’re in receipt of one of the following benefits:

• Universal Credit with an annual net earned income of no more than £7,400.
• Income Support
• Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
• Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
• Support under Part 6 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
• The guaranteed element of Pension Credit
• Working Tax Credit run-on (paid for the four weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit)
• Child Tax Credit (with no Working Tax Credit) with an annual income of no more than £16,190

Registering for free meals could also raise an extra £1,320 for your child’s primary school £900 for your child’s secondary school, to fund valuable support like extra tuition, additional teaching staff or after school activities.

All KS1 children (Reception, year 1 and year 2) currently receive a free meal via the Universal Infant Free School Meal , however  additional money is available from central government for every child whose parent is receiving one of the benefits listed above. To check if your child is eligible, we need information about you and your child. We can do a very quick eligibility check for this additional funding via Durham County Council.

Absence during term time

The school will only grant a pupil a leave of absence in exceptional circumstances. In order to have requests for a leave of absence considered, the school will expect parents to complete a ‘Term-time Absence Request Form’ (Appendix A) at least two weeks (where possible) prior to the proposed start date of the leave of absence, providing the reason for the proposed absence and the dates during which the absence would be expected to occur.

Any requests for leave during term time will be considered on an individual basis and the pupil’s previous attendance record will be taken into account. Where the absence is granted, the headteacher will determine the length of time that the pupil can be away from school. The school is not likely to grant leaves of absence for the purposes of family holidays.

Requests for leave will not be granted in the following circumstances:

• Immediately before and during statutory assessment periods
• When a pupil’s attendance record shows any periods of unauthorised absence
• Where a pupil’s authorised absence record is already above 10 percent for any reason (unless illness-related)

If term-time leave is not granted, headteachers will contact parents in writing, using local authority templates, informing them of this decision and outlining that this absence may result in sanctions, such as a penalty notice. If a pupil is taken out of school, this absence will be recorded as unauthorised. The school cannot grant leaves of absence retrospectively; therefore, any absences that were not approved by the school in advance will be marked as unauthorised.

For further information, please refer to the Attendance Policy which can be downloaded from the Policies page of this website or a papercopy can be requested from the school office.