Free school meals 'stigma' worries could have knock-on effect

Around a fifth of pupils at this Holyhead school claim free school meals

Stigma attached to free school meals stops some parents claiming, which has a knock-on impact on school budgets, it has been claimed.

One Anglesey head teacher said parents are being urged to take up free meals - or the school could lose out on extra cash to support more deprived pupils.

A Bangor University study suggests "rural pride" could also be a barrier in some areas.

Schools receive an extra £1,150 for each pupil on free school meals.

Nearly 65,000 pupils, aged five to 15, were eligible to claim free school meals in Wales in the last year - this is just over 17% of all pupils.

Of these eligible pupils, the take-up of free school meals was around 88%.

Adam Williams, head of Ysgol Uwchradd Caergybi in Holyhead said that 21% of his pupils claim free school meals but he estimates that 43% have been eligible at some point since starting in year seven.

Holyhead is ranked in one of the poorest places in Wales

Many parts of the town are classified as deprived and are among the lowest ranked under poverty measures in Wales.

The take-up of free school meals on Anglesey is slightly less than the Welsh average.

"Some families are afraid or are concerned about the stigma attached to claiming free school meals", said Mr Williams.

"So we have a lot of very proud parents that potentially would not claim but have two maybe three jobs in order to ensure that there's enough income coming into their household.

"And the impact of that of course as a school is that we're funded directly by the percentage of parents that actually claim so in fact in doing so we lose out in the funding formula."

He said the school and local authority had tried to encourage take-up and family engagement officers helped parents with forms.

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Jodi Fielding is one of three new pastoral support officers employed by Ysgol Uwchradd Caergybi.

They are paid for by the pupil development grant - to support pupils with any worries or stresses, in or out of the classroom.

She is a former Army linguist - not from a teaching background - so this helps her engage with pupils, who bring a wide range of issues to her.

"The ones from the disadvantaged backgrounds are good learners but they sometimes have more of the issues at home - so we try to work with parents too, to try to sort those problems out," said Jodi.

"We try to bring them in as a family to discuss what's going on and how it's affecting school life. But we also get pupils not from the deprived backgrounds - here we're talking about anxiety and stress in school, there's a whole range."

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Research by Bangor University suggests that head teachers believe parents in rural areas are more likely to be put off taking up free meals.

Researcher Gwilym Sion ap Gruffudd said: "They called it 'rural pride'.

"The 'rural pride' prohibited parents from making applications for free school meals."

He said that could be explained by "the connections in rural Wales, the closeness in rural Wales, that people tend to know each other, the school staff tend to live among the pupils".

The Welsh Government is currently considering changes to eligibility for free school meals, due to the roll out of universal credit.