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Encyclopedia > Free school meals

The term free school meal refers to a sum of money provided for individual pupils in schools throughout the United Kingdom to purchase a lunch time school meal, or to the meal itself. For a child to qualify for a free school meal, their family or carers are considered by the Local Education Authority to be unable to fund a lunch time meal. The authority will then provide either a free meal, or a sum of money considered acceptable to purchase a full meal in the school canteen for that pupil. This often takes the form of tickets, to ensure that the money is only spent on food at school. Periodical reviews are conducted to assess a child's qualification for this scheme. A school dinner is a meal (dinner or lunch) provided to students at a school. ... A Local Education Authority (LEA) is the part of a council in England or Wales that is responsible for education within that councils jurisdiction. ...

Contents

History

The 1944 Education Act made it an entitlement for pupils to receive a free school meal. This entitlement was scaled back in 1949 when a flat charge of 2.5 pence was introduced. Over the next thirty years this flat fee was gradually increased, until in 1980, legislation was introduced to remove the requirement for Local Education Authorities to provide a meal for every pupil. Since that date, authorities have been obliged only to provide a meal to those pupils who are eligible for a free meal.[1] Above: A variety of coins considered to be lower-value, including an Irish 2p piece and many US pennies. ...


School League Tables

The percentage of children eligible for free school meals in an area is thought to be a fair measure of deprivation. This figure is therefore used in conjunction with the scores children achieve in SATs, GCSEs and A-levels to determine a school's position in the local and national league tables. If two schools get their children to the same scores, the school with the most children eligible for free school meals is judged to have done a better job, as it has been likely to be teaching children with access to fewer resources and less home encouragement. The SAT Reasoning Test, also called the SAT I, is a standardized test for college admissions in the United States. ... GCSE is an acronym that can refer to: General Certificate of Secondary Education global common subexpression elimination - an optimisation technique used by some compilers This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... An A-level, short for Advanced Level, is a General Certificate of Education usually taken during Further Education and after GCSEs. ...


Problems

Free school meals can be seen as stigmatising to those pupils involved; studies have shown that many of those entitled to free meals do not take them and it can have a negative effect on those that do. Another problem is that not all those children who could benefit from the scheme qualify for it. Organisations such as the Child Poverty Action Group have called for school meals to be made free for all pupils to tackle the problems mentioned above. Child Poverty Action Group is a UK charity. ...


School (Nutrition and Health Promotion) (Scotland) Bill

Frances Curran MSP is leading a broad campaign with widespread support through many childrens and anti-poverty organisations to provide free nutritious meals for all Scottish schoolchildren to tackle the problems of poor diet among Scottish schoolchildren[2]. A bill to this effect was proposed in parliament in 2002 but was defeated, the bill is currently being resubmitted, following a Scottish Executive consultation which found that 96% of respondants were in favour of free school meals. Frances Curran Frances Curran is a member of the Scottish Parliament for West Scotland. ... Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) (Ball Pàrlamaid na h-Alba (BPA) in Gaelic) is the title given to any one of the 129 individuals elected to serve in the Scottish Parliament. ... The Executives logo, shown with English and Scottish Gaelic caption The term Scottish Executive is used in two different, but closely-related senses: to denote the executive arm of Scotlands national legislature (i. ...


Scandinavia

In both Sweden and Finland, free school meals are offered to all pupils. This practice has been in place since 1948 in Finland, and was introduced to Sweden in 1973. Year 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ... 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday. ...


See also

The updated USDA food pyramid, published in 2005, is a general nutrition guide for recommended food consumption. ... A boy from an East Cipinang trash dump slum in Jakarta, Indonesia shows his find. ... The School Food Trust is a UK non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), giving independent support and advice to schools and parents to improve the standard of school meals. ...

References

  1. ^ The Case for Free School Meals (PDF). Child Poverty Action Group. Retrieved on 14 January 2007.
  2. ^ Campaign for Free School Meals - Scottish Executive School Meals Bill
  • Campaign for Free School Meals. Child Poverty Action Group. Retrieved on 18th February, 2006.
  • Consultation on Free School Meals Bill
  • Will McMahon, Tim Marsh (1999). Filling the Gap: free school meals, nutrition and poverty. Child Poverty Action Group, 48. ISBN 1-901698-25-4. 


 
 

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