Free School Meals
Who can I contact about Free School Meals at Ely College?
The primary contact at Ely College for questions about Free School Meals is Georgia Chinnery, Assistant Principal, at PupilPremium@elycollege.co.uk
What are Free School Meals?
Free School Meals (FSM) provide eligible children in state-funded schools with a free lunch during term time. They help families with the cost of school meals and can also open access to additional school funding (Pupil Premium) that supports your child's education.
At Ely the daily value of this is £3 per day. This funding is per day and does not roll over into the next day. If it is not used on a day it is lost.
The ‘meal deal’ pictured below is priced at £3 so can be bought with the allowance but other items, up to £3 can also be bought.
The ‘green sticker’ for the meal deal looks as below:
You can check if your child is spending their allowance by logging into MCAS and clicking on ‘Dinners’. You can see what your child has bought within a date range and anything bought with the allowance will show as ‘FSM allowance’ daily.
Alongside the daily allowance Cambridgeshire County Council runs a holiday voucher scheme where they issue a supermarket voucher. They do this by sending a text message from ‘SchoolMeals’ or an email from ‘vouchers@wonde.com’ with instructions on how to claim.
Eligibility (who qualifies)
From September 2026, families will be assessed under new government rules. To qualify for Free School Meals, a parent or carer must be receiving Universal Credit, regardless of the household income.
There are two types of support:
- Free School Meals with additional school funding – available for families on lower incomes (under £7,400). The school receives extra funding to support your child's education (Pupil Premium).
- Free School Meals only – available for other families receiving Universal Credit (with incomes greater than £7,400). Your child will still receive a free school meal, but the school will not receive the additional funding.
How to apply if you live in Cambridgeshire
You can check eligibility and apply directly using the Cambridgeshire County Council link: