Free School Meals

Free school meals (FSM) are available to children if you or your partner receive certain benefits. You only need to complete one application for all your children, even if they attend different schools within Herefordshire.

Who can apply for free school meals

You may be eligible if you receive any of the following:

• Income Support or Income-Based Jobseeker’s Allowance
• Income-related Employment and Support Allowance

• Universal Credit (if net earnings do not exceed £7,400 per year) (From September 2026 your child will be eligible if you are on Universal Credit and are earning over £7400 per year)

• Pension Guarantee Credit
• Child Tax Credit (without Working Tax Credit) and an annual income below £16,190 (as assessed by HMRC)
• Working Tax Credit 'Run On' (a 4 week payment when your employment has ceased). Please note if you are receiving standard Working Tax Credit you would NOT be eligible.

• Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999

   

• Ukrainian families are also very likely to be eligible. Please complete an application as soon as possible. If you are waiting for a National Insurance number, please inform the school.

How to apply

You must apply through the local authority responsible for your child’s school:

• For students at John Kyrle High School, applications are processed by Herefordshire Council.

Link here: Free school meals - Herefordshire Council

What happens next

• Herefordshire Council is responsible for checking eligibility every year.

• If your child is coming from outside a Herefordshire school, you will need to reapply to Hereford Council using the link above, even if they are currently receiving Free School Meals.

• Once your application has been processed by your local authority, the school is informed of the outcome via the Revenue and Benefits department. We will contact the named parent to confirm the details.

• Each child who is eligible for Free School Meals, has the daily amount of £2.50 to spend via the canteen. They can spend this at any of the meal times throughout the day, but we do encourage each child to spend this amount on food and not just drinks. If you wish for your child to spend more than the allocated £2.50 per day, you can add additional funds to their ParentPay account in order to top-up their spend.

• You will not see this monetary amount allocated to your ParentPay account, it is processed in a separate system.

• If you wish to speak to someone within John Kyrle in relation to Free School Meals, please contact Wendy Dallison via 01989 764358.

• If you need help to complete the form, or would like a paper form to complete, please contact the above number.