Parents and guardians of primary school age children across Caerphilly county borough may be aware of Welsh Government’s commitment to extend free school meal eligibility to all primary school pupils.
This important measure will mean that across Wales, an additional 196,000 children will become eligible to take up the offer of free school meals. This transformational intervention is an important step in tackling child poverty across Wales and in ensuring that no child goes hungry.
The intention is for all INFANT school age pupils (Reception, Year 1 and Year 2) to have the opportunity to receive free school meals from September 2022, with this offer being extended to junior school age children from September 2023.
The council is working with schools to gain an understanding of the capacity of workforces and school kitchen/dining facilities in each school to be able to cater for this significant change… and needs the help of parents/guardians in doing so.
As part of phase one, the council needs to determine the likely take-up of free schools meals from September 2022 among INFANT age pupils (Reception, Year 1 and Year 2).
The link below will take parents and guardians of INFANT age pupils (in the first instance) to a short online survey which will enable us to gather the necessary data:
Data collection survey for infant age parents/guardians and their children
Cllr Ross Whiting, Cabinet Member for Learning and Leisure, said, “We very much welcome Welsh Government’s landmark decision to offer universal free school meals for primary school age pupils across Wales.
“Free school meals have clear benefits for children and their wider families. There is evidence that free school meals raise the profile of healthy eating across schools, and increase the range of food pupils eat. They can also help develop social skills at meal times, as well as improve overall behaviour and attainment.
“We need parents and guardians of infant age learners to help us in our work with schools, to make sure the right capacity is in place this September. If you have a child in reception, year 1 or year 2, please complete our short survey.”
Parents/guardians and children of infant school age are asked to input into the short survey by Friday 25th March 2022.
The survey can be found here. For more information, please visit www.caerphilly.gov.uk