Free school meal vouchers for May half-term

As confirmed last week, the council will be providing free school meal vouchers for children to cover the May half-term holiday.

In order for us to allocate the correct number of vouchers to each school, and minimise the need for schools to make follow-up requests, we need each school to complete this Reception to Year 14 online form, which we will use as the basis for the actual allocation.

Additionally, if you have nursery-aged children eligible for Early Years free school meals, please complete this Early Years online form.

Please can you read through the relevant DfE guidance suggested on the online form and ensure children meet the DfE eligibility criteria before submitting numbers.  For information we have also made available on Perspective the number of free school meal vouchers that were allocated to your school for the Easter holiday.

Please can the online form be submitted by 14th May 2021. If no online form has been submitted by a school, we will be contacting schools to determine whether half-term holiday voucher codes are required.

We intend to upload the voucher codes to Perspective by Tuesday 18th May at the latest to allow time for schools to distribute before the half-term holiday.

Any issues completing the online form or accessing Perspective please e-mail educationdata@birmingham.gov.uk

Reminder: Surplus primary places webinar: Thursday 13th May

Officers from Education Infrastructure provided an update on sufficiency at Primary Forum in March 2021 and shared an update regarding primary places as a result of changes to in-year growth and reduced intakes.

We have committed to providing information to support schools, trusts and admission authorities to plan and have arranged online webinars for Thursday.

• Thursday 13th May 10am–11am – Book using this Eventbrite link
• Thursday 13th May 11.30am–12.30am – Book using this Eventbrite link

The slides and recording from the webinars as well as the relevant data will be shared with all schools after the webinars.

If schools have any queries ahead of the webinars, please contact edsi.enquiries@birmingham.gov.uk

Birmingham Holiday Activities Fund update

Schools who were unable to attend the recent HAF engagement webinars can access a recording at this link.

At this link is a bulletin focussed on school readiness that the team will be producing on a regular basis in the lead up to the summer. The bulletin also includes other useful information about national literacy campaigns and ways that schools can engage.