The DfE need this data for on roll pupils. and records whether an infant pupil has taken a school lunch on census day. This may include packed lunches provided by the school to children on school trips.
If infant pupils are on a school trip and they bring a packed lunch from home ‘school lunch taken’ will be returned as ‘false’ and the pupils will be excluded from the universal infant free school meal funding calculation.
This data item is collected each term from all schools with an appropriate age range and for the following pupils regardless of whether they are eligible for free school meals:
- all pupils on roll on census day in reception (NCYearActual equals ‘R’)
- all pupils on roll on census day in year 1 (NCYearActual equals ‘1’)
- all pupils on roll on census day in year 2 (NCYearActual equals ‘2’)
- all pupils on roll on census day aged 4 to 6 not following the national curriculum (NCYearActual equals ‘X’ and pupil born between 2016-09-01 and 2019-08-31 inclusive)
If a pupil is absent on census day, see which scenarios which qualify as an unusual circumstances where you may need to record this information in a different way so it doesn’t affect your funding.
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