Pupil premium and free school meals working in Gillingham

Gillingham's parliamentary candidate, Paul Chaplin, joins local Councillor, Diana Smith, in checking out the large poster outside a local school. Paul would like to see Liberal Democrats returned to Government to push for more help for families - already we have introduced the pupil premium by which schools that educate pupils from a low income background will, this coming year, receive £1320 additional cash for each child, and of course a free hot meal every day for all infant children.

A local resident who has 3 children had the following to say, "Free school meals has made a sizeable impact in our weekly food budget. Not only are we saving money but my daughter is benefiting from a varied diet. In these times of economic hardships this is a real boon to working families like mine"".

We would urge parents who would be eligible for free school meals in any case to let their school know this. Without this information the school will not receive the pupil premium for that child and our hard working schools need every penny to help Gillingham's children receive the first class education they deserve.