St Thomas More High School
God's Servant First
Catering and Free School Meals
Catering
Catering services at St Thomas More are provided by Nourish Contract Catering. Food purchased from the canteen is done so via our biometric cashless system which can be topped up via ‘The Schoolgateway’.
Sixth Form students may use either their biometric account or debit card when purchasing food from the Snack Shack or Main Canteen only.
Click here to check your eligibility
Free School Meals
The Free School meal allowance is £2.61 per day. If you believe you may be entitled to claim Free School Meals, please contact the finance department on finance@st-thomasmore.southend.sch.uk.
If you feel you meet ‘any’ of the requirements for Free School Meals then please apply online through the Southend on Sea City Council pages.
To apply it is really easy, all you will need to do is put your name, date of birth, address, telephone, email address, national insurance number/national asylum seeker service reference number and your child’s Name and Date of Birth.
If you qualify, we should be notified by Southend City Council that you are eligible and we will update our systems. If you have received confirmation and this has not been updated, please send in your confirmation email and we can update.
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Changes to Free School Meals from September 2026
From September 2026, the government is expanding Free School Meal eligibility to all children from households receiving Universal Credit. As a result, there are now two categories of Free School Meals:
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Targeted Free School Meals (Targeted FSM)
- Available to pupils whose household income meets the existing earnings threshold of £7,400 per year (excluding benefits).
- Pupils eligible for Targeted FSM will continue to attract Pupil Premium funding.
- Expanded Free School Meals (Expanded FSM)
Available to all other pupils in households receiving Universal Credit.
- Provides access to free school meals only.
- Pupils eligible solely through Expanded FSM do not attract Pupil Premium funding and will not become part of the Ever 6 FSM cohort.
IMPORTANT: Please inform the school if your benefit stops, as if you are in receipt of free school meals and you no longer receive any of the above benefits you may have to repay for the free school meals taken