Free School Meals

Are you entitled to Free School Meals (FSM)?

If you think you may be eligible, or if you were eligible in the previous year,  please visit Admissions to check. They can reinstate your FSM or ask you to make a new application.

The government funding rate for for free meals in further education is £2.53 per student per meal for the coming academic year.   

If you are approved for FSM, you will receive an allowance of £2.53 per day. This will be uploaded to your student ID card automatically on a daily basis.

To use your FSM allowance, you must take your student ID card to the college refectory each day that you are in college. You can use your allowance at either breakfast or lunch.

You will need to select from the free school meal deals available. There will be a choice of a breakfast, sandwich, or hot meal deal option each day (there will be posters in the refectory indicating the meal deals available). The deals are all worth £2.53 or less.

Take your meal deal selection to the refectory cashier. They will swipe your card against the FSM card reader entitlement list and complete the free meal deal transaction.

Please ensure you use the full allocation of £2.53 each day you are in college. If you do not use it daily, you will lose it as any remaining balance will not be carried forward to another day.

If you have any further questions about FSM, please contact the Admissions Office.

Students aged between 16 and 18 on 31 August, may be eligible for a daily free meal in the current academic year. Students who are 18 at the start of their course and will 19 during their study programme will remain eligible for a free meal until the end of the academic year, or to the end of their study programme, whichever is sooner.

Students aged between 19 and 24 who are subject to a Learning Difficulty Assessment (LDA) or Education Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan) and ESF students aged between 16 and 18 on 31 August are also entitled to a free meal while attending their course, if they meet the eligibility criteria.

To find out if your child is entitled to free school meals, contact Admissions Bursary Administrator

If you receive any of the following you/your child may be entitled to receive free school meals:

  • Income Support
  • income-based Jobseekers Allowance
  • income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
  • support under part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
  • the guarantee element of State Pension Credit
  • Child Tax Credit (provided you are not entitled to Working Tax Credit) and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190, as assessed by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs
  • Working Tax Credit run-on – paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit
  • during the initial roll out of Universal Credit

A student is only eligible to receive a free meal when they, or a parent/carer on their behalf, have made a successful application to Brooklands College Bursary. On approval for FSM this will be linked to their Student ID card which they must take to the Refectory to claim their free meal.

Free meals in further education funded institutions: guide for the 2023 to 2024 academic year – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

HE Courses – Student Finance Loans

Student Finance – Student Loans Company Overview
If you’re studying full-time
You may be eligible for student finance if your course is in the UK and one of the following:

  • a first degree, for example BA, BSc or BEd
  • a Foundation Degree
  • a Certificate of Higher Education
  • a Diploma of Higher Education (DipHE)
  • a Higher National Certificate (HNC)
  • a Higher National Diploma (HND)
  • an Initial Teacher Training course
  • an integrated master’s degree
  • a pre-registration postgraduate healthcare course

Full Information

You may be able to borrow money to help pay for university or college tuition fees and to help with living costs.
You might get extra money on top of this, for example if you’re on a low income, are disabled or have children.
If you’re a continuing student or you’ve already created an account, log in to your account.

Before you apply
You start repaying once you earn over a certain amount. The size of your monthly repayments will depend on how much you earn, not what you owe.

You’ll be charged interest on the loan from the day you take it out. The terms and conditions can change.

Please visit the student loans company website for further information.

Read the student finance privacy notice to find out how the information you provide will be used.

How to apply
Find out how to apply for student finance.  

Applying for Student Finance Gov UK – Information

There’s a different process if you’re a student from Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland. Contact the education authority if you live in the Channel Islands (Jersey and Guernsey) or Isle of Man.

Allowing someone else to manage your student loan account

Advanced Learner Loan – Online Application Service

The Advanced Learner Loan online application service for courses starting from 1 August will be available from 28 June.

Eligible learners will be able to apply online on GOV.UK. Learners will need their Learning and Funding Information Letter (LAFIL) to make an application.

When you issue LAFILs to learners, please tell them that they can only submit applications once the service launches on 28 June. Any applications submitted before this will be marked as ineligible.

Your learners will only be able to apply from 28 June if you have confirmed receipt of your loans facility by returning your signed funding contract to the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA).

You must not issue LAFILs to learners until your loan facility is visible on the Learning Provider Portal. You will shortly be able to see your loans facility in the Loan Facility Details screen under the Financials Home section.

ESFA has updated the suggested LAFIL template for this year. You can view and download the template from GOV.UK.

You can find further information and guidance on our practitioner website. This includes useful tools and materials to help you and your colleagues. Learners can find further information on GOV.UK.

I have not received test dates from the College

All students who pre-registered for testing have been offered 3 timeslots via the email address used on their pre-registration form – so please check your College email but also your personal email and in some cases your parent’s email accounts (including junk / spam folders) for this communication – contact Curriculum Administrators if you still can’t find it – you will not have received timeslots if you did not complete the pre-registration form

I have been notified of a timeslot very late and cannot make it – eg I have a job or another commitment

Schools and Colleges have been given less than 2 weeks to pre-register / gain consent for testing, use this data to plan and gather the resources to administrate and deliver mass rapid testing, establish and email out timeslots – in an ideal world we would have liked to have given students at least a fortnight’s notice of a test slot and to have given students more control over when their timeslot would be, but the time constraints described plus the government’s target to have the testing completed within the first week and a half, minimise our ability to give very much notice at all or to be flexible as to when timeslots are allocated or if they can be changed – please do all you can to try and attend them, taking time away from jobs if needed.

So can I reschedule?

We cannot guarantee that we can reschedule – we have very limited resources – staff and building space – and would ask that you have a critical reason for rescheduling before asking us.  We cannot guarantee that we will be able to respond to requests to reschedule or that we will be able to find you an alternative – but in the first instance if you have a critical reason (and we would not be able to accept a work commitment as critical) please contact your curriculum administrator

I am being asked to travel to College just for testing – this seems a waste of money and add COVID travelling risk

The system in place reflects government expectations on the education sector and reflect a balance of the risks of travel with the benefits of testing for asymptomatic carriers. Travelling to College would originally have taken place during the first week of testing – which would have had to have been paid for – the College simply took the decision to extent remote learning for a week to reduce movement of students across campus to and from the testing centre

Why can’t I just do one test?

The government currently wants to see all pupils and students completing three supervised tests before it allows schools and colleges to give out home testing kits

I have had a test but have not received my results yet

Students who have tested positive will be contacted directly by the College within an hour of their test.  If you do not hear from the college your result will be negative – it may take up to 48 hours to receive an official notification of your result

Do I need to be tested if I have been vaccinated?

Testing is voluntary and recommended by government regardless of vaccination – there are a few instances where it has been recognised that some vaccinated people have incorrectly tested positive but the government has stated for this current phase of on-campus testing, verifying PCR tests will not be used (it will be to validate home tests)

How is the College operating during Coronavirus?

As a technical college offering a range of practical curriculum courses our campus is COVID-Secure and open for learning with students required to attend lessons according to their timetable in a blended format with some subject materials delivered online.  Students can Click here to access their Google Classroom.  Questions on curriculum can be addressed to student tutors or via info@brooklands.ac.uk

Other visitors to College are limited and are asked not to physically come to site unless pre-arranged beforehand and absolutely necessary. Please contact our team for assistance at: info@brooklands.ac.uk | 01932 797 700