Please see below a letter from the Prime Minister regarding the government’s latest campaign to support children’s health and learning.

Is your child eligible for free school meals?

If your child is eligible for free school meals, and you claim for them, your child’s academy receives extra funding called ‘pupil premium’.

Pupil premium is funding from the government that is given to academies to help students to reach their full potential, regardless of their background or financial situation. Academies receive £1,515 for primary students and £1,075 for secondary students who are registered for free school meals. The funding has to be used by the academy to enhance the individual learning of the qualifying student, and can be used in many ways including:

• Extra one-to-one or small group support within classrooms
• Employing extra teaching assistants to work within classes
• Running catch up sessions for those who need extra help
• Providing breakfast to improve attendance
• Providing extra tuition
• Providing music enrichment for families who cannot pay for them
• Assisting with the cost of educational visits
• Investing in resources that boost learning i.e. laptops or tablets

Students who are registered for free school meals do not have to eat them and cannot be identified as being registered for free school meals in anyway within the academy. However, the academy cannot claim the extra funding unless the student is registered.

Your child is eligible for free school meals, and therefore pupil premium funding for the academy if you access:

• Income Support
• income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
• income-related Employment and Support Allowance
• support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
• the guaranteed element of Pension Credit
• Child Tax Credit (provided you’re not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190)
• Working Tax Credit run-on – paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit
• Universal Credit – if you apply on or after 1 April 2018 your household income must be less than £7,400 a year (after tax and not including any benefits you get)

Register your child for free school meals using the application form below (or link to appropriate website), to ensure the academy receives the relevant funding it is entitled to. Academy staff are happy to support with any applications.

Please complete your application by 19 September 2025.

If you need any support with the application, please contact the academy and a member of staff will be happy to help.

LINK TO APPLICATION FORM

Northern Education Trust is delighted to have raised a magnificent £22,680 for the Rainbow Trust children’s charity, through various fund-raising events by all our academies, such as colour fun-runs, quizzes and school fairs.

Rainbow Trust provides emotional and practical support to families who are caring for a seriously ill child. Their Family Support Workers are a lifeline for a family as they try to navigate the world of hospital appointments and treatments, whilst trying to keep family life as normal as possible. They can spend time with the siblings of the poorly child, allowing parents to concentrate on their seriously ill child, safe in the knowledge that siblings are being looked after by someone they can trust. The Family Support Worker can also give parents a much-needed break, looking after their poorly child while the parents spend valuable time with their other children, or even take some time out to just sit and enjoy a quite cuppa.

The donation of £22,680 will allow Rainbow Trust to support around 11 families for an entire year.

Katherine Burgess, Corporate and Community Fundraising Manager for the Rainbow Trust said: “We are so thankful for the support of Northern Education Trust, and thanks to your kind gift, we can continue to provide the best care and support to families so that they do not have to face childhood illness alone.”

For more information about the Rainbow Trust, look here – https://www.rainbowtrust.org.uk/

NET Staff College has been successful with its application to deliver the Teaching Internships Programme June/July 2025.

The aim of the internship programme is to give undergraduates the opportunity to experience teaching maths, physics, chemistry, computing or modern foreign languages before they commit to it as a career. This programme is part of the Get into Teaching service, supporting prospective teachers through their journey into the profession.

The programme is open across England to potential teachers in maths, physics, chemistry, computing and modern foreign languages.

It is an exciting opportunity for undergraduates, in any year of their degree, to experience time in an academy. These students may not have considered the teaching route; however, this programme gives them an opportunity to gain a greater insight and experience first-hand academy life. Interns will be offered a structure of activities to gain a deep experience of teaching, with access to one-to-one mentors and various opportunities to network with qualified subject specialists. The programme will also include measures to encourage and support interns to apply for teacher training.

As previously stated, this programme is only for specific subject areas within a secondary setting. It is a three-week placement that could be across more than one academy, depending on geographical location. Please note interns will receive a payment of £1,275 (£425 per week).

For more information please visit: NET Staff College website: https://nsc.northerneducationtrust.org/teaching-internships-programme/

Teaching Internships Flyer.pdf