Footwear and Clothing Grants

The Footwear and Clothing Grant is a one off annual payment per child towards the cost of buying essential clothing for children up to the age of 16 who attend school. Applications are open until 31^st December. A short application form is required along with your most recent Tax Credit award letter. Application forms can be obtained from Stirling Council, telephone 01786 233210 or downloaded from the Council website.

Please take your completed application form, along with the documents requested, to your nearest local office, or Customer First, Port Street, Stirling or post to Stirling Council, Teith House, Kerse Road, Stirling, FK7 7QA.

Free School Meals

Access to free school meals is an important part of the school meal service in Scotland. Local authorities must promote the uptake of free school meals amongst those currently eligible. It is important that pupils entitled to free school meals receive them without fear of stigmatisation. The free school meal entitlement is therefore credited to pupils’ electronic lunch cards automatically each day and they are not identified in any way.

You can claim free school lunches for your children if you are receiving:

• Income Support (IS)

• Income-based Job Seeker’s Allowance (JSA)

• Any income related element of Employment and Support Allowance

• Child Tax Credit (CTC), but not Working Tax Credit, and your income is less than £16,105

• Both maximum Child Tax Credit and maximum Working Tax Credit and your income is under £6,420

• Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999

• Universal Credit

Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA)

EMA Application forms and guidelines can be collected from the school office for pupils who are 16 or over. EMA is an allowance of £30 per week payable to eligible pupils who stay in full-time education at school after their 16^th birthday. This must be applied for each year. Pupils who do receive this allowance must satisfy all attendance requirements e.g. no unauthorised absences, no more than 1 late per week etc. Pupils who are successful in gaining this allowance must make sure their attendance is always up to date. Payments are made fortnightly directly into pupils’ bank accounts. No payments are made for holidays. Pupils must attend all of their timetabled classes, including registration classes, to ensure they receive all their payments. Please note that pupils are only allowed 5 full days of authorised self-certification during the academic year, and any other periods of sickness must be covered by a medical certificate or a copy of a prescription to still qualify for payment.

Applications for 2022/23 will open in July 2022.

To find out more information on all of the above and how to apply, please click here.

Please contact the school if you would like a paper copy, or if you require assistance in completing the forms.

Transport

Stirling Council provides free transport to children who live more than two miles from their catchment school, or where there is no safe walking route available. All young people are entitled to apply for the National Entitlement Card (Young Scot) that offers free bus travel across Scotland.