All P4s will get free dinners next term

Free school meals will be offered to all primary four pupils in Perth and Kinross Council schools from the start of the new term in August.

They will be joining all pupils from primary one to three in the scheme funded by the Scottish Government.

The expansion will also cover all primary five pupils from January 2022, with the local authority receiving £775,000 in support for the first phase of the roll-out of free school meals for all primary pupils.

The council has also received £307,000 in school holiday support from the Scottish Government for pupils from primary one to three who are in receipt of the school clothing grant and for primary four to S6 pupils who are eligible for free school meals on the basis of low income.

Their families will receive direct payments during school holiday periods in 2021-2022, starting with the upcoming summer holiday.

Caroline Shiers, convener of the council’s lifelong learning committee and a councillor for the Blairgowrie and Glens ward, said:“The expansion of free meals at first for all P4 pupils and then their peers in P5 will ensure that even more primary children have the opportunity to get a healthy meal during the school day.

“We recognise the health and educational benefits of good nutrition and I look forward to this scheme starting in Perth and Kinross in August when schools return after the summer break.”

Further information will be made available to parents and carers nearer to the start of the new school year.