Free school meals

As part of the EIS’s wider anti-poverty work, the EIS remains fully committed to the roll out of universal free school meals to all young people in Scotland, and continues to press the Scottish Government to deliver its commitment to expand this to all pupils without further delay. Concerningly, the original promise to deliver the expansion of universal free school meals to all pupils by 2022 has been further delayed, and the recent Programme for Scotland indicated that the Scottish Government will not deliver expansion by 2026.

Inverclyde Council pushes ahead despite government delay

Whilst the Scottish Government dither and delay on the delivery of expanding free school meals to all pupils, Inverclyde Council has taken leadership and become the first and only council in Scotland to introduce universal free school meals to all primary pupils.

This means that all primary school pupils, irrespective of their household incomes and socio-economic status have access to a nutritious stigma-free meal with their peers as part of the school day. As part of finding out more about Inverclyde Council’s decision to expand and the EIS’s campaign on free school meals, EIS Equality Learning Coordinator Eireann McAuley sat down with Paula McEwan, Ex-President and Local Association Secretary for Inverclyde to discuss. You can view a video of the interview on the EIS website.

EIS attends free school meals roundtable with Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills

The EIS was part of co-organising and engaging with a free school meals roundtable with young people and the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, Jenny Gilruth. Eireann McAuley attended and contributed on behalf of the EIS. The roundtable heard from a variety of young people, poverty-related organisations, trade unions and policy experts on why the policy to expand universal free school meals must be part of the Scottish Government’s package of support to tackling poverty and hunger.

The roundtable also discussed the wider health, wellbeing, socialisation, economic, and learning beneficiaries of free school meals for all, including the importance of expanding this to secondary school pupils and involving young people in the design of school meals.

The Cabinet Secretary agreed to take the key points and meeting of the discussion to the next cabinet and shared that the Scottish Government were actively exploring a secondary school pilot.

Next phase of the EIS PACT project launches

As part of the EIS’s plans and preparations to re-offer our PACT Programme and build upon the EIS’s anti-poverty work and equity related professional learning, we are currently seeking to recruit and train new EIS PACTivists in every local authority.

An information session took place online on Thursday 12th September. This session provided further information about the PACT Programme, offered an update of the plans for PACT going forward, and informed EIS members who had expressed an interest in becoming one of our new PACTivists in the not-too-distant future.

New edition of EIS anti-poverty advice for the classroom

In conjunction with the launch of the next phase of the PACT Programme and just ahead of Challenge Poverty Week, the EIS launched a new edition of our anti-poverty advice for the classroom. Titled ‘Standing Up to Poverty’, the comprehensive advice on how to mitigate the impact of poverty on young people’s educational experiences, launched on 1st October.

Further information on the new guidance is being sent to schools, and the next edition of the SEJ will include a focus on this important publication.