FREE SCHOOL MEALS
A Free School Meal is a lunch provided frees of charge by Aberdeenshire Council to children whose families meet the required criteria. In the secondary school each child receives a daily credit allowance in the school cafeteria to be used at lunchtime on items chosen from the menu.
Further information and applications forms can be found here on the Aberdeenshire Council website.
SCHOOL CLOTHING GRANTS
School Clothing Grants may be available to parents or carers, dependent on whether they meet certain criteria, to help with the cost of buying a school uniform. Aberdeenshire Council offer School Clothing Grants that can be used to purchase clothes that meet the school dress code.
More information and an application form can be found here on the Aberdeenshire Council website.
FREE SCHOOL TRANSPORT
Free home-to-school transport is provided to secondary age children if they live more than 3 miles from their zoned school.
More information and an application form can be found here on the Aberdeenshire Council website.
EDUCATION MAINTENANCE ALLOWANCE (EMA)
An EMA is an allowance of £30 per week (not paid during school holidays), which can be paid to eligible students who stay on in education after the age of 16 years.
More information and an application form can be found here on the Aberdeenshire Council website.
ABERDEENSHIRE EDUCATIONAL TRUST
The Aberdeenshire Educational Trust can provide financial assistance towards the cost of some Educational trips.The awards aim to promote education in visual art, music and drama, and are usually made to schools. The Trust has limited resources and in the interests of fairness, all applications received are means tested. Awards are not granted to individuals whose household income exceeds £20,525.
For further details can be found here.
HUNTLY EDUCATIONAL TRUST
The Huntly Educational Trust is a Trust for the distribution of funds for educational purposes within the Huntly area.
Application forms can be found here.
Mr Ronald Ironside late of Ottawa, Canada, and a former pupil of The Gordon Schools, made a provision in his will for the establishment of an endowment fund to provide a bursary to enable further education in the sciences in respect of those students attending The Gordon Schools.
The Ironside Memorial Endowment has been established to take this forward.
- · Bursaries would support studies in science and engineering at further and higher education institutions.
- · Beneficiaries must have completed their secondary education at The Gordon Schools and; have completed one or more complete academic sessions at The Gordon Schools.
- · Funding is not means tested and hence no information on family financial circumstances is required.
- · Beneficiaries shall require to proceed straight from school to a course of further education, however beneficiaries shall be permitted to take a break in their academic career, disregarding periods which are considered to be normal holiday periods, providing always that this break is immediately prior to the commencement of such further education.
- · A bursary would be paid in the first year of study only.
- · The Management Committee has some leeway in interpreting the meaning of a “science” course in its widest sense. Consideration will be given, for example, to the eligibility of Medicine, Dentistry, Veterinary Medicine, Applied Mathematics, Engineering such as Chemical Engineering and Geography in a Pure Science course.
- · The Management Committee will giver consideration as to the suitability of applicants, in terms of their potential commitment to their future studies, based on their past school performance.
- · Decisions made by the Management Committee are final and the reasoning behind decisions will be confidential. Discussions on decisions will not be entered into.
Gordon Rural Action: Huntly Hub
Gordon Rural Action offers a wide range of free, confidential, impartial and independent advice and digital access on a range of issues including Scottish Security Scotland Benefit applications, (Best Start Grants, Best Start Food Card, Carers Supplement, Young Carers Grant, Funeral Support Payment), Scottish Welfare Fund Applications, Universal Credit Applications and Journal updates, Warm Home Discount, Blue Badge Application, Housing Applications (e.g. Apply4Homes), Council Tax Reduction / Housing Benefit. They are also the home to the School Uniform Exchange providing free school uniform to pupils attending schools in and around Huntly.
Contact: Advice@GordonRural.Org.uk
Tel: 01466 793676