NEARLY 4,500 Poole schoolchildren will benefit from a government move to offer free school meals.

Parents’ pockets will be boosted by more than £400 per child per year when the charge for school meals for five to seven-year-olds is scrapped in September 2014.

The new policy will affect 4,499 infant school children throughout the borough.

The free school meals policy was announced by the coalition’s Deputy Prime Minister, Liberal Democrat Nick Clegg, and has been welcomed by Cllr Phil Eades, Prospective Parliamentary candidate for Poole and the town’s mayor.

“This is great news for families and children in Poole,” said Cllr Eades.

“It means every child in reception, Years One and Two will benefit from a free hot meal at lunchtime. And mums and dads will be over £400 a year better off for each child. We are determined to ease the financial burden for these families and give every child the chance in life that they deserve, building a stronger economy and a fairer society.”

The policy was confirmed in the government’s Autumn Statement and funding of £450m in 2014-15 and £635m in 2015-16 will be made available to the Department for Education.

Capital of £150m will also be made available to ensure schools can build new kitchens or increase dining capacity where necessary, says the coalition.

“A recent independent review for the Department for Education found that, in pilots where all children had been given a free school dinner, they were academically months ahead of their peers elsewhere and more likely to eat healthily at lunchtime,” said Cllr Eades.

Nick Clegg said: “Every child deserves the best possible start in life, and we are doing all we can to help ease the pressure on household budgets.”