The Department for Education have announced some additional funding support for schools up to the end of the Summer term, in recognition of the work they are doing and the additional costs, in some cases, that are being incurred (read more here).
How schools can access funding
Funding will be available to cover costs relating to specific items which are judged as those likely to be necessary to provide appropriate support:

• Increased premises costs connected with keeping schools open for the Easter holidays and May half term
• Support for free school meals for children who are not attending school where these costs are not covered by the FSM voucher scheme
• Additional cleaning required due to suspected or confirmed coronavirus cases, over and above the cost of existing cleaning arrangements.

Additional funding is only available to those schools unable to meet the costs or where they could only meet costs by drawing down reserves which would undermine their long term financial sustainability.
Schools who are budgeting to add to their reserves in the 2020-2021 school year will not be eligible to claim.  Payment will be made from existing budgets and reimbursements will follow for costs, subject to the following limits:

Mainstream schools
250 pupils or fewer	£25,000
251 to 500 pupils	£30,000
501 to 1000 pupils	£50,000
Over 1000 pupils	£75,000
Special schools or alternative provision
All schools	£50,000

Pupil numbers are defined by:

• 2 to 4 year olds – headcount of funded places from January 2020
• 5 to 16 year olds – headcount from October 2019 census
• 16 to 19 year olds – pupil numbers from 2019 to 2020 academic year allocations.

Schools will need to keep appropriate records to support claims and we will expect to be able to identify the costs and the income when we audit the accounts.