What will be the impact of extending universal free school meals in London?
We run through some options for evaluating the impact on absence and attainment of extending free school meals to pupils in Years 3 to 6 in schools in the Capital.
We run through some options for evaluating the impact on absence and attainment of extending free school meals to pupils in Years 3 to 6 in schools in the Capital.
Changes to free school meal eligibility could well have consequences for how we measure the attainment gap and allocate Pupil Premium funding over the next few years
Primary schools could have been £67m worse off in 2017/18 as a result of the universal infant free school meals policy.
Figures came out recently that showed that the proportion of children eligible for free school meals (FSM) was at its lowest level since 2001 [PDF], when pupil-level information on this was first collected nationally. This is likely to be for a combination of reasons: an economy that has improved since the early 2010s, meaning fewer parents [...]
Update, 24 May 2017, 13:14: Schools Week have reported that the Conservatives are distancing themselves from the £60m figure. One of the more eye-catching proposals in the Conservatives’ manifesto was the plan to drop universal infant free schools meals (UIFSMs) and bring in free breakfasts for all primary pupils [PDF]. While no further details were [...]
One of the most interesting figures in Tuesday’s statistical first release on pupils in state-funded schools was the fall in the percentage of pupils eligible for free school meals to the lowest level recorded since the introduction of the School Census in January 2002. Of course, it's well-known that free school meal eligibility is an [...]