Free School Meals

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Free School Meal Eligibility

The sections below summarise the Free School Meal (FSM) eligibility data collected by the Department for Education through their annual Spring Census on Pupil Characteristics in England.

The following link provides access to an interactive web map which gives summary data from the school census by sub-county geographical areas:

Interactive Map: Free School Meal Eligibility by Sub-county areas
Local FSM Dashboard (School Census Data)

Current: 33.1% of Pupils living in County Durham and attending schools in the County were eligible for FSM (Summer 20025).  Up from 27.7% in Spring 2021.

Data in this section is derived from postcode level, pupil data from the Autumn Census and covers only those pupils living in County Durham and attending schools in County Durham.  This section provides information on FSM eligibility by local areas and Family First Areas (FFA))

The following dashboard summarises these findings:

Key messages:

The Summer 2025 extract contained approximately 73,800 records of which around 2,600 were living in areas outside of the county or could not be geographically located due to incorrect/unknown postcode data.  The following is based upon the remaining 71,200 pupils who live in the county and attend schools here.

  • Around 23,600 pupils were eligible for FSM in the county in the Summer 20025 Census, representing 33.1% of all registered pupils up from 27.7% (19,900 pupils) in the Spring 2021 Census,
  • The Horden, Peterlee and surrounding area Local Network had the highest proportion of pupils eligible for FSM at 42.4%.  Of the 12 Local Networks, 6 had higher proportions than the county average.

Summary (DfE Data)

Note: The source data for this indicator is incomplete, with data not available for all schools. The  percentage eligible has been calculated using the number of pupils on school rolls only for schools where data on the number of pupils eligible was available.

Key messages:

  • Between 2015 and 2025 the number of pupils known to be eligible for and claiming free school meals in County Durham increased to 32.7% rising to 23,900 eligible pupils, higher than the national figure of 25.1%,
  • Across the North East number pupils known to be eligible for and claiming free school meals also increased to 32.3%.

Source: Department for Education – School Census

Links

Department for Education School Census: Source: Department for Education – School Census

Children in Poverty: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/children-in-low-income-families-local-area-statistics-201415-to-201819/children-in-low-income-families-local-area-statistics-201415-to-201819

Additional Analysis: