Last week the Mayor of London announced funding to extend universal free school meals to pupils in Years 3 to 6 in all state-funded schools in the capital in 2023/24. Some local authorities[1] already run their own local schemes.
The announcement has been broadly welcomed but some concerns have been raised about whether the amount of funding is sufficient and whether there may be a fall in parents claiming free school meal eligibility which, in turn, would have an effect on schools’ pupil premium funding.
You might think there are good moral arguments for universal free school meal provision. Alternatively you might think better use could be made of the money.
We only do data so we’re not going to get into that here.
Instead, we’re going to have a think about how the impact of extending free school meal eligibility on absence and attainment might be measured.
