School meals on the increase

The key findings from the School Meals census are outlined below.

Of those pupils present on the census day, 55.5% (166,620) took a meal supplied by the school. This is an increase of 6,415 on 2010/11 due to an increase in those taking free school meals from 50,869 to 57,802.

58.8% of the pupils who were present on the census day took a meal (paid or free) in nursery schools, 53.2% in primary/prep schools, 57.7% in post-primary schools and 68.8% in special schools.

The percentage of pupils taking school meals was highest in the Western Education and Library Board area (66.5%) and lowest in the South Eastern Education and Library Board (45.7%).

Overall uptake of school meals in schools here is higher than that in Scotland or England.

Across all sectors (excluding special schools) 73,314 pupils (23.1% of the total school roll) were entitled to free school meals – an increase of 9,175 (14.3%) on the previous year.

The Primary/Prep sector showed the highest increase in the percentage of pupils entitled to free school meals compared to the previous year. This is most likely due to the extension of the eligibility criteria for free school meal entitlement which was introduced in 2010/11 and further extended in 2011/12 to include Key Stage 2 pupils.

Of those pupils taking a school meal on the census day, 35.8% took a free school meal supplied by the school. The percentage of pupils taking a free school meal was highest in the Belfast Education and Library Board area (50.7%) and lowest in the Southern Education and Library Board area (28.1%).

When considering the number of pupils taking free school meals as a proportion of the number of pupils entitled to free school meals, uptake of free school meals was 78.8%.

Uptake of free school meals was highest in the Western Education and Library Board area (85.2%) and lowest in the South Eastern Education and Library Board area (71.7%).

See the Londonderry Sentinel and Roe Valley Sentinel for an in-depth breakdown of the statistics in the North West on Wednesday, May 2.