Latest news with #freeSchoolMeals
Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Times
Drop in state school pupils going to Oxbridge blamed on pandemic
There were fewer state school pupils admitted to Oxford and Cambridge this academic year, new figures show. Both universities saw a decline in the proportion of their intake from state schools and an increase in those who were privately educated. Oxford's UK state school admissions were at the lowest since 2019, falling from 67.6 per cent in 2023 to 66.2 per cent in 2024 while private school intake increased from 32.4 per cent to 33.8 per cent. Of UK students at Cambridge, 71 per cent came from state schools in autumn 2024, down from 72.6 per cent in 2023, while the proportion from independent schools increased from 27.4 per cent to 29 per cent. A breakdown of Cambridge figures showed 18.8 per cent of those who applied from state schools were successful — 15.9 per cent of applicants from comprehensive schools were admitted compared with 24.4 per cent from grammar schools. For independent schools, the success rate was 21.6 per cent. Both universities said the pandemic had affected their state school intake in recent years. Cambridge said its long-term trend remained positive and Oxford said it had taken more pupils on free school meals. • How Cambridge is making the most of Trump's war on Harvard Dr Martin Thompson, director of undergraduate admissions at Cambridge, said the figures came after a period of rapid growth in state school admissions and remained above pre-Covid levels, when the state school intake was 68.7 per cent. He said: 'We remain fully committed to widening participation. We saw several subjects become much more competitive. Students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, and state school students, are more likely to apply to these courses. The secondary school sector [is] still grappling with disrupted education and attainment gaps.' An Oxford University spokeswoman said that access for those from disadvantaged backgrounds was a priority and that the number of students who had been entitled to free school meals had increased to 8.1 per cent. She added: 'Factors such as socio-economic disadvantage and school performance can make it difficult for some students to access their full potential before applying to university, and therefore we use a range of contextual information to help us to better understand students' achievements.' More women were admitted to Cambridge, with the proportion up from 50 to 52 per cent. At Oxford, the proportion of women admitted fell from last year but was still at 51.9 per cent. China was by far the biggest provider of students from outside the UK, with Cambridge taking 252 students from China and Oxford 566. At both institutions, this was followed by Singapore and Hong Kong. However, applications from both EU students and the rest of the world had fallen from last year at Oxford. Cambridge said that applications from EU students fell slightly but increased from the rest of the world. Far more ethnic minority students were admitted than previous years, accounting for 30.8 per cent of those taken at Oxford and 35.1 per cent at Cambridge. Oxford has seen a sharp increase in applications from students of Bangladeshi and Pakistani heritage, from 2 per cent of all UK students in 2020 to 3.2 per cent in 2024. The proportion of black African or Caribbean students is only marginally higher than last year, at 3.8 per cent. The most competitive course at Oxford was economics and management, with 19 applications per place, followed by computer science and maths and computer science. Psychology, law and computer science were among the courses with the highest intake of deprived students while classics, geography and biomedical sciences were the lowest. • I got a text about my student loan. A bit like an STI clinic calling The most competitive courses at Cambridge were its graduate medicine course, computer science and psychological and behavioural sciences. Those with the highest entry rates for applicants included classics, modern and medieval languages and music, but they also had very low numbers from deprived backgrounds. Of those admitted to Oxford, 85.6 per cent were awarded A*AA or better at A-level and 45.5 per cent achieved at least three A* grades. At Cambridge, 17.7 per cent of arts students and 39.3 per cent of science students achieved three A*s. A further 5,600 unsuccessful students went on to achieve at least A*AA in their three best A-levels. The average amount owed by new graduates has broken through the £50,000 barrier for the first time, new government figures show. Graduates now owe an average of £53,000 as soon as they start repaying their loans, up from £48,270 a year ago. The total amount owed to the government is £266 billion, by students who took out higher education loans in England. Graduates now repay 9 per cent of their salary once they earn above £21,000 and the loan is not written off until 40 years after they start paying.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
England is expanding free school meals – here's what could happen if they were given to all children
The UK government has announced an extension of free school meals in England to all children whose parents receive universal credit, in order to address child hunger and poverty. The government claims that half a million more pupils will now have access to school lunches for free. The total number of children registered for free school meals in England is currently about 2.2 million, or about 26% of the total school population. In addition, all children in infant school, aged between four and seven, are entitled to receive a hot lunch at school. But given the high rates of child poverty in the UK, and the value a decent meal provides, there is evidence that free school meals for all children could provide significant benefits in England. The provision in Scotland and Wales is more generous: free school meals for children from primary one to five in Scotland (ages four to ten) and for all children in primary school in Wales. But other countries make provision for all children, in both primary and secondary education, to receive meals at school. Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK's latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences. Child poverty in the UK continues to be historically high. In 2023-24, 3.4 million children – 23% of all children in the UK – were in relative income poverty. Incidence of child poverty is particularly acute in cities. In the UK, the COVID-19 pandemic and Brexit resulted in a rise in unemployment. This in turn led to widespread instances of extreme poverty and child hunger. The lack of active policies in the UK to address child hunger, malnourishment and increasing childhood obesity has been widely criticised by the British Medical Association. The UK's experience of high levels of child poverty is in stark contrast with most other high-income countries. The UK ranked 37th out of 39 by child income poverty, ahead only of Turkey and Colombia, in 2023. In comparison, the UK's adult poverty rate is close to the OECD average, ranking 23rd out of 39 high-income countries. This implies that child poverty can be high even if adult poverty levels are relatively low. Providing nutritious free school meals is a fundamental cornerstone of government policy to ensure child welfare. It's used as a poverty alleviation measure all over the world. Almost half of the world's school meals are free, feeding 418 million children. Many of these programmes are based in developing countries. The world's largest free school meal programme runs in India: the 'mid-day meal scheme' feeds 125 million children aged six to 14 and costs the equivalent of £2 billion each year. Similar successful programmes are run in Brazil and some African countries, with another having recently been launched in Indonesia. But schemes in Finland and Sweden also cover almost all school children. There is a growing body of global evidence on the wider beneficial effects of free school meals on child poverty. Free school meals in India have resulted in higher cognitive outcomes. They have increased school enrolment and school attendance, and thus educational outcomes. They have also been found to have an intergenerational effect. In India, fewer shorter children were born to women who had benefited from the country's school food programme. Nutritionally balanced children's school meals are also associated with lower incidence of obesity. Studies in the US and UK, for example, have shown universal provision is linked to lower obesity rates. Research into the Swedish scheme has found that children who have free school meals with prescribed nutritional standards not only have higher educational attainment and better health outcomes in adulthood, but also higher incomes. Children from families in the lowest income quartile in Sweden who received free school meals for nine years increased their lifetime income by 6%. Other tangible economic benefits include significant reductions in potential healthcare costs as a result of malnutrition and non-communicable diseases. A 2025 European Union report estimates the return from investment in school meal programmes is at least sevenfold, up to a possible €34 for every €1 spent. While there is rich scientific and economic evidence that universal free school meals are immensely beneficial, a child's access to nutrition and government support to obtain nourishment is also a fundamental human right. The School Meals Coalition is an international consortium of 108 countries to achieve free school meals for all by 2030. The UK is one of the few advanced countries not signed up to it. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
The Independent
11-06-2025
- General
- The Independent
Free school meal plan requires key change to stop children ‘missing out', Labour told
The government has been urged to make a key change to its plans to expand free schools meals to all pupils in England on universal credit. The Education Policy Institute (EPI) has said ministers must go further and introduce a national auto-enrolment system for free school meals, in order to reduce inequality. The group found distinct variations in free school meal registration practices across England. Their report, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, calls for a national auto-enrolment scheme to ensure all eligible families are registered. The call comes after ministers announced its plans to expand free school meals last week. Currently, households in England on universal credit must earn below £7,400 a year (after tax and not including benefits) to qualify for free school meals. The expansion, set to be implemented in September 2026, is expected to make 500,000 more children eligible for free lunches, according to the Government. Parents currently have to apply for their children to receive free school meals, rather than eligible children being automatically enrolled. The report said: 'Despite this expansion in FSM (free school meals) eligibility, without further action from the Government, children may continue to miss out on the free meals they are entitled to. 'The barriers to registration and differences in registration practices across LAs means children still face inequalities in access to free meals.' Authors added: 'In terms of barriers families face in applying to FSM – including English as an additional language, stigma, confusion about eligibility – auto-enrolment would largely eradicate these issues.' Despite efforts to boost registration, language barriers and a lack of digital access are preventing the meals reaching children that need them, it said. An additional 77,700 children became eligible for free school meals in the past year, according to recent data published by the Department for Education. More than one in four (25.7%) pupils in England were eligible for free school meals in January, the equivalent of 2.17 million children – up from 24.6%, or 2.09 million, in January 2024. But the report from EPI – which is based on surveys and interviews with local authorities and multi-academy trusts in 2024 and early 2025 – found where a child lives or goes to school determines how hard it is for families to register for free school meals. In some local authorities, parents are required to make their own application while facing significant barriers and if found ineligible at the time must reapply when circumstances change. While in others, they use local auto-enrolment to proactively identify entitled children without relying on parents sharing details or making an application. The report also found that some children who attend maintained nurseries before and after lunch are missing out on free meals to which they are entitled. Dr Kerris Cooper, senior researcher for early years and inequalities at EPI, said: 'Our research shows that while the extension of free school meal eligibility is a very positive step, more needs to be done to ensure that all children entitled to free meals can actually access them. 'First, there are still significant barriers for families to register for FSM, and where a child lives plays too big a role in their chances of being registered. 'Second, the youngest children, who face the highest risk of poverty, will not benefit from this expansion in eligibility unless all children attending early education are also included and settings are supported to deliver this. 'Introducing national auto-enrolment and including children in early education would enable this expansion in FSM eligibility to more meaningfully extend access to more children in poverty.' Pepe Di'Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: 'The expansion of free school meals, to include all children in households on universal credit, is a positive move that recognises there are children living in poverty who have been missing out. 'Moving to a national system of auto-enrolment would be the next logical step to ensure that everyone who is now eligible under the new criteria will actually receive a meal and the intended benefits.' He added: 'We see no reason why a national system of auto-enrolment cannot be established relatively straightforwardly. 'This is something that would make a big difference to vulnerable families.' Last week, education minister Stephen Morgan told MPs in the Commons that the Government would be working to make it easier for people to apply. He said the announcement on expanding free school meals was a 'significant, straightforward process for parents to know whether they are eligible'.
The Guardian
11-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Ukrainian pupils taking refuge in the UK should get free school meals
I work at a state secondary school with (currently) 34 Ukrainian students and seven Ukrainian staff members – cleaners, a teacher and a psychologist. All are refugees. The government announcement that children of parents benefiting from universal credit are to get free school meals in September 2026 has to be good news (Free school meal expansion in England will benefit fewer than claimed, IFS says, 5 June). But this does nothing to address the worrying situation for the many thousands of Ukrainian students in this country. Despite being refugees, Ukrainians do not have refugee status here – thanks to a lacuna in the agreement between the UK and Ukraine that appears to exclude them from support under part 6 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. Thus, they not only cannot count on free school meals for their children but also any of the additional support which flows to children receiving free school meals. Jess Brown-Fuller, the MP for Chichester, has called for more help to be given to Ukrainian refugees. When is the government going to remedy this situation and support the children of people holding the line in Europe?Susie CookeEnglish as an additional language coordinator, Bishop Luffa School, Westgate, West Sussex Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
The Sun
11-06-2025
- Business
- The Sun
Winter Fuel, FREE school dinners & defence boost to be unveiled today – what time is Reeves' spending review?
RACHEL Reeves is set to unveil an enormous spending spree, including bringing back Winter Fuel payments for millions of pensioners. The long-awaited package will see eye-watering sums of cash poured into shiny new projects like transport, energy and cutting-edge tech in a bid to drive growth. 3 3 3 But it will also set day-to-day departmental budgets for the next four years - giving extra funding to some while putting the squeeze on others. The Chancellor will unveiling her spending review in the Commons today around 12.30PM after PMQs. Weeks of haggling have seen Ms Reeves lock horns with Cabinet colleagues over how much of the pie they will get. And, questions still remain over how she'll afford such spending - with analysis revealing she will likely need to make nearly £5billion in cuts to balance the books. Ms Reeves' humiliating u-turn on Winter Fuel payments will feature in today's review - with nine million pensioners set to get the £200-£300 sum. She revealed the screeching retreat - that will cost £1.25billion - this week. But the about-turn came without details of how it would be paid for, with the Chancellor only pledging not to plug the hole with more borrowing. Critics have warned this could see taxpayers pick up the bill with a fresh raid at the next Budget in the autumn. Another talking point today will be free school meals. Children whose parents receive universal credit will be able to claim free school meals from September 2026 helping more than 500,000 pupils. But teachers will find that their school budgets will be tightened as schools will have to fund about a quarter of their 4 per cent pay rises themselves. Schools will be on the hook for around £400 million to stump up for the hikes as department money won't cover the rise. And one of the thorniest issues has been the funding settlement for the police, sparking a behind-the-scenes row with Home Secretary Yvette Cooper. Top cops have been demanding more money to fight crime and monitor the increasing number of prisoners freed early. It has seen Ms Cooper locked in furious talks with the Chancellor that went right down to the wire and only resolved on Monday night. The Sun understands that she has secured a real-terms increase for the police, however tomorrow we will discover the extent of that hike - and whether senior officers are happy.
