'Appallingly high levels of childhood poverty!' Record number of pupils in the Black Country eligible for free school meals
A record number of Black Country pupils were eligible to receive free school meals this academic year, according to new figures.
But the Association of School and College Leaders said the figures – which show the number of pupils able to have free school meals has risen to a record 2 million in England – do not reveal the full scale of the problem due to limits on eligibility.
Department for Education figures show 19,031 pupils were eligible for free school meals in Wolverhampton as of January – up from 17,870 the year before.
That means 38.3% of all pupils in the area could receive free school meals.
It was a similar picture in Walsall where 17,915 pupils were eligible – up from 16,965 the year before. That's nearly a third of all pupils in the Walsall area.
