Secondary School Free Meal Eligibility in Calderdale

October 2015 onward data tracks pupil eligibility for Free School Meals in Calderdale secondary schools, including academies and local authority-maintained institutions. The dataset is derived from the termly school census, with a missing entry for May 2020 due to a government cancellation during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Use Cases

• Analyze trends in Free School Meal eligibility over time for secondary schools.
• Compare eligibility rates between academy and local authority-maintained school types.
• Assess the impact of policy changes on pupil eligibility counts from 2015 onward.

Strengths

• Data collection began in October 2015, providing a multi-year time series.
• Covers both academy and local authority-maintained secondary schools in Calderdale.
• Sourced from the official termly school census, an authoritative administrative data collection.

Limitations

• Missing the May 2020 census data point due to government cancellation.
• Academy data is only available from October 2015, limiting historical comparison for that sector.
• Geographic scope is limited to the Calderdale metropolitan area.

Provenance

Source

Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council.

Collection Method

Termly school census.

Time Range

From October 2015 onward.

Freshness

Last updated March 2026.

Geography

Calderdale, UK.