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Free meal pupils absent more often

1 min read Education
Children eligible for free school meals (FSM) are three times more likely to be persistently absent than their peers, it has emerged.

The statistics are the latest in a series to show that pupils eligible for FSM are falling behind their classmates.

They show 81,800 children eligible for FSM are classed as "persistent absentees", which makes up 8.2 per cent of the total number eligible.

A total of 146,300 children who are not eligible for FSM are classed as persistent absentees, making up 2.7 per cent of that group.

Martin Ward, deputy general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: "There are elaborate processes for dealing with (absentees) but one of the problems is that what schools find to be effective methods in many instances do not work as well as when they are applied to families in poverty.

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