Earlier this summer I published a post about vacancies and the Free School Meal percentages of schools. I promised that I would look at headteacher turnover by the percentage of Fee School Meals at those schools advertising for a new headteacher this year.
The data by regions for the period of adverts from 1st January 2022 until last Friday is in the table below
| 1st JAN TO 19th AUGUST 2022 | 0-9.9% on FSM | 10-19.9% on FSM | 20%+ on FSM | |
| East Midlands | 29% | 32% | 39% | 100% |
| East of England | 28% | 40% | 32% | 100% |
| London | 21% | 30% | 50% | 100% |
| North East | 21% | 25% | 54% | 100% |
| North West | 30% | 27% | 43% | 100% |
| South East | 40% | 32% | 28% | 100% |
| South West | 24% | 43% | 34% | 100% |
| West Midlands | 24% | 30% | 46% | 100% |
| Yorkshire & Humber | 24% | 27% | 49% | 100% |
| AVERAGE | 27% | 32% | 42% | 100% |
Now this is a crude piece of analysis, as it just takes the school and places it in one of three bands for Free School Meals percentage at the school, as recorded by the DfE. The table also incudes both primary and secondary schools, and also does not distinguish between schools that have only advertised one and those that have advertised more than once. There has been a discussion about trends in re-advertising amongst primary schools using data from one authority in another recent post on this blog.
Anyway, urban areas, not surprisingly, have the highest percentages of schools in the 20% plus grouping, with London having 50% of advertised headships from such schools, compared with 28% of headships in the South East and 32% in the East of England falling in this grouping; both areas with high employment and significant areas of affluence. The South East had the largest percentage of schools in the lowest groups of less than 10% of pupils in the school eligible for Free School Meals. This compared with just 21% in London and the North East regions schools that have advertised for a new headteacher.
If I have time, I will look at both re-advertisements and create a standard number based upon the size of the school roll to consider whether this has any effect. Separating out primary and secondary schools, and perhaps schools of a religious character and other schools might also be interesting.
We can expect the current average of 22.5% of pupils eligible for Free School Meals to increase as any recession bites. How much may depend upon how government help with energy bills is counted in a family income total.
John Howson 