A new policy giving pupils eligible for free school meals priority when applying for secondary school in Brighton & Hove is in place for applications for the school year beginning September 2025.
The free school meals priority is in effect for applications for community schools for children starting in year 7 – Blatchington Mill, Hove Park, Dorothy Stringer, Varndean, Patcham and Longhill.
The policy was agreed at the Children, Families & Schools Committee in January following a public consultation. The aim is to give some of the city’s most disadvantaged pupils a greater choice of secondary school and improve equality in education.
If you wish to learn more about the new free school meals criteria visit our dedicated webpage or explore our School Application Guides.
The average percentage of secondary pupils on free school meals across Brighton & Hove is 25%, expected to rise to 28% in 2025.
Currently, within this statistic there’s a large variation in the percentages of pupils eligible for free school meals at individual schools.
Some schools take well above the average percentage of children on free school meals and some schools well below the average.
The introduction of this policy should improve equality in this area across the city’s schools by ensuring greater numbers of disadvantaged children can gain access to high performing schools and high quality teaching in their local areas.
Councillor Jacob Taylor, deputy leader of the council and Cabinet member for Finance and City Regeneration, said: “The admissions process for September 2025 has just opened and this year we have new policy in place, adding free school meals eligibility to the admission criteria.
“This is a really important policy which will help us tackle some of the educational disadvantage we’ve seen in the city, reduce the area-based inequality in schools and ensure pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds have access to better choice of secondary schools.
“I’m very proud that Brighton & Hove is among the first councils to introduce a free school meals admission priority and encourage all parents and carers of eligible pupils to learn more about it.”
