Is it relevant to have a report which specifies the attainment of pupils 'eligible for free school meals'?

[Governor]

specifically to educationalists, governors and interested parties

am reading through headteachers report in preparation for governor meeting next week and there is a specific paragraph detailing the percentage of pupils who are eligible for school meals and how their results have improved.

I need to understand why this is relevant? Is it just that those from poorer homes have lower expectations?

No, it's to show what the school is doing to help children who suffer from poverty, which means they have much less chance of doing well. It's a positive thing.

It is completely revelent. The perentage of children with free school dinners gives an indicator of the level of social depreviation that children at the school have to cope with.

Poor parents can't fork out for expensive school trips or make generous donations to the PTA. Also really deprived family might have social problems which interfere with the child's ablity to learn. (Like caring responsiblites.) Even simple things like diet, having nice toys and books are affected by income.

For example a child who is in a family that is long term on benefits might be in that situation because its a single parent family where the single parent is disabled.

I am sure that there are indicators that would be more useful to provide in report, but its difficult to get hold of accurate information. In particular factors like parent's education, % of children on the children at risk register would be interesting to know about a school.

It's a standard measure of deprivation, one that's easy and cheap to work out.

Statistically this group, along with LAC, are liable to make below average progress.

We recently got criticised by Ofsted because our planning, target setting, and progress monitoring systems at departmental level did not identify students in this way.

It depends how and why it is being used.
It can monitor whether children with one indicator of economic disadvantage are getting what they should from the school. Economic monitoring is another form of equal oportunities monitoring.

isnt this something to do with 'every child matters' and the healthy schools standards ?