Says John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, "We've always recognised that free school meals are a very poor proxy for socioeconomic disadvantage, and a bad basis on which to base funding and accountability systems. The system needs an overhaul to find a better definition of disadvantage so that schools can be given the resources they need to do the job."
Free school meals are a component in league tables which assess how schools are doing in test results and pupils' social and economic disadvantages are taken into consideration.
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