Segplot segregation by FSM

This segplot was constructed by Rob Gruijters using his new method of visualising patterns of group segregation.

It plots the percentage of Free School Meal (FSM) eligible pupils for each public primary school in Bristol, based on 2022/23 Department for Education data.

Each public primary school is plotted along the x-axis, ordered by the percentage of pupils that are eligible for free school meals. On the right of the segplot, you can see the average FSM-eligibity across all schools – also represented by the black horizontal line.

Many primary schools in Bristol have either much higher or much lower percentages of FSM-eligible pupils than the city-average – indicating the uneven distribution of socio-economically disadvantaged pupils across schools. If all schools were representative of the wider population in terms of FSM-eligibility, then the pink area would be flat along the black line instead of the gradient we see here.

If FSM-eligibilty is accepted as a proxy indicator for social class, then this segplot shows the extent of social class segregation between Bristol’s public primary schools.