Guidance

What maintained schools must publish online

The information that schools maintained by their local authorities must or should publish on their websites.

Applies to England

If you’re an academy (including a free school) or FE college, read guidance on what academies and colleges should publish online.

Every local authority-maintained school must publish specific information on its website to comply with the School Information (England) Regulations (2008), as amended by The School Information (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2012 and 2016 and other relevant legislation including the Equality Act 2010 and the Children and Families Act 2014.

This document also outlines where the Department for Education (DfE) expects you to publish certain information, outside of the statutory requirement to do so. These sections do not use the word ‘must’, but the department strongly expects schools to follow our guidance around this.

Schools that do not have a website

Even if you do not maintain your own website, you must still publish all of the information which is set out in this guidance online.

You can use an alternative website to host the information, as long as you make the address and details of the website known to parents. For example, you may provide parents with the URL (website address) and any other relevant details.

Contact details

Your school’s website must include the following:

  • your school’s name
  • your school’s postal address
  • your school’s telephone number
  • the name of the member of staff who deals with queries from parents and other members of the public
  • the name and contact details of your special educational needs co-ordinator (SENCO), unless you’re a special school

Admission arrangements

Foundation schools and voluntary-aided schools

As the school’s governing body determines your admission arrangements, you must publish them on your website by 15 March each year (as set out in the Admissions Code). You must keep them on your website for the whole of the offer year (the school year in which offers for places are made).

The admissions arrangements must explain:

  • how you’ll consider applications for each relevant age group at your school - this is the age group at which children are normally admitted to the school
  • what parents should do if they want to apply for their child to attend your school
  • your arrangements for selecting pupils who apply (if you are a selective school)
  • your over-subscription criteria (how you offer places if there are more applicants than places available)

You must also set out how your school’s in-year applications will be dealt with by 31 August at the latest each year.

If the school’s governing body will manage in-year applications for your school, you must provide a suitable application form to enable parents to apply for an in-year place at your school. You must also provide a supplementary information form where necessary.

If the school is to be a part of the local authority’s in-year co-ordination scheme, you must provide information on where parents can find details of the relevant scheme.

You must also publish a timetable for organising and hearing admission appeals for your school by 28 February each year.

This must:

  • include a deadline for lodging appeals which allows those making an appeal at least 20 school days from the date of notification that their application was unsuccessful to prepare and lodge their written appeal
  • include reasonable deadlines for:
    • those making an appeal to submit additional evidence
    • admission authorities to submit their evidence
    • the clerk to send appeal papers to the panel and parties
  • ensure that those making an appeal receive at least 10 school days’ notice of their appeal hearing
  • ensure that decision letters are sent within 5 school days of the hearing wherever possible

Community schools and voluntary-controlled schools

As the local authority manages your admissions process, refer parents to the local authority to find out about your school’s admission and appeal arrangements.

School uniforms

The department produces statutory guidance on the cost of school uniforms which schools must have regard to when developing and implementing their school uniform policy. This guidance requires schools to publish their uniform policy on their website.

The published uniform policy should be easy to understand and, where a school has a school uniform, should:

  • clearly state whether an item is optional or required
  • make clear if the item will only be worn at certain times of the year (for example, if it’s summer or winter uniform)
  • make clear whether a generic item will be accepted or if a branded item is required
  • make clear whether an item can only be purchased from a specific retailer or if it can be purchased more widely, including from second-hand retailers

Ofsted reports

You must publish either a copy of your school’s most recent Ofsted report or a link to the report on the Ofsted website.

Test, exam and assessment results

Key stage 4 and 16 to 18 performance measures will be published by the Secretary of State for the 2021 to 2022 academic year.

For key stage 4 and 16 to 18 results, you will need to update your website to include the latest measures, which once published, will be based on tests, exams and assessments from the 2021 to 2022 academic year.

Alongside your key stage 4 and 16 to 18 results, you may wish to add the following sentence:

“Given the uneven impact of the pandemic on school and college performance data, the government has said you should not make direct comparisons between the performance data for one school or college and another, or to data from previous years.”

Key stage 2 (end of primary school) results

You do not need to publish your key stage 2 results for the academic year 2021 to 2022 on your website, as the Secretary of State will not publish this data. This is because statutory assessments returned for the first time since 2019, without adaptations, after disruption caused by the pandemic.

You should continue to display your school’s most recent key stage 2 performance measures, as published by the Secretary of State, on your website. For most schools, these will be the performance measures published for the 2018 to 2019 academic year.

You should clearly mark that these performance measures are for the 2018 to 2019 academic year and are not current. For example, you could add the following to your results:

“The government will not publish KS2 school level data for the 2021 to 2022 academic year. The last available public data is from the 2018 to 2019 academic year. It is important to note that the data from that year may no longer reflect current performance.”

Key stage 4 (end of secondary school) results

You must publish the following details from your school’s most recent key stage 4 performance measures as published by the Secretary of State. For most schools, once published, these will be the performance measures for the 2021 to 2022 academic year:

  • Progress 8 score
  • attainment in English and maths - percentage of pupils achieving a grade 5 or above in GCSE English and maths
  • Attainment 8 score
  • English Baccalaureate (EBacc) average point score (APS)

We suggest that schools also publish:

  • the percentage of pupils that enter the EBacc, and
  • the percentage of pupils staying in education or going into employment after key stage 4 (pupil destinations)

Key stage 5 (16 to 18) information

If your school operates a sixth form, you must publish the most recent 16 to 18 performance measures, as published by the Secretary of State. For most schools, once published, these will be the performance measures for the 2021 to 2022 academic year:

  • attainment
  • retention
  • destinations

Progress performance measures

If your school operates a sixth form, you do not need to display progress measures (level 3 value added), or an English and mathematics progress measure, for 16 to 18 students on your website. These measures will not be published for the 2021 to 2022 academic year.

Performance measures website

You must include a link to the school and college performance measures website and your school’s performance measures page.

School opening hours

Schools should publish on their website their opening and closing times and the total time this amounts to in a typical week (for example 32.5 hours).

Schools should show the compulsory times they are open. This time runs from the official start of the school day (morning registration) to the official end of the compulsory school day. It includes breaks, but not optional before or after school activities.

Curriculum

You must publish:

  • the content of your school curriculum in each academic year for every subject - this includes mandatory subjects such as religious education, even if it is taught as part of another subject or subjects, or is called something else
  • the names of any phonics or reading schemes you’re using in key stage 1
  • a list of the courses available to pupils at key stage 4, including GCSEs
  • how parents or other members of the public can find out more about the curriculum your school is following

You must also set out how over time you will increase the extent to which disabled pupils participate in the school’s curriculum, as part of your school’s accessibility plan. There are more details in the special educational needs and disabilities section.

Remote education

You should consider publishing information about your school’s remote education provision on your website. An optional template is available to support schools with this.

Behaviour policy

You must publish details of your school’s behaviour policy.

The policy must comply with section 89 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006.

Read guidance on developing and publishing your school’s behaviour policy.

Pupil premium and recovery premium

All schools that receive pupil premium funding must publish a pupil premium strategy statement each year by 31 December.

In the strategy statement, you must explain how your pupil premium and recovery premium is being spent and the outcomes that are being achieved for pupils. It’s important that parents and governors understand this, and you should write it with them in mind.

You must use the DfE template to produce your statement. This can be found alongside completed examples and guidance for school leaders on the pupil premium guidance page.

The template has been designed to ensure that your statement reflects the requirements in the pupil premium conditions of grant. This includes a requirement for pupil premium and recovery premium to be spent in line with the department’s ‘menu of approaches’ from the start of the 2022 to 2023 academic year. The menu can be found in the document ‘Using pupil premium: guidance for school leaders’, on the pupil premium guidance page.

We recommend that you plan your pupil premium use over 3 years. If you do so, you are still required to update your statement each year to reflect your spending activity for that academic year and the impact of pupil premium in the previous academic year.

PE and sport premium for primary schools

If your school receives PE and sport premium funding, you must publish:

  • the amount of premium received
  • a full breakdown of how it has been spent (or will be spent)
  • what impact the school has seen on pupils’ PE and sport participation and attainment
  • how the improvements will be sustainable in the future

You are also required to publish the percentage of pupils within your year 6 cohort who met the national curriculum requirement to:

  • swim competently, confidently, and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres
  • use a range of strokes effectively (for example front crawl, backstroke, and breaststroke)
  • perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations

You must publish all the information in this section by the end of the summer term, or 31 July at the latest. This is outlined in the conditions of grant document.

To help plan, monitor and report on the impact of your spending, partners in the physical education and school sport sector have developed a template. The template can be accessed through the Association for PE and Youth Sport Trust websites.

Public sector equality duty

The Equality Act 2010: advice for schools outlines how your school can demonstrate compliance with the public sector equality duty – for example, including details of how your school is:

  • eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited under the Equality Act 2010
  • advancing equality of opportunity – between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not
  • fostering good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not
  • consulting and involving those affected by inequality, in the decisions your school takes to promote equality and eliminate discrimination - affected people could include parents, pupils, staff and members of the local community

As public bodies, local authority-maintained schools must comply with the public sector equality duty in the Equality Act 2010 and the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017. This means you must publish:

  • details of how your school complies with the public sector equality duty - you must update this every year
  • your school’s equality objectives - you must update this at least once every 4 years

Special educational needs and disability (SEND) information

You must publish an information report on your website about the implementation of your school’s policy for pupils with SEN. You should update the report at least annually.

You should update any changes occurring during the year as soon as possible. The report must comply with section 69 of the Children and Families Act 2014, meaning that it must contain:

  • the ‘SEN information’ specified in schedule 1 to the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014. Statutory guidance on this is contained in paragraphs 6.79 to 6.82 of the special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0 to 25 years
  • information on:
    • the arrangements for the admission of disabled pupils
    • the steps you have taken to prevent disabled pupils from being treated less favourably than other pupils
    • the facilities you provide to help disabled pupils to access the school
    • the plan prepared under paragraph 3 of schedule 10 to the Equality Act 2010 (accessibility plan) for:
      • increasing the extent to which disabled pupils can participate in the school’s curriculum
      • improving the physical environment of the school for the purpose of increasing the extent to which disabled pupils are able to take advantage of education and benefits, facilities or services provided or offered by the school
      • improving the delivery to disabled pupils of information which is readily accessible to pupils who are not disabled

Careers programme information

You must publish information about the school’s careers programme. This information must relate to the delivery of careers guidance to pupils from years 7 to 13, in accordance with section 42A of the Education Act 1997. For the current academic year, you must include:

  • the name, email address and telephone number of the school’s careers leader
  • a summary of the careers programme, including details of how pupils, parents, teachers and employers may access information about it
  • how the school measures and assesses the careers programme’s impact on pupils
  • the date of the school’s next review of the information published

Read the statutory guidance for schools on careers guidance and access for education and training providers for more information. The statutory guidance also contains further information about a policy statement that you must publish to comply with section 42B of the Education Act 1997, known as the ‘provider access legislation’. The policy statement must set out the circumstances in which providers of technical education and apprenticeships will be given access to year 8 to 13 pupils.

Complaints procedure

You must publish details of your school’s complaints procedure, which must comply with section 29 of the Education Act 2002.

Read guidance on developing your school’s complaints procedure.

You must also publish (as part of your SEN information report) any arrangements for handling complaints from parents of children with SEN about the support the school provides.

Governors’ information and duties

You must publish information on the governing body in line with statutory guidance on the constitution of governing bodies of maintained schools. This should include:

  • details of the structure and responsibilities of the governing body and its committees
  • the full names of the chair of the governing body and chair of each committee
  • information about each governor, including their:
    • full name, date of appointment, term of office, date they stepped down (where applicable) and who appointed them (in accordance with the governing body’s instrument of government)
    • relevant business and financial interests including:
      • governance roles in other educational institutions
      • any material interests arising from relationships between governors or relationships between governors and school staff (including spouses, partners and close relatives)
    • attendance record at governing body and committee meetings over the last academic year

You should also publish the same information for associate members making it clear whether they have voting rights on any of the committees to which they have been appointed.

Collecting and publishing governing board diversity data

Diversity is important and we want governing boards to be increasingly reflective of the communities they serve.

We encourage schools to collect and publish governing board members’ diversity data. Information should be widely accessible to members of the school community and the public. Board members can opt out of sharing their information, including protected characteristics, at any given time including after publication.

Schools must ensure that individuals cannot be identified through the publication of data, particularly when board member levels are low. Read more about this in the data protection toolkit for schools and Equality Act 2010: advice for schools.

There is no prescriptive way to collect diversity data from volunteers; this needs to be done on a voluntary basis. Schools may prefer to adopt a similar approach to how they collate the diversity data of pupils.

Financial information

You must publish:

  • how many school employees (if any) have a gross annual salary of £100,000 or more in increments of £10,000 - we recommend using a table to display this
  • a link to the webpage which is dedicated to your school on the schools financial benchmarking service - follow the prompts to find your school’s specific page

Charging and remissions policies

You must publish your school’s charging and remissions policies (this means when you cancel fees). The policies must include details of:

  • the activities or cases where your school will charge pupils’ parents
  • the circumstances where your school will make an exception on a payment you would normally expect to receive under your charging policy

Read about school charging and remission.

Values and ethos

Your website should include a statement of your school’s ethos and values.

Requests for paper copies

If a parent requests a paper copy of the information on your school’s website, you must provide this free of charge.

Published 18 September 2014
Last updated 25 April 2023 + show all updates
  1. Updated 'Collecting and publishing governing board diversity data' to clarify that information should be widely accessible to members of the school community and the public.

  2. A section has been added on collecting and publishing governing board diversity data.

  3. We have updated example wording which schools can use to show that the most recent key stage 2 performance measures are for the 2018 to 2019 academic year.

  4. Page updated to show what maintained schools must or should publish in the 2022 to 2023 academic year. Includes new sections on ‘School uniforms’ and ‘School opening hours’, and changes elsewhere.

  5. Added a section on remote education - linked to the guidance on remote education provision expectations and the optional template to help schools publish information.

  6. Added new sections: 'Schools that do not have a website' and 'Coronavirus (COVID-19) catch-up premium'. Updated sections on 'Admission arrangements', 'Exams and assessment results', 'Curriculum', 'Pupil premium', 'Year 7 literacy and numeracy catch-up premium', 'PE and sport premium for primary schools', 'Equality objectives', 'Special educational needs and disability (SEND) information', 'Governors' information and duties'.

  7. Added 'Financial information' that schools must publish.

  8. Added additional clarification in line with regulations to the SEN section.

  9. Updated policy information for maintained schools.

  10. Updated guidance for the current academic year.

  11. Clarified what information voluntary-aided schools must publish about their admission arrangements.

  12. Reinstated section on special educational needs (SEN) and disability, which was removed in error. Added link to The School Information (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2016.

  13. Added requirement about school complaints procedure which came into force on 1 September 2016.

  14. Added a link to school charging and remission guidance.

  15. Added details of the information schools must publish about their governing body.

  16. First published.