Services

Find your child's school term, half term and holiday dates on your local council's website

Check school performance tables (‘league tables’), Ofsted reports and financial information.

Check if your child can get free school meals - and find out how to apply on your local authority’s website.

Request a replacement exam certificate or a certified statement of results if you've lost your original - check the list of old exam boards if your board no longer exists

School closures happen because of an emergency like severe weather - check whether your child's school is closed on your local council website.

The English national curriculum means children in different schools (at primary and secondary level) study the same subjects to similar standards - it's split into key stages with tests

Apply for a state primary school place through your local council

Educating your child at home ('home schooling'): when to get permission, telling the school, curriculum, SEN.

You can be prosecuted if your child has unauthorised absence from school - truancy, help with getting your child to school, and legal action to enforce school attendance

Get a place for your child at a primary or secondary school - applications, deadlines, admission criteria, appeals and complaints.

Search for Ofsted inspection reports for childminders and childcare providers, schools, colleges, further education providers, children and families services

Complain about a school - complaints process, when to complain to the Department for Education, the Education Funding Agency or Ofsted.

Apply for a state secondary school place through your local council

Types of school and how they're run - community schools, academies, free schools, faith schools, state boarding schools.

Free transport from your local council - eligibility, rules for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), how to apply

Your responsibilities with your local council if you want to educate your child at home - sometimes called home schooling

Find out if your child is eligible for help with the cost of home to school transport

Bullying at school and the law - what your school and the police must do about bullying and how you should report it

Schools can sanction pupils or exclude them - find out what schools are allowed to do, like search pupils for knives or drugs

Schools set school uniform policy and must make their uniform policy. You should talk to the school if you think your child is being discriminated against.