Guidance

What maintained schools must or should publish online

Information that schools maintained by a local authority must or should publish on their website.

From:
Department for Education
Published
18 September 2014
Last updated
15 May 2024 — See all updates

Applies to England

There is separate guidance on what academies and further education colleges must publish online.

Who and what this guidance is for

This guidance is for maintained schools.

It gives an overview of the information:

  • that must be published
  • the Department for Education (DfE) recommends should be published

Why information must be published

Every maintained school must publish specific information on its website to comply with:

Schools that do not have their own website must publish this information on an alternative website and provide parents and carers with a link to it.

A school should provide a paper copy of this information free of charge, if a parent or carer requests it.

Admission arrangements

What foundation and voluntary-aided schools must publish

Foundation and voluntary-aided schools must publish their admission arrangements to comply with the:

September admissions – normal point of entry

By 15 March each year, the school must publish on its website the admission arrangements for children who will be starting school at the normal point of entry in September of the following year. It must retain them there for the whole of the academic year in which offers for places are made.

The admission arrangements must explain:

  • how the school considers applications for places in each relevant age group (that is, the age group in which children are normally admitted)
  • how many children the school intends to admit in each relevant age group (known as the published admission number, or PAN)
  • what a parent or carer needs to do if they want to apply for their child to attend the school
  • how the school allocates places, if there are more applicants than places available

Where applicable, schools must also explain how:

  • children are selected for a place, if the school is selective
  • a parent or carer of a primary-age child can request that the school delay or defer their child’s entry to reception, and the process for requesting admission outside the normal age group
  • many external applicants the school intends to admit into the sixth form

In-year admissions

By 31 August each year, the school must publish how it will manage in-year applications for places (that is, applications for places in the middle of a school year, or to start in the September of a year which is not the normal point of entry).

If the governing body manages those applications, the school must provide:

  • an application form
  • supplementary information, if necessary

If the local authority manages those applications, the school must publish a link to the in-year co-ordination scheme.

Admission appeals

By 28 February each year, the school must publish a timetable setting out how it will organise and hear admission appeals.

This timetable must:

  • include a deadline that allows a parent or carer at least 20 school days from the date of notification that their application was unsuccessful to prepare and lodge a written appeal
  • include reasonable deadlines for:
    • a parent or carer to submit additional evidence
    • admission authorities to submit their evidence
    • the clerk to send appeal papers to the panel and parties
  • ensure that a parent or carer lodging an appeal receives 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

Further guidance is available in the school admission appeals code.

What community and voluntary-controlled schools must publish

Community and voluntary-controlled schools must publish a link to the local authority’s website for parents and carers who wish to find out about the school’s admission and appeal arrangements. It is the local authority that manages both processes.

Behaviour policy

What schools must publish

Schools must publish their behaviour policy. It must comply with section 89 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006.

Guidance on developing and publishing a behaviour policy is available.

Careers programme information

What secondary schools must publish

Secondary schools must publish information about how they deliver careers guidance to pupils in years 7 to 13.

For the current academic year, this must include:

  • the name and contact details of the school’s careers lead
  • a summary of its careers programme, including details of how pupils, parents, carers, teachers and employers can access information about it
  • how the school measures and assesses the programme’s impact on pupils
  • the date by which it will review this information

Secondary schools must publish a policy statement to comply with section 42B of the Education Act 1997, known as the ‘provider access legislation’.

This statement must set out the circumstances in which they will give providers of technical education and apprenticeships access to year 8 to 13 pupils, as applicable.

Statutory guidance on providing careers guidance is available.

Charging and remissions policies

What schools must publish

Schools must publish their:

  • charging policy, giving details of activities for which they will charge parents and carers
  • remissions policy, giving details of any circumstances in which they will wholly or partly waive any charge they would otherwise expect parents and carers to pay

Guidance on charging for school activities is available. Sections 449 to 462 of the Education Act 1996 set out the law on charging in schools maintained by local authorities.

Complaints policy

What schools must publish

Schools must publish their complaints policy to comply with section 29 of the Education Act 2002. The best practice guidance supports them to set up and review their complaints procedures.

They must also publish the details of any arrangements for handling complaints from parents and carers about the support they provide for children with special educational needs and disability (SEND). They must do this as part of their SEN information report.

Contact details

What all schools must publish

Al schools must publish:

  • their postal address
  • their telephone number
  • the name of the member of staff who deals with queries from parents and carers, and the public

What mainstream schools must publish

Mainstream schools must also publish the name and contact details of their special educational needs co-ordinator.

Curriculum

What all schools must publish

All schools must publish:

  • the content of the curriculum in each academic year for every subject, including mandatory subjects such as religious education (RE) – this applies even if it is taught as part of another subject or known by another name
  • information to make parents and carers aware they have the right to withdraw their child from all or part of RE
  • how parents, carers or other members of the public can find out more about the curriculum
  • an accessibility plan that sets out how, over time, they will increase the extent to which disabled pupils participate in the curriculum

What schools with key stage 1 provision must publish

Schools with key stage 1 provision must publish a list of any phonics or reading schemes they use.

What schools with key stage 4 provision must publish

Schools with key stage 4 provision must publish a list of the key stage 4 courses they offer, including GCSEs.

What all schools should publish

Alongside the content of their music curriculum, all schools are expected to publish information about their music development plan. A template is available to support with this.

Ethos and values

What schools should publish

Schools should publish a statement setting out their ethos and values.

Financial information

What schools must publish

Schools must publish:

  • the number of their employees, if any, whose gross annual salary exceeds £100,000, presenting this information in £10,000 bandings – DfE recommends using a table to display this
  • a link to the dedicated webpage for their school on the schools financial benchmarking service

Governance information

What schools must publish

Schools must publish information about their governing body and its committees, in line with the constitution of governing bodies of maintained schools.

What schools should publish

Schools should publish information about:

  • their structure
  • their responsibilities
  • each governor or associate member
  • governors’ or associate members’ relevant business and financial interests
  • whether associate members have voting rights

DfE also encourages schools to publish easily accessible data about the diversity of:

  • their board
  • any associated committees

There is no prescriptive way to collect this data, but schools may choose to follow a similar approach to that they use to collate the diversity data of pupils.

Board or committee members can opt out of sharing their information, such as protected characteristics, including after the data has been published.

Schools must ensure that individuals cannot be identified, which may be a particular issue when board or committee member levels are low. Guidance on the Equality Act 2010 and data protection in schools is available.

Ofsted reports

What schools must publish

Schools must publish either a:

  • copy of their most recent Ofsted report, or
  • link to the report on the Ofsted website

Pay gap reporting

What schools with 250 or more employees must publish

Schools with 250 or more employees must, in line with the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017:

  • report their gender pay gap information to the government via the gender pay gap service
  • publish this information in a prominent place on their website within one year of their ‘snapshot date’, which, for most public authority employers, will be 31 March

Statutory guidance on the gender pay gap information employers must report is available.

What schools with 250 or more employees may wish to publish

Most public authority employers, including schools, do not need to publish a written statement on their public-facing website.

However, schools with 250 or more employees may wish to publish:

What schools with fewer than 250 employees should publish

Schools with fewer than 250 employees:

  • are not required to comply with the regulations, but
  • should give serious consideration to the business benefits of doing so

Guidance on who counts as an employee is available.

For schools interested in looking at their ethnicity pay gap, guidance for employers on voluntary ethnicity pay reporting is also available.

PE and sport premium

What all schools must publish

Schools that receive PE and sport premium funding must publish, by 31 July each year:

  • the amount of premium received
  • a full breakdown of how it has been or will be spent
  • the impact seen by the school on pupils’ participation and attainment in PE and sport
  • how this improvement will be sustained

The Association for Physical Education and Youth Sport Trust have jointly developed a template that can be used for recording and reporting on the premium’s impact.

By 31 July each year, schools are required to publish the percentage of pupils in their year 6 cohort who have 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

Further guidance is available in the conditions of grant document.

Public sector equality duty

What schools must publish

Schools must publish:

  • details of how they comply with the public sector equality duty, updating this every year
  • their equality objectives, updating these at least every 4 years

The Equality Act 2010: advice for schools provides guidance on how schools can show they have complied, as required by the Equality Act 2010 and the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017.

Pupil premium and recovery premium

What schools must publish

Schools that receive pupil premium and recovery premium funding must publish a strategy statement by 31 December each year.

It must explain how the:

Schools must publish the statement in the DfE template provided on the pupil premium guidance page, so it meets the requirements set out in the conditions of grant document.

DfE recommends that schools plan their pupil premium spending over 3 years. If they do so, they must still update their statement annually to reflect:

  • their spending activity for the current academic year
  • the impact of pupil premium in the previous academic year

Remote education

What schools should publish

Schools should publish information about their remote education provision.

School opening hours

What schools should publish

Schools should publish the:

  • official start time of the compulsory school day
  • official end time of the compulsory school day
  • total time this amounts to in a typical week, including breaks but not after-school activities

School uniform

What schools should publish

Schools whose pupils are required to wear a uniform should publish an easily understandable policy on their website, in line with statutory guidance on the cost of school uniforms.

It should include information about:

  • optional or required items
  • items that will be worn only at certain times of year (for example, winter or summer uniform)
  • items that must be branded or can be generic
  • whether items can be bought only from a specific retailer or more widely
  • where second-hand uniform can be purchased

Special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)

What schools must publish 

Schools must publish an SEN information report. It should be updated annually and any changes to the information occurring during the year should be updated as soon as possible.

To comply with section 69 of the Children and Families Act 2014, the report must contain:

  • the SEN information specified in Schedule 1 to the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014 – statutory guidance is available in paragraphs 6.79 to 6.82 of the SEND code of practice: 0 to 25 years
  • additional information about the:
    • arrangements for the admission of disabled pupils
    • steps the school has taken to prevent disabled pupils from being treated less favourably than other pupils
    • facilities it provides to help disabled pupils access the school
    • accessibility plan it has prepared under paragraph 3 of Schedule 10 to the Equality Act 2010 to:
      • increase the extent to which disabled pupils can participate in the curriculum
      • improve the physical environment to increase the extent to which disabled pupils can take advantage of the educational benefits, facilities or services provided or offered
      • improve the way disabled pupils can access information that is easily accessible to pupils who are not disabled

Test, exam and assessment results

What all schools must or should publish 

All schools must publish a link to the compare school and college performance service and their performance measures page on it.  

Key stage 2

Primary schools must publish their most recent key stage 2 performance measures, as published by the Secretary of State, comprising: 

  • their progress scores in:
    • reading
    • writing
    • maths
  • the percentage of their pupils who achieved the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (combined)
  • the percentage of their pupils who achieved a higher standard in reading, writing and maths (combined)
  • their average scaled score in:
    • reading
    • maths

Key stage 4

Secondary schools must publish their most recent key stage 4 performance measures, as published by the Secretary of State, comprising: 

They should also publish: 

  • the percentage of their pupils staying in education or going into employment after key stage 4
  • the percentage of their pupils who were entered for the English Baccalaureate (EBacc)
  • their EBacc average point score (APS)

Key stage 5 (16 to 18)

Secondary schools with sixth forms must publish their most recent 16 to 18 performance measures, as published by the Secretary of State, comprising their students’ headline:

  • attainment measures
  • retention measures
  • destination measures

They do not have to publish the following performance measures for the 2022 to 2023 academic year, as these are not being published by the Secretary of State:

  • level 3 value-added
  • English and maths progress measure
Published 18 September 2014
Last updated 15 May 2024 + show all updates

  1. Reformatted the guidance to improve usability. Added a new section on 'Pay gap reporting', updated the 'Test, exam and assessment results' and included information about publishing a music development plan in the 'Curriculum' section.

  2. 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.

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

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

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

  7. 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'.

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

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

  10. Updated policy information for maintained schools.

  11. Updated guidance for the current academic year.

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

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

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

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

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

  17. First published.

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