Government guidance on school website requirements 2022

The latest data that local government-maintained schools are required to post on their websites.

According to the School Information (England) Regulations (2008), as amended by the School Information (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2012 and 2016, and other applicable laws like the Equality Act 2010: advice for schools and the Children and Families Act 2014, every local authority-maintained school must publish specific information on its website.

Schools without websites

Even if you don't have a website of your own, you must nevertheless publish all that is stated on this page online. You are free to host the information on a different website as long as you let the parents know the URL (website address) and any other pertinent information about the website, for instance.

Contact details

The following information must be on your school's website:

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

You must post your admission policies on your website each year and keep them up throughout the academic year if the school's governing board sets them.

You must explain:

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

By the 28th of February of each year, you must also publish a schedule for organising and hearing admission appeals for your school.

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, for admission authorities to submit their evidence and for 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

If the local government oversees your admissions procedure, direct parents there to learn more about the admissions and appeals policies at your school.

Ofsted reports

A copy of the most current Ofsted report for your school or a link to the report on the Ofsted website must be made public.

Exam and assessment results

Since the Secretary of State has not released the test and assessment results for the 2019–2020 academic year as performance metrics, schools are not compelled to publicise them. However, until new performance measures are released, you must keep displaying your 2018 to 2019 performance measurements. The fact that these performance measures are out of date should be made crystal obvious. There is more information available regarding the requirements for school and FE accountability for the 2019–2020 academic year.

Key stage 2 (end of primary school) results

The following information from the most current Key Stage 2 performance measures for your school, as published by the Secretary of State (for most schools, these are the performance measures published for the 2018–2019 academic year), must be made public:

progress scores in reading, writing and maths
percentage of pupils who achieved at least the expected standard in reading, writing and maths
percentage of pupils who achieved at a higher standard in reading, writing and maths
average ‘scaled scores’ in reading and maths

Key stage 4 (end of secondary school) results

The following information from your school's most recent key stage 4 performance measures, as released by the Secretary of State (performance measures for the majority of schools produced for the 2018–2019 academic year), must be made public:

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) - in 2018, the EBacc attainment measure changed to an average point score, showing pupils’ point scores across the 5 pillars of the EBacc

The government proposes that schools release information on the proportion of students who enrol in the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) who continue their education or find work following key stage 4. (pupil destinations).

Key stage 5 (16 to 18) information

The following information from your school's most recent Key Stage 5 (16–18) performance measures (16–18 accountability headline measures guidance) as published by the Secretary of State (for most schools, the performance measures published for the 2018–2019 academic year) must be made public if your institution has a sixth form:

progress
attainment
English and mathematics progress
retention
destinations

Performance tables

Links to the school and college performance tables, as well as the website with your school's performance tables, must be included.

Curriculum

You must publish:

the content of your school curriculum in each academic year for every subject, including 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

Your approach to the curriculum should also take into account how you are fulfilling your obligations under the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014 and the Equality Act 2010 to make the curriculum accessible to students with special needs or disabilities.

Remote education

On your website, you must post details on the distance learning options offered by your school. To assist schools with this need, a free template is offered.

Learn more about the requirements for remote learning in the actions for schools during the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.

Behaviour policy

The specifics of your school's behaviour policy must be published.

Section 89 of the Education and Inspections Act of 2006 must be followed by the policy.

Read instructions on how to create and publish your school's behaviour policy.

Pupil premium

A plan for how the school will use the pupil premium must be made public. To assist schools in presenting their child premium strategy statements, DfE has released templates.

Consider spreading out your student premium usage over three years. After determining the needs of your students, both new and returning, you should aim to update the online strategy statement by the end of the autumn term each year to reflect your goals for the academic year.

For the current academic year, you must include:

your school’s pupil premium grant allocation amount
a summary of the main barriers to educational achievement faced by eligible pupils at the school
how you’ll spend the pupil premium to overcome those barriers and the reasons for that approach
how you’ll measure the effect of the pupil premium
the date of the next review of the school’s pupil premium strategy

For the previous academic year, you must include:

how you spent the pupil premium allocation
the effect of the expenditure on pupils

Since fewer students will have attended between March and July 2020, it will be challenging to assess the pupil premium's effects during the 2019–2020 academic year.

While keeping in mind their obligation to update this information at least annually, covering the entire period since September 2019, schools may prefer to monitor and report on the grant's impact at the conclusion of the current fiscal year.

Year 7 literacy and numeracy catch-up premium

You must publish the following if your school won funding for the year 7 reading and numeracy catch-up premium for the 2019–2020 academic year:

details of how you spent your allocation for that year
how your use of that allocation made a difference to the attainment of the pupils who benefit from the funding

The 2020–2021 academic year will be the last year on which schools must report how this funding was utilised, as the Year 7 catch-up premium's final payments were received in relation to the 2019–2020 academic year.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) catch-up premium

If your school is awarded the coronavirus (COVID-19) catch-up premium grant during the 2020–2021 academic year, you must publish information about:

how it is intended that the grant will be spent
how the effect of this expenditure on the educational attainment of those pupils at the school will be assessed

Read more about the COVID-19 coronavirus catch-up premium.

PE and sport premium for primary schools

You must disclose the following if your school receives funding for physical education and sports premiums:

the amount of premium received
a full breakdown of how it has been spent
the impact the school has seen on pupils’ PE, physical activity, and sport participation and attainment
how the improvements will be sustainable in the future

Additionally, you must disclose the proportion of students in your year 6 cohort that complied with the following national curriculum requirements:

swim competently, confidently, and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres
use a range of strokes effectively
perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations

Equality objectives

The Equality Act 2010 and the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017 impose a public sector equality duty on all organisations that are public bodies, including local authorities that operate schools. You must therefore 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

The Equality Act of 2010 and Advice for Schools both offer details on how your school can show compliance, for instance by describing how it:

eliminating discrimination (see the Equality Act 2010)
advancing equality of opportunity – between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it
consulting and involving those affected by inequality, in the decisions your school or college takes to promote equality and eliminate discrimination (affected people could include parents, pupils, staff and members of the local community)

Special educational needs and disability (SEND) information

You must provide an information report regarding the application of your school's policy for students with SEN on your website, and you should update it every year.

Any alterations that take place throughout the year should be updated as soon as possible. According to section 69 of the Children and Families Act 2014, the report must include the following information:

the ‘SEN Information’ specified in schedule 1 to the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014. (Statutory guidance on this is contained in section 6.79 to 6.82 of the Special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0 to 25 years)
information as to:
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 make available details regarding the school's career development programme. In accordance with section 42A of the Education Act 1997, this material must be related to the provision of careers counselling to students in year 8 through 13. You must provide the following for the current academic year:

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 the careers programme
how the school measures and assesses the impact of the careers programme on pupils
the date of the school’s next review of the information published

For additional information, consult the statutory advice for schools on career guidance and access for education and training providers. Additional details about a policy statement that you must make public in order to comply with section 42B of the Education Act of 1997, popularly known as the "Baker Clause," are provided in the legislative guidelines. The policy statement must specify the conditions under which organisations offering technical education and apprenticeships will be permitted access to students in grades 8 through 13.

Complaints procedure

Details of your school's complaints system must be made public and adhere to section 29 of the Education Act of 2002.

Read advice on creating the complaints procedure at your school.

Any procedures for managing grievances from parents of children with SEND regarding the help the school offers must also be made public (as part of your SEND information report).

Governors’ information and duties

In accordance with the statutory guidance for the constitution of governing bodies of maintained schools, you are required to disclose information about the governing body. This ought to contain:

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 make clear whether associate members have voting rights on any of the committees to which they have been appointed by publishing the same information for them as well.

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 - the government recommends 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 make your school's fees and "remissions" policies public (this means when you cancel fees). The policies must provide information on:

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

A description of the ethos and values of your school should be included on your website.

Requests for paper copies

You must give parents a paper copy of the information on your school's website without charging them if they ask for one.