What we hold, and what we do not

Published admissions and inspection figures for schools in England, from the DfE, Ofsted and local authorities.

This page sets out what The School Record holds, and what it does not. Where something is missing, it is because it is not published, not because the answer is no.

What is published

• School pages published 18,712

  Of 26,726 open schools held. We publish a page only where we hold at least 3 years of figures.

• Councils covered 151

  Councils in England with their own page.

• Schools with a catchment map 3,610

  Across 24 councils. For every other school we hold no map, which is not the same as an address being outside one.

A school has a page once we hold at least 3 years of figures for it.

What is not covered

Nations

England only. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are not covered.

Middle schools in three-tier areas

89 open middle schools across 14 councils are not yet shown. Children join them at about age 9, which is neither the start of primary nor the start of secondary school, so they do not fit either group.

Catchment areas

England has no national list of catchment areas. Each council decides whether to publish a map, and in what form.

We hold maps for 3,610 schools across 24 councils. You can see which ones on the map of England.

For every other school we hold no map. That means we cannot tell you whether an address is inside an area or outside it. It is not the same as saying it is outside.

Councils also mean slightly different things by these maps. Some use them to help decide who gets a place when a school is full. Some use them to decide who gets free school transport. Many use them for both. Each school page says what we hold and points you to the council.

How places were rationed

When a school runs out of places, one rule decides who gets the last one. Some councils publish that rule, and how far away the last child lived. We hold this for 788 schools. For every other school we can tell you how many families wanted a place, but not how the places were shared out.

How current the data is

The date each source was last updated here. A recent update can still describe an earlier year, so every figure on a school page states the year it covers.

Council sources are grouped together here. Each school page names the council source for its own figures, and when it was last updated.

Can you use this data?

Yes. The figures here come from government and council files published under the Open Government Licence v3.0, and you may reuse them. Please say where they came from, so a reader of yours can trace a number back the same way you can.

You do not have to read the web pages to get at it. Every page here has a Markdown twin, and every school page has a JSON one, both built from the same figures as the page itself, so a program and a person cannot come away with different answers.

• The API, described in OpenAPI.
• llms.txt, which says what this data does and does not support, written for an answer engine.
• The sitemap, listing every published page.

Map boundaries are simplified for drawing and are not accurate enough to test whether one address falls inside an area. Each of those responses says so in a header. If you are planning something that turns on that, write to us first: press@schoolrecord.co.uk.