What do maintained schools need to publish on their websites?

Overview

You might be interested in what information schools must publish on their websites. In this article, we refer to information outlined from GOV.UK on what maintained schools must publish online. 

We’ve published another article which outlines 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: advice for schools and the Children and Families Act 2014.

Below, we set out in each section the requirements expected of your school website.

School website requirements: 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 & disabilities co-ordinator (SENDCo), unless you’re a special school
• The school’s opening hours

Admission arrangements

Community schools and voluntary-controlled schools

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

Foundation schools and voluntary-aided schools

If the school’s governing body determines your admission arrangements, your school must publish them on your website each year and keep them on your website for the whole school year.

Your school 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 ‘oversubscription criteria’ (how you offer places if there are more applicants than places)

You must also publish a timetable for organising and hearing admission appeals for your school by the 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, 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

Ofsted reports

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

Exam and assessment results

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

Key stage 2 (end of primary school) results

You must publish the following details from your school’s most recent KS2 performance measures as published by the Secretary of State (for most schools, the performance measures published for the 2018 to 2019 academic year):

• 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

You must publish the following details from your school’s most recent KS4 performance measures as published by the Secretary of State (for most schools, the performance measures published for the 2018 to 2019 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), the EBacc attainment measure changed to an average point score, showing pupils’ point scores across the 5 pillars of the EBacc

The Department suggests that schools also publish the percentage of pupils that enter the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) staying in education or going into employment after KS4 (pupil destinations).

Key stage 5 (16 to 18) information

If your school operates a sixth form, you must publish the following details from your school’s 16 to 18 performance tables page most recent key stage 5 (16 to 18) performance measures 16 to 18 accountability headline measures guidance as published by the Secretary of State

• Level 3 Value added
• Attainment
• English and mathematics progress
• Retention
• Destinations

Performance tables

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

Curriculum

You 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

At KS1 you must publish the phonics or reading scheme you use.

At KS4 you misy publish the courses you offer.

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.

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

You must publish a strategy for the school’s use of the pupil premium. The DfE has published templates to help schools present their pupil premium strategy statements.

You may wish to plan your pupil premium use over 3 years. You should aim to update the online strategy statement by the end of the autumn term each year to reflect your plans for the academic year after assessing the needs of your pupils, both new and existing.

The website must explain how the:

• pupil premium and recovery premium is being spent
• school is improving outcomes for pupils by how it is spending this funding

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

PE and sport premium for primary schools

If your school receives PE (physical education) and sport premium funding, you must publish:

• 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

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
• Perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations

Remote Education

Schools should publish information about their remote education provision.

Public Sector Equality Duty

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

The Equality Act 2010 and Advice for Schools provides information as to how your school can demonstrate compliance, for example, including details of how your school is:

• 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 publish an Information Report on your website about the implementation of your school’s policy for pupils with SEN and should update it 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 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 publish information about the school’s careers programme. This information must relate to the delivery of careers guidance to year 8 to 13 pupils 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 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

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, commonly 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 SEND information report) any arrangements for handling complaints from parents of children with SEND about the support the school provides.

Governors’ information and duties

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

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.

Pay Gap Reporting

If the school has over 250 employees must publish:

• 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

School Uniform

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.

• 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