The School and Multi-Academy Trust Database Overview

The Schools database covers all State and Independent Schools in the UK as well as Multi Academy Trusts.

Schools in the UK are funded, managed and structured in a wide variety of ways. There are three broad types - Community (funded by the taxpayer and controlled by a Local Authority), Academy (funded primarily by the tax payer but independent of Local Authority control) and Independent (funded privately). The Head Teacher is usually the ultimate decision maker for each school.

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Types of School:

Community Schools - Local Authority owned and run, but since the introduction of Local Management of Schools the governing bodies and head teachers enjoy a large degree of autonomy over how their budgets should be spent.

Voluntary Aided and Voluntary Controlled Schools - funded primarily by the Local Authority but the Church will have a major influence in the management of the school and will also contribute funds.

Academies - these are primarily in England and many Community Schools of all types have transferred to Academy status and continue to do so. They are directly funded by Central Government and are independent of Local Authority control. As well as their Public funding, they may also receive funding from the private sector in the form of sponsors. Academies are often (and increasingly) managed through Multi Academy Trusts (MATs) - these provide a centralised board and resources and are funded either by taking a proportion of each member School funding, or by pooling all funding and redistributing.

Independent Schools - are primarily funded by fee paying pupils. They tend to fall into two groups - Public or Preparatory Schools and Other Independent Schools, which can be very small. They are either owned Privately or by a Charity and are completely autonomous of state control and do not have to follow the National Curriculum. They are, however, still subject to School inspection by the respective national regulatory bodies.

Special Schools - serve the specific needs of children with physical disabilities or learning difficulties and therefore tend to be quite small. There are a number of types, including Maintained Special Schools, run by the Local Authority, Academies and Independent Special Schools which are privately owned and run but the pupils may be funded by their Local Authority.

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Schooling structure:

Primary and Comprehensive schools - the most common form, a two tier non-selective system. Typically pupils are 4-11 and 11-16 (or 18) respectively.

First, Middle and Upper schools - (the latter normally covering the 13 to 18 age range) - a three tier system run by a number of Local Authorities.

Grammar schools - a selective system that exists in a few areas. Pupils are admitted based on academic ability at the age of 11. Grammar Schools are usually fed by pupils from all Community, Academy and Private Primary Schools in the area.

Sixth Form Colleges and Colleges of Further Education - About half of UK Secondary Schools include a Sixth Form for the 16-18 age groups (A Level or Equivalent, otherwise known as Further Education). In addition to these, there are a number of dedicated Further Education Colleges providing the same and often broader services (These are listed in Further and Higher Education database).

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Additional data collected within the Schools database:

Specialisation - We identify schools that specialise in certain areas, such as Technology, Languages, Sports or the Arts, whilst still maintaining a full standard curriculum.

Number of Pupils - We list the number of pupils at each school. The vast majority of schools are Primary schools, rarely with more than 500 pupils. In rural areas some schools have less than 50 pupils. Comprehensive schools are much larger, typically with 700-1500 pupils or more drawn from a wider area.

Gender - Shows if the School is either Boys or Girls Only, Co-educational, or, primarily one gender or the other.

Schools Attributes - Details additional services/facilities the Schools may have, e.g. Boarding Facilities / Nursery Unit / Facilities for Children with Learning Difficulties etc.

Age Range - We list the pupil age ranges covered by each School.

Parent Organisation - We provide the name of the parent Local Education Authority (LEA) or Multi Academy Trust for each School that is controlled or funded by either.

Ofsted - We can append the last inspection date and latest rating to School datasets.

Federation - We can append the name of all Federations that Schools belong to.

Gender Analysis - We can append in the specific number of pupils by gender, both numerically and expressed as a percentage.

Geographic - We can append in a number of Geo data points, including the Local Authority Area, Constituency and Ward.