- School type
- How the school is run. For example academy, council-maintained, voluntary aided or free school.
- Trust
- The multi-academy trust or sponsor running the school, where it is an academy.
- Age range
- Year groups on roll. For example 4–11 for primary, or 11–18 with sixth form.
- Ofsted
- Latest published Ofsted outcome and date where we have them, plus a link to the Ofsted reports site. State-funded schools inspected before September 2024 have one overall grade, such as Good. Later inspections grade separate areas instead, and report cards from November 2025 use a scale from exceptional to urgent improvement. These schools show ‘No overall grade’, with a short summary where we have one. Fee-paying association independent schools are usually inspected by the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) instead: we link to ISI reports and do not invent an Ofsted-style grade. Non-association independents inspected by Ofsted show the same Ofsted grades and report link when published in Ofsted’s open management information.
- Straight-line miles
- Distance as the crow flies from your home postcode when you have entered one, otherwise from the middle of this district. Not walking or driving time.
- Walking and cycling times
- With your full home postcode set, cards show a rough time such as “About 25 min walk, 8 min cycle (estimate)” for 1 mile. We add 30% to the straight-line distance for real streets, then use the Department for Transport’s default speeds of 5 km/h walking and 15 km/h cycling. We show a walking time up to 3 miles in a straight line and a cycling time up to 10 miles, and the miles only beyond that. This is an estimate, not a checked or safe route, and younger children often walk more slowly. Use the route link on the card to see the real journey. Beyond about 1 mile, cards also suggest park-and-stride: parking away from the gate and walking the last bit. Without a home postcode, cards show rough hints instead of times: about 1 mile or less may suit walking, and about 1 to 2.5 miles cycling.
- Pupils
- Number of pupils on roll from published school census data.
- Free school meals
- Pupils eligible for free school meals. Often used as one indicator of economic disadvantage in the catchment. Useful context, not a comment on pupils or families.
- SEN
- Share of pupils with SEN support or an EHC plan. A higher figure can reflect inclusive admissions and experience, or more demand on staff. Check what is on site and talk to the SENCO.
- English as an additional language (EAL)
- Pupils whose first language is not English. Many schools support this well; if English at home matters to you, ask how beginners are taught in class. Not a measure of overall quality.
- Attendance
- Share of possible sessions attended. Higher is better.
- Persistent absence
- Share of pupils missing 10% or more of sessions. Lower is better.
- Roll vs capacity
- Roll versus published GIAS capacity. Close to, around, or below published capacity. Not applications versus offers, and not a guarantee of a place.
- Attainment
- Primary: share meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (Key Stage 2). Secondary: Attainment 8, the average GCSE-level score across eight subjects (Key Stage 4), or Progress 8 where that is the latest DfE figure for the school. A dash means nothing was published for that school.
