Methodology & data sources

Schoolchecker.uk covers state-funded schools in England listed in GIAS, plus independent schools where we can match them from the same register. Fee-paying independents are labelled Independent · fees apply. Independent special schools are labelled Independent special · usually LA-funded (places are usually arranged via an EHCP, not parental day fees). Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland are out of scope. Council and district pages may show wider local context (census, crime indicators, house prices) at the geography stated on each row.

Figures can lag the latest government release. Always confirm admissions, SEN provision, and transport with the school and your local authority before you apply.

• We do not publish parent reviews or a single “best school” score.
• We do not guarantee admission or imply a postcode is in catchment.
• We do not give neighbourhoods an overall score. Crime, deprivation, and school inspections are shown separately on each district page.
• We do not replace Ofsted reports or a school's own SEND information report.

Where a school page shows applications and offers, the figures come from the Department for Education's school-level file in Primary and secondary school applications and offers. They cover entry in September 2026 (the 2026/27 school year). DfE published them on 18 June 2026. We use the main entry point only: Reception for primary schools and Year 7 for secondary schools.

• Applications: how many times families named the school as any of their preferences.
• First preferences: how many families named it as their first choice.
• Offers: places the council offered at the school on national offer day.
• First preferences offered a place: the share of first preferences that led to an offer at this school. We only work this out when at least 5 families named the school first.

These figures describe one admissions round. They are not a catchment and they do not guarantee a place. Demand this year may be different. Councils make offers using each school's own admissions criteria, such as siblings, distance or faith. The number of offers is not the published admission number, because places for children with an education, health and care (EHC) plan are not included.

A few schools list a second site, a boarding place or an aptitude route separately under a DfE placeholder code. We cannot match those rows to a school, so the figures cover the main row only. At all-through schools, Year 7 offers can be low because many places go to pupils already at the school.

Roll versus published capacity is a separate figure from GIAS. It shows how full the building is, not how many families applied.

A dash on a school card usually means one of: not published by DfE or Ofsted for that school; suppressed for small cohorts; not applicable (for example KS2 at a middle school); or not yet imported after an academy change of URN. We prefer a blank cell to guessing.

Ofsted area judgements may appear without a single overall grade. We show the detail line from the inspection note where available.

When you enter a full postcode, distances are straight-line miles from that point to the school coordinates in GIAS. They are useful for sorting nearby options. Route links open Google Maps with standard disclaimers.

With your full home postcode set, district cards, school pages and compare also show a rough walking and cycling time, such as “About 25 min walk, 8 min cycle (estimate)” for a school 1 mile away in a straight line. We add 30% to the straight-line distance to allow for real streets. That allowance is ours, not an official figure. Then we use the Department for Transport's default average speeds for walking and cycling schemes: 5 km/h walking and 15 km/h cycling, from National Travel Survey data (Active Mode Appraisal Toolkit). Times up to 10 minutes are rounded to the nearest minute, and longer times to the nearest 5 minutes. We show a walking time up to 3 miles in a straight line and a cycling time up to 10 miles. Beyond that we show the miles only.

These are estimates, not a checked or safe route. They do not allow for hills, busy roads or crossings, and younger children often walk more slowly. They are not a catchment or a free school transport check. Use the route link to see the real journey. Google only sees your postcode if you open that link.

The shortlist and compare table run in your browser. Snapshots are taken when you add a school so compare works offline from stored fields. Downloaded CSV files are for your personal research; treat them as a point-in-time export, not an official record.

If something looks wrong, see our contact page with the school URN, the field, and a link to the official source. We correct pipeline or display issues; we do not edit government statistics without labelling.

Data refresh log shows when sources were last checked by our pipeline.