From 1st September 2015 new statutory school website requirements were published by OFSTED to ensure that all school’s publicise the correct and essential data and information on school websites. Quite often OFSTED inspectors will spend some time either before or during an OFSTED inspection browsing the school website to find such information.
The statutory information is also essential for current parents and students as well as prospective parents and students starting school later this year and should be made available in an easy and accessible manner. When publishing the information on the school website it should be a positive reflection on the school and its achievements and displayed in a clear and organised manner to allow ease of access. When needing to upload documents and policies these should be located on one website page that allows the user easy access to find the document they are looking for.
We have put together the following list of items that are required to be displayed on all school websites:
- Contact Details
- School Name
- School Postal Address
- School Telephone Number
- School Email Address
- Contact Name for the staff member who deals with queries from parents and the public
- Admission Arrangements
- How the school considers applications for each age group
- What parents need to do if they want their child to attend the school
- The arrangements for selecting the pupils who apply
- The over-subscription criteria and what the school will do about offering placing if there are more child applications than there are places
- How parents can find our about the schools admissions arrangements from the local authority that the school is based in
- OFSTED Reports
- A recent copy of the school’s most recent OFSTED report must be published
- A link to the report found on the OFSTED website must also be published
- Exam Results
- Information on the most recent exam results should be published on the school website along with any photos and student feedback
- Performance Tables
- A link to the performance tables service must be included on the website, visit https://www.gov.uk/school-performance-tables and search for the school, a link will be provided that the school must link to providing key performance information
- Curriculum
- The school must publish the content of the school curriculum for each year group in every subject
- The names of any reading schemes the school is using in Key Stage 1
- List of courses available to students at Key Stage 4 including GCSEs
- The way parents or public can find out about the curriculum the school is following
- Behaviour Policy
- The school’s behaviour policy must be published on the website, ideally on a policies page
- School Complaints Procedure
- The school’s complaints must be published on the website, again ideally on a policies page
- Pupil Premium
- A strategy for the school’s use of the pupil premium must be published on the school website, with new requirements school’s no longer have to publish a pupil premium statement
- Information on the school’s pupil premium grant allocation amount must be included
- Summary of the main barriers to educational achievement that are sometimes faced by eligible pupils at the school
- How each school spends the pupil premium to address the barriers
- How the impact of pupil premium is measured
- The date of when the pupil premium will be next reviewed
- Previous years allocations and impact must also be published
- Year 7 Literacy and Numeracy Catch Up
- For schools that receive year 7 numeracy and literacy catch up premium funding the following information must be published:
- Funding allocation for the current academic year
- How the school intends to spend the allocation
- How the school spent a previous years allocation
- How a previous years allocation made a difference to the attainment of pupils that benefited from the funding
- PE and Sport Premium
- For schools that receive physical education and sport premium funding the following information must be published:
- How much funding was received
- How the funding has been spent or how it will be spent
- Effect the funding has had on pupils
- How the improvements will be made sustainable
- Special Educational Needs and Disability Information
- The school must publish a SEN report for students with SEN, an accessibility plan also needs to be published on the website
- Governing Body Information
- The school must publish details of the structure and responsibilites of its governing body, this needs to include business interests, financial interests and each governors role in other schools
- Charging and Remissions
- School’s must publish details about charging and remissions policies, the information needs to include details of activities or cases where the school will charge pupils parents and where the school will make an exception on a payment the school would normally expect to receive under the school’s charging policy
- Values and Ethos
- The website should include a copy of the school’s ethos and values that is accessible to new and current students, parents and public
- Paper Copies
- Parents and public need to be able to request a paper copy of any information found on the school website and this must be provided free of charge
All of these requirements need to be included and easily found on the school website, if you need any help in updating your website or displaying the required information please let us know, we have years of experience in working in schools and with schools and so we can advise on the best way to achieve the requirements.
Thanks to the Department for Education website who helped with the production of this article.
