Colleges should publish Executive pay on their websites

Information that @EducationGovUK recommends academies, including 16 to 19 colleges and any educational institution that has academy arrangements, should publish on their websites:

If your school or college is one of the following types, you need to check your funding agreement to find out exactly what information you must publish on your website:

• academies, including free schools, studio schools and university technical colleges
• sixth-form colleges
• general further education (FE) colleges

There are also publishing requirements set out within the Equality Act 2010 and Children and Families Act 2014, with which you must comply.

This guidance gives an overview of those requirements and the further information that the Department for Education (DfE) recommends that you publish on your website if you are one of these schools or colleges. Many academy trusts are under a duty to publish much of this further information, due to clauses in their funding agreements.

There’s separate guidance on what schools maintained by a local authority must publish online.

School or college contact details

Your website should include the:

• name of your school or college
• postal address of your school or college
• telephone number of your school or college
• name of the member of staff who deals with queries from parents and other members of the public
• name of the headteacher or principal
• name and address of the chair of the governing body (if you have one)
• name and contact details of your special educational needs co-ordinator (SENCO) unless you’re a special academy or sixth form or FE college

If you’re an academy, you should publish details about your academy’s sponsor:

• if the school’s owner is an individual, you should publish their full name and contact details (address and a telephone number)
• if the school’s owner is a group or organisation, you should publish the address and telephone number of its office

Admission arrangements

Academies

Admissions arrangements for all mainstream academy schools, other than 16 to 19 institutions must comply with the School admissions code and the School admission appeals code.

Academy trusts must publish the admissions arrangements for their schools on their website and keep them there for the whole of the offer year (the school year in which offers for places are made).

16 to 19 academies and colleges

If you’re a 16 to 19 academy, FE college or sixth-form college, we recommend that you publish details of your admission arrangements.

You should publish this information a year before the beginning of the academic year to which arrangements apply, to help parents and students make an informed choice, and we recommend that the arrangements do not change during the year. You should include details of:

• open days your college or academy is planning
• the process for applying for a place at your college or academy
• whether your college or academy gives priority to applications from pupils enrolled at particular schools

The School admissions code and the School admissions appeal code do not apply to 16 to 19 academies, FE colleges and sixth-form colleges.

Ofsted reports

You 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

Schools are not required to publish their exam and assessment results from the 2019 to 2020 academic year as these have not been published as performance measures by the Secretary of State. You must, however, continue to display your 2018 to 2019 performance measures until new performance measures are published. You should clearly mark that these performance measures are not current. There’s further information on school and FE accountability expectations for the 2019 to 2020 academic year.

Key stage 2 (end of primary school) results

If you’re an academy, you should publish the following details on your school’s most recent key stage 2 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

If you are an academy, you should publish the following details from your school’s most recent key stage 4 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
• Percentage of pupils entering the English Baccalaureate (EBacc)
• Pupil destinations – percentage of students staying in education or employment after key stage 4
• Attainment in English and maths – percentage of pupils achieving a grade 5 or above in GCSE English and maths
• Attainment 8 score

Key stage 5 (16 to 18)

If you have a sixth form, you should publish the following details from your 16 to 18 performance tables page school or college’s most recent key stage 5 (16 to 18) performance measures as published by the Secretary of State (for most schools, the performance measures published for the 16 to 18 accountability headline measures 2018 to 2019 academic year):

• progress
• attainment
• English and mathematics progress
• retention
• destinations

Performance tables

If you’re an academy or college, you should publish a link to the school and college performance tables and your school or college’s performance tables page.

Curriculum

Academies should publish:

• the content of the curriculum your school follows in each academic year for every subject, including for mandatory subjects such as Religious Education, even if it’s taught as part of another subject or subjects or is called something else
• your approach to the curriculum should also include how you are complying with your duties in the Equality Act 2010 and the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014 about making the curriculum accessible for those with disabilities or special educational needs
• how parents or other members of the public can find out more about the curriculum your school is following
• how you meet the 16 to 19 study programme requirements (if you have a sixth form or offer education at 16 to 19)

Depending on what phase of education your school offers, we recommend you also publish any of the following that apply to your school:

• the names of any phonics or reading schemes you are using in key stage 1
• a list of the courses available to pupils at key stage 4, including GCSEs
• the 16 to 19 qualifications you offer

Behaviour policy

Academies should publish details of the school’s behaviour policy, including their anti-bullying strategy. Read guidance on developing and publishing your school’s behaviour policy.

It’s good practice for FE colleges to also publish this information.

Pupil premium

If your school receives pupil premium funding, your funding agreement will state what information you need to publish about it. DfE has published templates to support schools in presenting 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.

For the current academic year, you must include:

• your school’s pupil premium grant allocation amount
• a summary of the main barriers to educational achievement faced by eligible pupils at the school
• how you’ll spend the pupil premium to overcome those barriers and the reasons for that approach
• how you’ll measure the effect of the pupil premium
• the date of the next review of the school’s pupil premium strategy

For the previous academic year, you must include:

• how you spent the pupil premium allocation
• the effect of the expenditure on pupils

We understand that evaluating the pupil premium’s impact in the 2019 to 2020 academic year will present difficulties as a result of reduced numbers of pupils having attended between March and July 2020.

Instead, schools may wish to monitor and report on the grant’s impact at the end of the current financial year, bearing in mind their duty to update this information at least annually, covering the whole period since September 2019.

Year 7 literacy and numeracy catch-up premium

If your school has received year 7 literacy and numeracy catch-up premium funding for the 2019 to 2020 academic year, you must publish:

• details of how you spent your allocation for that year
• how your use of that allocation made a difference to the attainment of the pupils who benefit from the funding

As final payments of the Year 7 catch-up premium were made in relation to the 2019 to 2020 academic year, the 2020 to 2021 academic year will be the last year on which schools must report how this funding was used.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) catch-up premium

If your school gets the coronavirus (COVID-19) catch-up premium grant in academic year 2020 to 2021, you should publish details of:

• how it is intended that the grant will be spent
• how the effect of this expenditure on the educational attainment of those pupils at the school will be assessed

There’s further information on the coronavirus (COVID-19) catch-up premium.

PE and sport premium for primary schools

If your school receives PE and sport premium funding, your grant funding agreement will explain what information you must publish. It’s likely that you’ll have to include:

• the amount of premium received
• a full breakdown of how it has been spent
• the impact the school has seen on pupils’ PE and sport participation and attainment
• how the improvements will be sustainable in the future
• the percentage of pupils within their year 6 cohort that can do each of the following:
  • 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 situation

Equality objectives

As public bodies, academies and FE institutions 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 disabilities (SEND)

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

Academies and colleges should publish information about their careers programme. This information should relate to the delivery of careers guidance to year 8 to 13 pupils (12 to 18-year olds) and any requirement set out in your funding agreement to deliver careers guidance. For the current academic year, you should include:

• the school or college’s Careers Leader’s name, email address and telephone number
• 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 or college measures and assesses the impact of the careers programme on pupils
• the date of the school or college’s next review of the information published

Read the statutory guidance for schools on careers guidance and access for education and training providers, or guidance for further education colleges and sixth-form colleges on careers guidance, for more information.

The statutory guidance for schools also contains further information about a policy statement that academies must publish to comply with section 42B of the Education Act 1997, commonly known as the ‘Baker Clause’. 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 policy

We recommend that all academies and colleges publish their complaints policy online.

If you’re an academy, FE or sixth-form college, we recommend that you publish your whistleblowing policy online.

Academies must publish any arrangements for handling complaints from parents of children with special educational needs about the support provided by the school.

Annual reports and accounts

Academies

You should publish the following financial information about your school:

• annual report
• annual audited accounts
• memorandum of association
• articles of association
• names of charity trustees and members
• funding agreement

You can find more guidance about these in the Academies financial handbook.

FE and sixth-form colleges

Colleges should publish their instruments and articles of government on their website.

They should also publish their annual members’ report and audited financial statement every year.

Executive pay

You must publish how many employees have a gross annual salary and benefits of £100,000 or more. You should publish these figures in £10,000 increments. More details are included in paragraph 2.32 of the Academies financial handbook.

Trustees’ information and duties

Academies

Academy trusts must publish accessible and up to date details of governance arrangements. Find more on what you need to publish about your academy and its board of trustees in the Academies financial handbook (paragraphs 2.49 to 2.50).

FE and sixth-form colleges

You should publish the following details about your college’s governing body:

• the governing body’s structure and responsibilities
• details of any committees
• the names of all governors, including the Chair

You may wish to simply publish your governors’ handbook, which should include all this information.

Charging and remissions policies

Academies should publish their 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

Values and ethos

Academies and colleges should publish a statement of their ethos and values.

Requests for copies

You should provide a paper copy of the information on your website if a parent requests one.

Published 30 June 2016
Last updated 12 November 2020 + show all updates

1. 12 November 2020

   Added new sections on ‘Coronavirus (COVID-19) catch-up premium’ and ‘Executive pay’. Updated sections on ‘Admission arrangements’, ‘Ofsted reports’, ‘Exam and assessment results’, ‘Curriculum’, ‘Pupil premium’, ‘Year 7 literacy and numeracy catch-up premium’, ‘Coronavirus (COVID-19) catch-up premium’, ‘PE and sport premium for primary schools’, ‘Equality objectives’ and ‘Special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)’.

2. 25 October 2018

   Added additional clarification in line with regulations to the SEN section.

3. 24 May 2018

   Updated policy for content on academy websites.

4. 16 June 2017

   Updated guidance for the current academic year.

5. 30 June 2016

   First published.