Ensuring that you have an inspection-ready website

Last September, the Department for Education published the latest in a set of guidelines about what information a maintained school must include on its website. Education Business summaries the requirements.

A school’s website is a digital representation of the school. It often provides the first impression to parents, new staff, and even potential pupils. Visually therefore, it has to be attractive and represent the school’s brand and values. But the information it hosts is key.

Parents and staff will visit on a daily basis to get information about the school and its pupils. And last September, the DfE published the latest in a set of guidelines about what information a maintained school must include on its website.

In particular, from September 2015, the DfE made it obligatory for schools to publish details of its governors online. This has to include their duties, details of each governor’s business interests, financial interests, governance roles in other schools, and the structure and responsibilities of the governing body and committees.

The statutory guidelines from the DfE also require a school to publish information on its admissions arrangements. This must explain how it considers applications for every age group, including arrangements for selecting the pupils who apply, its over-subscription criteria, and an explanation of what parents should do to apply. If the website does not publish this information, it must point parents in the direction of its local authority site where they can find admission arrangements.

Special educational needs
A school’s website must publish a report on its policy for pupils with special educational needs (SEN). This must include admission arrangements for pupils with SEN or disabilities, the steps taken to prevent pupils with SEN from being treated less favourably than other pupils, and details of access facilities. It must also include the accessibility plan the governing body has written in compliance with paragraph 3 of schedule 10 to the Equality Act 2010.

Curriculum and exam results
A school’s website must publish the content of the curriculum in each academic year for every subject. It must include the names of any phonics or reading schemes being used in Key Stage 1 (KS1), a list of the courses available to pupils at Key Stage 4 (KS4), including GCSEs, as well as how parents or other members of the public can find out more about the curriculum.

A school’s website must include information on exam results. For Key Stage 2 (KS2) results, information must include the percentage of pupils who achieved level 4 or above in reading, writing and maths; the percentage of pupils who have improved by two or more levels in reading, writing and maths between KS1 and KS2; and the percentage of pupils who achieved level 5 or above in reading, writing, and maths.

Regarding KS4 results, the school must publish on its website the percentage of pupils who achieved grade C or above in GCSEs (or equivalent) in five or more subjects, including English and maths. It must also include the percentage of pupils who achieved the English Baccalaureate, as well as the percentage of pupils who have achieved at least the minimum expected levels of progress in English and maths between KS2 and KS4.

Pupil premium and other funding
A school’s website must publish details of how the school spends its pupil premium funding and the effect this has had on the attainment of the pupils who attract the funding. It must include details on how much funding was received for this academic year and how it will be spent, including reasons and evidence. This information must also include details of how the school spent the pupil premium funding in the last academic year, and how it made a difference to the attainment of disadvantaged pupils.

The funding is allocated for each financial year, but the information you publish online should refer to the academic year, as this is how parents and the general public understand the school year.

As schools won’t know how much funding they’re getting for the latter part of the academic year (from April to July), they should report on the funding up to the end of the financial year and update the information when they have all the figures.

If a school receives PE and sport premium funding, it must publish details of how it spends this funding and the effect it has had on pupils’ PE and sport participation and attainment. This must include how much funding was received for this academic year, as well as a full breakdown of how it was or will be spent. They must also include information on the effect it had on pupils’ PE and sport participation and attainment, and what efforts will be made to make these improvements sustainable.

Likewise, if the school receives Year 7 literacy and numeracy catch-up premium funding, it must publish online details of how it is spent and the effect this has had on the attainment of the pupils who attract it. Details must include how much was received for this academic year, details of how the funding will be spent, details of how funding was spent in the last academic year, and in what ways it has made a difference to the attainment of the pupils who attract the funding.

Other information
A school website must also include information on the school’s charging and remissions policies, including the activities or cases for which the school will charge parents and when it will make an exception on a payment.

Finally, as well as contact details, a school’s website must include a copy of the school’s most recent Ofsted report or a link to it, as well as the school’s behaviour policy, and a statement of the school’s ethos and values. If a parent requests a paper copy of the information on a school’s website, then they must provide it free of charge.

Further Information
www.gov.uk/guidance/what-maintained-schools-must-publish-online