At the start of a busy school term, it can be easy to miss an update from the Department of Education - and even more so when the nation enters a period of mourning that includes closing our school for an extra day at short notice.

However, last week, the DfE issued new guidance to maintained schools about new information they have to include on their website, with some notable new additions.

We provide a quick glance update on the new information that has to be included.

1. School opening hours

The new guidance stipulates that the school opening hours must be displayed on every state school website.

Alongside the opening hours, schools must also display the total time this amounts to in a typical week. By “opening hours”, the guidance says it means opening and closing times of “compulsory” attendance, and this can “include breaks - but not optional before or after school activities”.

This change follows the news earlier this year that all mainstream state-funded schools should be open for a minimum of 32.5 hours a week from September 2023.

2. School uniform

School uniform makes a new appearance on the DfE list of information to include and requires schools to include significant detail regarding their uniform for parents and carers.

The new website guidance reminds leaders of the latest statutory guidance on the cost of school uniforms, published in November last year, with the instruction to publish uniform policies publically.

Now all schools must:

• Clearly state whether an item is optional or required.
• Make clear if the item will only be worn at certain times of the year (for example, if it’s a summer or winter uniform).
• Make clear whether a generic item will be accepted or if a branded item is required.
• Make clear whether an item can only be purchased from a specific retailer or if it can be purchased more widely, including from second-hand retailers.

3. The (partial) return of results

Performance tables have returned following their two-year hiatus during the pandemic when Teacher Assessed Grades and Centre Assessed Grades were used in replacement of public examinations.

This means that, once again, secondary schools are expected to display their most recent examination data on their website.

However, although public examinations returned in 2022, exams were still not quite business as usual. 

For this reason, the updated DfE guidance suggests adding the following sentence to exam data to make it clear to parents why comparisons with other nearby schools should not be undertaken: “Given the uneven impact of the pandemic on school and college performance data, the government has said you should not make direct comparisons between the performance data for one school or college and another, or to data from previous years.”

Primary schools, however, do not need to publish their key stage 2 data for 2022, and instead should display their most recent set of results (in most cases this will be from 2019). The guidance suggests adding this sentence to your results: “The government will not publish KS2 school level data for the 2021 to 2022 academic year. They have archived data from the 2018 to 2019 academic year because they recognise that the data from that year may no longer reflect current performance.”

What other things must be on the website?

Although not new, the guidance from the DfE makes it clear that if a school has a website, in addition to the above, there is a host of other key information that must be available and easy to find that it is worth familiarising yourself with.

Contact details

Including contact details is a no-brainer, but it’s important that schools include everything that the DfE asks them to provide. The list is as follows: school name, postal address, telephone number, name of the member of staff who deals with queries, and name and contact details of the Sendco. 

Admission and appeals details

For prospective parents, it is vital that admission details are included in the details. These admission arrangements must adhere to the admissions code, and should be displayed by 15 March, and then should remain for the entire school year while offers are made.

For more details on school admissions and the appeals process, please see the guidance from the DfE.

Ofsted reports

Although there is no requirement for schools to display “banners” proclaiming their Ofsted grading, every school must publish their most recent Ofsted report, or provide a link to the report on the Ofsted website.

Examination data and performance measures

Secondary schools must display the following information:

• Progress 8 score.
• Attainment in English and maths - the percentage of pupils achieving a grade 5 or above in GCSE English and maths.
• Attainment 8 score.
• English Baccalaureate (EBacc) average point score (APS).

The guidance suggests also publishing:

• The percentage of pupils that enter the EBacc.
• The percentage of pupils staying in education or going into employment after KS4 (pupil destinations).

For schools with sixth forms attached, then the following KS5 data must also be displayed: attainment, retention and destinations. 

Primary schools must publish their KS2 data from the academic year 2018-19, due to the disruptions caused by the pandemic 

All schools must publish a link to their school performance page on the school and college performance measures website.

Curriculum

Every school has its own curriculum written by the senior and middle leaders and then followed by the classroom teachers. 

The guidance asks for this to be published online to allow it to be shared with parents and prospective parents.

However, this doesn’t mean weekly lesson plans or powerpoints need to be uploaded online. Instead, what is expected is the following:

• The content of the curriculum for each academic year and for every subject.
• Names of the phonics or reading schemes used in KS1.
• GCSE, BTEC or any other qualification options in KS4.

As well as the above, schools must give details as to how parents can find out more about the curriculum, and the plans in place in your school’s accessibility plan to increase the extent to which disabled pupils participate in the school’s curriculum. There are more details in the DfE’s special educational needs and disabilities section.

For the full list of what maintained schools must include, the full guidance can be found here.

For the full list of what academies, free schools and colleges must include, the guidance can be found here.