Dataset details: CRDA/13/DS/5/1995

This dataset comprises data gathered from all schools in England during the Schools' Census conducted by the Department for Education in 1995. The enumeration date was the third Thursday in January, 19 January 1995. Most of the data reflects the position in schools on that date, though some questions required schools to supply data for different periods. For example, primary and secondary schools were asked to give the numbers of teaching staff and the hours worked by non-teaching staff during the week beginning 16 January 1995.

The arrangement of the 1995 dataset shows the start of a new method used by the Department for analysing the Schools' Census data. Further information on this change is given in the Subseries catalogue. There are no longer separate datafiles for each school type. The second main difference is the introduction of certain new classification fields. These include the field AGE for pupil age range in Pupils 1995; COURSE for type of course of study in Courses of study 1995; TCHRTYP for type of teacher in Teaching staff 1995; ASCODE2 for category of support staff in Non-teaching staff 1995; and CTYPE for Class Type in Classes as taught 1995. These fields enable much greater flexibility in the querying and analysis of the data than has been the case with previous datasets. They have also tended to reduce the number of required fields.

The 1995 dataset contains the following types of data in six tables:

(1) All Schools 1995

This table contains data on the school, pupils, classes, and teaching staff.

• Data on the school: Its LEA and region; the type of school; Form 7 school type, school group and school type indicator; the status code of the school, which indicates the form of its governance; any denominational affiliation of the school; the sex of the school (boys, girls or mixed); and the status and organisation of special schools.
• Data on pupils: numbers of pupils on the registers of schools on the enumeration date by sex, by whether pupils were full-time or part-time, and by age at 31 August 1994.
• Numbers of pupils dually registered in special schools. These were pupils whose lesson time was split between a mainstream primary or secondary school and a special school.
• Numbers of pupils in nursery classes in primary schools.
• Numbers of pupils solely registered, ie they were not on the register of another school. (This only applied to special schools).
• Numbers of pupils solely registered in nursery classes in primary schools.
• Numbers of boarding pupils, by sex.
• Numbers of sixth form pupils, by sex and year (first or second).
• School meals: numbers of pupils who received free school meals, bought a school meal, brought their own food or had other arrangements; and the numbers of day pupils who were eligible for a free school meal.
• Pupils with statements of special educational needs (SEN), according to their age. In 1995 this section expanded to include pupils with SENs, for whom a statement was NOT maintained, by age. The table also includes dually registered pupils with or without statements, by age, in special and hospital schools.
• Data on teachers: Numbers of qualified teachers, by sex, whether full-time or part-time; totals of full-time and full-time equivalents; and numbers of full-time and part-time teachers with qualifications for SEN. The field PTR expresses the FTE pupil-teacher ratio. More information on Teachers is in the table Teaching staff 1995.
• Data on classes: Hours of lesson time per week Key Stages 1-4.

Further Education Students: this new section was added to the Census in 1995 to ascertain whether any FE students were being taught in schools. A note on how such students were defined was included in the Instructions (see, for example, Instructions for completing the 1995 Form 7 for LEA-maintained primary schools, reference CRDA/13/DD/1/1995/5 in the Dataset Documentation Catalogue). The field records a Yes/No answer, although the Department sent a detailed questionnaire to schools which answered 'yes', as a separate exercise. (The results of this exercise are not part of this dataset).

Parental complaints about the National Curriculum: this new section was added in 1995 to ascertain whether the school received any complaints from parents about the National Curriculum during the school year 1993-1994. Again, schools which answered 'yes' were sent a detailed questionnaire as a separate exercise. (The results of this exercise are not part of this dataset).

The information on National Curriculum Exceptions, added in 1994, was discontinued in 1995.

Information on new admissions to primary, middle and secondary schools was sought on the questionnaires but does not appear to be included in this dataset.

The table also contains a field CLEANDIR, described as a "clean/dirty flag". NDAD have not found an equivalent question on the survey forms. It may relate to the cleanliness of the school premises.

(2) Pupils 1995

This table contains totals of full-time and part-time boy and girl pupils; totals of full-time and part-time boy and girl pupils in nursery classes in primary schools; and data on dually and solely registered pupils. The field AGE, which contains 21 values which correspond to the age ranges as usually set out on the Form 7 forms, may have been introduced to allow greater flexibility in the analysis of the data.

(3) Courses of study 1995

The table contains information on courses of study followed by older pupils for secondary schools (including Independent schools and City Technology Colleges). In 1995 this section of the survey was revised to collect information according to an age breakdown of pupils, rather than according to the year of study. This table shows pupils aged between 16-19 and over on 31 August 1994, analysed by course of study. Types of course (including Post GCE 'A' level, 'A' level, 'AS' level, GCSE, Diploma of Vocational Education, National Vocational Qualification, BTEC Certificates and Diplomas) are in the field COURSE. Again, this field allows for greater flexibility in the analysis of the data than in previous datasets.

(4) Teaching staff 1995

Total numbers of male and female teaching staff, by type of teacher, and whether full-time or part-time; and data on the full-time equivalents of part-time staff. The field TCHRTYP, containing the names of 12 teacher types, allows for greater flexibility in the analysis of the data than in previous datasets.

Information about teachers on long-term paid absence, and relief teachers providing cover for short-term absence, was included on the questionnaires but does not appear to be included in this dataset. The same applies to information concerning advertised teacher vacancies in schools on the census date.

(5) Non-teaching staff

This table does not give total numbers of support staff, but it does provide information on their categories and working hours. The categories of non-teaching staff include educational support staff (eg nursery assistants, special needs support staff, librarians) and administrative/clerical staff (eg secretaries, bursars). These are coded in the field ASCODE2, another example of a field enabling better analysis. For each category of non-teaching staff, the table records the full-time equivalents based on the number of hours worked by staff in the census week.

(6) Classes as taught 1995

Schools were asked to provide information on classes as taught during a selected period on the day of enumeration. The data in this table is analysed by class type, class number, numbers of pupils, numbers of teachers, class size breakdown, and numbers of teachers in class.

The dataset contains a number of derived fields, ie fields whose values were calculated by the Department for Education using information supplied by the school. For example, primary and secondary schools were required to record on their forms the total "directed" hours per week of part-time teaching staff and the hours worked per week by full-time and part-time non-teaching staff; from this the full-time equivalents of staff were calculated by the Department.

For further information on the Schools' Census, see the Series Catalogue.

The files received by NDAD on 13 February 2006 (see Source of acquisition) were in CSV format. The only transformation required was to translate their end-of-line characters from the DOS to the Unix standards.

A QStat data dictionary was also transferred for each of the tables within this dataset, providing descriptions of the fields. These existed in non-encoded, plain text format.

The 1995 dataset, and many of the accompanying pieces of 1995 documentation, are public records and are open without restriction.

Some of the items catalogued as documentation are not public records because they were transferred by private depositors. Pending a review of existing arrangements, these remain closed for 20 years. Further details are in the Dataset Documentation Catalogue.

NDAD holds 67 examples of documentation used in the 1995 Schools' Census. These include blank copies of Form 7 for primary, middle and secondary schools, and City Technology Colleges; Form 7M for LEA-maintained special schools, non-maintained special schools and hospital special schools; Form 7H for general hospital schools; Form 11 for maintained nursery schools and nursery schools in receipt of direct grant; and Form 101A for registered independent schools. NDAD also holds numerous accompanying letters from the Department, Appendices to the forms, and Instructions for completing the forms. See the Dataset Documentation Catalogue, references CRDA/13/DD/1/1995/1-67.

Additional documentation which may be of interest includes a blank copy of Form 7R (Pupil Referral Units) 1995, an accompanying letter, and instructions for completion. However, it is not known if any data gathered using this form is included in the 1995 dataset. See the Dataset Documentation Catalogue, references CRDA/13/DD/1/1995/51-53.

The dataset consists of six tables, the main table SCSC95V4 and five other related tables, SCPU95V2, SCCS95V2, SCTC95V2, SCNT95V2, SCCL95V2. The field names and original field descriptions are taken from a data dictionary which was transferred with the dataset. Fields B2-G19 at the end of table SCSC95V4 were missing field descriptions in the data dictionary so field descriptions for these fields have been deduced by NDAD.

The dataset comprises the following table(s):

It appears that not all the data sought on the survey forms have been entered into the dataset. NDAD has noted some of these missing data where possible, but users should be aware there is not always a direct correspondence between the questions on the forms and the fields in the dataset.

The datasets were transferred with a data dictionary which included original field descriptions. Unlike some tables in this series, the field descriptions for tables in this dataset showed no signs of truncation. Some fields contained abbreviations: explanatory notes have been added by NDAD, using information from other Schools' Census datasets and documentation.

In the Classes as taught table (SCCL95V2), there are 134,696 records where the field CLASS_CATB is not a valid choice. This field holds the actual class size which is also held in the field PUPSIZE. The codes and values in the data dictionary only coded for classes from size 26 to 40, which explains the large number of invalid choices.

There are three records (with record numbers 5605, 17703 and 22398) in the All schools table (SCSC95V4) which contain suspect data. In these records all fields from B2 to G19 contain the value '-3071'.

A number of suspect records were found in the table SCCS95V2. The table states that 2,851 schools offer the International Baccalaureate (COURSE = 22) with each school having 73 pupils on the course. Only one of these schools, with record number 3784, has a breakdown of pupils in fields BTOT and GTOT, and it appears that the rest of the 2,851 records may have spurious data, picked up from record 3784, in the PUPTOT field.

The only transformation required by NDAD was to transform the end-of-line characters from the DOS to the UNIX standards. This has had no effect on the data contained therein.

It was possible for NDAD to compare the converted data with published figures in Statistics of Education: Schools in England 1995, Department for Education. For example, the published Table 2 states that there are 106 LEA maintained secondary schools and 21 grant-maintained secondary schools in Inner London. A query by NDAD on SCSC95V4 specifying LEA = between 201-213 (to include all Inner London boroughs) and PSMO = 2 (Secondary) confirms the 106 LEA maintained secondary schools, and a query where PSMO = 8 (GM Secondary) confirms the figure of 21 grant-maintained secondary schools.

The published Table 3 states that there are 27,635 pupils on the roll at LEA maintained primary schools in Bolton. A query by NDAD on SCSC95V4 specifying LEA = 350 (Bolton) and PSMO = 1 (Primary), then totalling the values in fields BGFT (Total full-time boys and girls) and BGPT (Total part-time boys and girls), confirms the correct number of pupils.

The published Table 8 states that there are 11,836 pupils in all schools aged 5 to 10 in Richmond-upon-Thames. A query by NDAD on SCSC95V4 specifying LEA = 318 (Richmond-upon-Thames), then totalling the values in fields BGFT5 to field BGFT10 confirms the number of pupils.

The published Table 17 states that there are 179 classes with 5,875 pupils in maintained primary schools in Walsall which are taught by 1 teacher where the size of the class is between 31 and 35 pupils. A query by NDAD on SCCL95V2 specifying LEA = 335 (Walsall), CTYPE = 1 (Prim Desig Nursery cl taught by 1 tchr) or 2 (Other Primary classes taught by 1 tchr) and CLASS_CATA = 6 (range 31 - 35 pupils) confirms the 179 classes; and the total of field PUPSIZE confirms the number of pupils.

When comparing the data with statistics on teaching staff, it was not possible to recreate those figures in Statistics of Education for primary, secondary or special schools, although figures for nursery and independent schools did correlate with queries performed on the data at NDAD.