Sub-series details: CRDA/13/DS/5

The information collected in the Schools' Census continued to reflect the need of the Department to monitor what was happening in schools, and to inform national policy development. Information on class sizes, for example, was used to monitor the Government's pledge to ensure that no child aged between 5-7 would find themselves in a class of more than 30 pupils. Information on pupil numbers was used to provide the contextual information for performance tables and for funding local authorities and schools.

As many government bodies, agencies, educational researchers and commercial organisations found the school data useful, the Department published more information about individual schools derived from these censuses. All published data continued to meet the requirements of the Data Protection Act and no data that could identify an individual would ever be published.

After 1996, new legislation began to affect the range and type of questions in the Schools' Census. The data were collected under Section 29 of the Education Act 1996 and Section 42 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998. Some of the changes that were enacted are outlined in more detail in Scope and content.

The datasets in this sub-series consist of data from the following types of schools, gathered during the Schools' Censuses conducted in the period 1995-2001:

• Primary schools, such as first schools, infants schools, junior schools and junior and infants schools.
• Middle schools, in local education authorities (LEAs) which employed a three-tier system of first, middle and secondary schools. For the purposes of the Schools' Census, middle schools were deemed to be primary or secondary according to the age range of their pupils.
• Secondary schools, such as comprehensive schools, secondary grammar schools, secondary modern schools and technical schools.
• Special schools, which were day or boarding schools for "children with special educational needs who cannot be educated satisfactorily in an ordinary school".
• Hospital schools, which catered for children spending a period in hospital.
• General hospital schools, which were schools not catering specifically for children with statements of special educational needs.
• Nursery schools, which were schools providing education primarily for children under compulsory school age (i.e. under the age of five). Most nursery schools were maintained by local education authorities (LEAs).
• Independent schools, schools not maintained by LEAs or private schools not receiving state funding, and dependent on fees or endowments to cover their expenses.

Unlike previous datasets in this series, whose datafiles were arranged by school type, the Schools' Census for 1995 onwards arranged the data for all school types in a single dataset. The Department confirmed "there was a change to the dataset format in 1995. There were two main reasons for this change: to improve the efficiency of data analysis (not having to run packs from separate datasets for each school type) and to expand the types of available analyses (more flexibility in the level at which data are held - school level; age level; class level; teacher type level etc.). This configuration of the data still continues." 1

This arrangement shows considerable consolidation and simplification compared with other datasets in this series. The main difference is that there are no longer separate datasets for primary, middle and secondary schools, special schools, nursery schools or independent schools. However, despite this consolidation of the data, the method of collection (using separate Forms for each school type) remained the same.

The datasets provide information in the following areas:

(1) Identifying details of the school: such as its LEA and region; the type of school according to two classification schemes ("type of establishment as in Index of Establishments" and "Form 7 type of school code"); and the "status code" of the school, which indicates the form of its governance. By the 2000 Census however, these details had been curtailed to include only the LEA, region and Form 7 school type. Other details include any denominational affiliation of the school; the sex of the pupils (boys, girls or mixed); whether the school had boarding pupils, etc. As in the other Schools' Census sub-series, the name of the school is not included. Within each LEA, schools are identified by their establishment numbers, the key to which is not included in the datasets (for information on how it may be possible to identify schools in the Schools' Census datasets, see the Series Catalogue).

(2) Staff: data on the school's teaching staff by sex, type, and whether full-time or part-time; the full-time equivalent (FTE) of part-time staff; full-time staff plus the full-time equivalent of part-time staff; and pupil:teacher ratios. From 1996, teachers of minority ethnic pupils (who were employed to 'meet the particular needs' of such pupils), and teachers who taught English as a second language, are counted. The school's non-teaching staff are analysed, usually in their own table, by categories and working hours.

From 1996, staff were also expected to log the amount of time they had spent completing the Schools' Census form; this was usually the job of the Head Teacher, but any other staff who had contributed would also have their hours recorded on the form. This data is recorded in the datasets up to 1999, but not for 2000 or thereafter.

(3) Pupils: the numbers of pupils on the registers of the school by age, sex, and whether full-time or part-time; the numbers and sexes of boarding pupils.

All schools (except Independent Schools) were also asked to report on school meal arrangements. After 2000, this information was further broken down to include detail on full-time and part-time pupils, and their age. The 'eligibility' of a pupil for a free school meal was determined by their parents' receipt of income support, a jobseeker's allowance, or other state benefit; it was the legal responsibility of an LEA to provide a school meal to such pupils. See for example the Completion notes for maintained primary schools, reference CRDA/13/DD/1/2001/2 in the Dataset Documentation Catalogue.

From 1996, the ethnicity of pupils began to be recorded, following a change introduced after 19th September 1995. The ethnic categories used for this part of the survey are explained in detail in the various Completion notes documents in the Dataset Documentation Catalogue from 1996 onwards. In 1997, this ethnicity section expanded considerably, in order to gather more detail. The ethnicity monitoring is also reflected in questions about teaching staff from 1996 onwards (see above).

(4) Classes: Hours of lesson time per week Key Stages 1-4; and classes as taught during a selected period on the day of enumeration.

(5) Courses of study: data on pupils aged 15 and over at the previous 31 August analysed by age, sex and course of study (e.g. beyond 'A' level, 'A' level, 'O'/'CSE' level), including pupils not pursuing examination courses.

Additional information is provided in the dataset catalogues: see Links to dataset catalogues.

All of the datasets in this sub-series are open without exception.

The language of the materials is English.

As noted above in Scope and content, the Schools' Census for 1995 onwards arranged the data for all school types in a single dataset. This arrangement is a departure from the previous sub-series in this series, which consisted of separate datasets arranged by school type. The datasets in this sub-series accordingly consist of six related tables (1995-1997) or seven related tables (1998-2001).

Dataset catalogues provide more detailed information about individual datasets, and are currently available for the following dataset(s):

1. E-mail from the Department to NDAD, 17 February 2006.