Education Adviser contains key demographic and other data on all schools in England.
We publish data collected in 2009 - the most recent available at this time.
Our data contains several figures:
% eligible for free school meals and % from deprived areas are both indicators of the relative deprivation of pupils in a school. Pupils coming from disadvantaged backgrounds may find it harder to do well at school, so a school which performs well with a high number of disadvantaged pupils is likely to be a very good school.
The "% from deprived areas" is a measure of deprivation based on the postcodes of pupils. Because in certain areas (such as London) rich and poor live so close together, this figure does not always accurately indicate deprivation.
% gifted/ talented is a measure of the proportion of pupils with one or more abilities defined as being in the top 5% nationally or significantly ahead of their peer group. This is a measure of underlying ability, not neccessarily actual achievement in exams etc.
% English NOT first language is a measure of the % of pupils coming from families where English is not spoken at home. This is an indicator of diversity in a school, and also of potential educational challenges for the school and its pupils.
% international/ minorities is a measure of the percentage of non white British pupils and is a good measure of the diversity within a school.
% special needs measures the percentage of pupils needing special educational provision for learning difficulties.
Walk/ cycle to school is the proportion of pupils that use this form of transport to school. It is a good measure of how close most parents live to a school and may indicate whether there is a local community around the school.
Pupil:teacher ratio measures the number of pupils per teacher and is a key measure of the extent of provision within a school. Generally, the ratio will be lower in independent schools, and in schools with a high number of special needs pupils or other challenging educational circumstances.