The School Website
Requirements Guide 2024

“Changes to school website requirements were updated on May 15th, 2024 and small text changes on July 19, 2024. This is the biggest round of changes to requirements we have seen in a number of years.”

“KEY ACTION for 2024: Review everything from start to finish using the resources, tools and support available to you and ensure your website is in great shape at all times. DO NOT wait until you’re in the inspection window. Peace of mind about compliance only comes when you know you are on top of the requirements.”

Last updated for October 24, 2024

The very latest strategies for highly effective school website compliance are focused on how you effectively use your website to get ahead of an inspection by evidencing how you do what you say you do.

BUT, the single most important thing to remember is that if you wait until you’re approaching an inspection, this work will be much harder.

Are you demonstrating the quality of education in your school through your school website?

That is now what the very best schools are doing and it isn’t as hard as you might think. Think about what you say you do in a particular area of school life. Then listen to parents, students and teachers to get their opinion. Then provide evidence on your school website of this in action. Repeat this process for everything you do. As a result they don’t worry about inspections.

Our in-house experts have access to DfE contacts, Multi Academy Trust Directors and hundreds of schools using the School Website Requirements Software. The hard truth? Inspectors are looking for much more than just a completed checklist.

So, before we get to the detailed checklist that outlines and explains all the required content for your school or college website here’s our top 5 tips to take your website beyond the statutory requirements for 2024.

Wow! That’s quite a statement. Well, it’s direct from the horses mouth as it is a mantra that inspectors follow. Your school website sets the tone for your inspection and is your greatest opportunity to avoid unnecessary questions and headaches.

If, by and large, you had a clear rigour and precisness to your approach to everything you do any small issues will not be a concern. If that’s not the case, then inspectors will keep pulling on any thread they find.

This is a requirement that we always include. The thing is, it’s still an issue on lots of websites. We all know, very well, the frustration of struggling to find information on a website. Ofsted Inspectors are no different.

One inspector told us that if he cannot find what he is looking for in 10 minutes he will give up. Think about how long 10 minutes is to spend looking around a website for a specific item. That’s a LONG time!

What’s the top tip here? Be sure you know where your statutory content is and make it very easy to find.

Read our Definitive guide to School Website Structure.

Safeguarding is Ofsted’s number one priority. Rightly so. When inspectors visit your website for they come to school they are looking for an immediate, clear picture of how you approach safeguarding and whether or not you treat it as your highest concern.

If you so much as have an out-of-date safeguarding policy on your website – that’s an instant leadership and management issue.

If you know you have an inspection looming and you want to make the best possible changes quickly. Get this sorted – today!

Read more here

All too often, we see examples of school websites that have out of date content and a variety of statutory content added in all manner of formats.

It is so important it is to figure out a process and a schedule for checking your website. What’s more, if you set reminders for when you need to update specific policies and content, you will be able to rest assured that all is in hand.

You will find things so much easier if you do. If you don’t know where to start, consider The School Website Compliance Software that is available as a standalone package or as part of any school website from Schudio.

Changes to the statutory requirements can crop up at any time of year. Furthermore, it’s not unheard of these days for a requirement to be added but not appear on the list of ‘what schools must publish online’; take safeguarding for example.

It’s really important to have a plan in place to ensure you stay fully aware of the latest requirements all year round. Using this guide is the best place to start.

Our experts stay current all year round and provide ongoing support and advice – your best next step is to check out the learning opportunities and tools we offer to support you.

Trusts have the opportunity to save enormous amounts of time and increase awareness of compliance across the trust by centralising all compliance efforts.

The Schudio MAT Portal has been developed to give you the assurance and support needed to easily navigate website compliance and give time back to all your school leaders.

MAT PORTAL BENEFITS

• Ofsted Audit Tool: A split screen shows your website alongside a checklist of compliance actions with toggle switches. Strategic reports are then automatically generated.
• One Platform, Everything Managed: Manage Ofsted compliance, all policies and documents across the trust in one place; update policy once and it updates on ALL websites.
• Reduced workload: Free up staff time with features like centralised reporting and policy update prompts.
• Expert Compliance Support: Get bespoke advice from our compliance, design and marketing professionals whenever you need it.
• Works with any website provider: Don’t worry if your schools use different website providers, MAT Portal works with them all.
• Centralised Management for Website Clients: choose Schudio as your website provider across the trust and control ALL content across ALL sites from your MAT Portal.

We’re committed to supporting your trust in achieving and maintaining exemplary standards of website compliance with ease.

To discuss how the MAT Portal can immediately impact compliance across your trust, get in touch with our team.

Displaying policies and documents on your school website may not be the most exciting content to display, but it’s really important to get it right consistently. Statutory content doesn’t generally need to be updated as frequently as other areas on your website, such as news or your blog. But, it does have to stand the test of time. Visitors will be looking at the same policy page until your website gets re-designed (probably about 3 years) so making sure this page looks and functions correctly is important.

An important note – make sure you include any relevant legislation in the introduction to each of your policies where you are instructed to reference it. You’d be amazed how often this is missing!

Displaying Policies

Group your policies into categories and display them on your page, rather than one long list of documents for a visitor to scan through. Add some sort of styling to the page, even something as simple as an icon next to the file-name will break up the content and make it easier to use.

Also, think about the functionality you offer visitors. It’s quite nice to include specific links for downloading and printing policies, and if you can include an in-page preview of the document that’s a brilliant approach. This has the benefit of not taking your visitors away from the page, rather offering readily accessible content directly within the page (Ofsted says this is compulsory with some content).

The Schudio Solution

We offer a whole unique and powerful module for managing documents called Document Groups. Upload a file, provide details of the name and add it to the page. Create as many groups of documents as you need, drop them anywhere on your website. You can even drop them in multiple locations and when you update, for example your SEND policy, it will update in every location on your website.

For Multi-Academy Trusts, this can be used across all websites, no matter who your provider is for each school so that you can effectively manage your policy content from one place for all your websites.

Get in touch to find out more.

The sections below contain all the latest requirements so you’ll have everything that is expected of your school website fully covered before Ofsted arrive. If you need any help or advice, as you work your way through this school website checklist, let us know.

You can schedule a free call anytime!

This checklist for Schools and Colleges details all content to be included on your website as indicated by the Department for Education. This checklist is best used in conjunction with The School Website Compliance Software or any Schudio School Website Design Package.

September Admissions – normal point of entry
By 15 March each year, the school or trust must publish on its website:

• The admission arrangements for children who will be starting school at the normal point of entry in September of the following year. It must retain them there for the whole of the academic year in which offers for places are made.

The admission arrangements must explain:

• How the trust considers applications for places in each relevant age group (that is, the age group in which children are normally admitted to its schools
• How many children the trust intends to admit in each relevant age group (known as the published admission number, or PAN)
• What a parent or carer needs to do if they want to apply for their child to attend one of the trust’s schools
• How the trust allocates places if there are more applicants than places available

Where applicable, the school or trust must also explain how:

• Children applying to a selective school are selected for a place
• A parent or carer of a primary-age child can request that a school delay or defer their child’s entry to reception, and the process for requesting admission outside the normal age group
• Many external applicants a school intends to admit into the sixth form

In-year admissions
By 31 August each year, the school or trust must publish:

• How it will manage in-year applications for places (that is, applications for places in the middle of a school year, or to start in the September of a year which is not the normal point of entry).

If the trust manages those applications, it must provide:

• An application form
• Supplementary information, if necessary

If the local authority manages those applications, the school or trust must publish a link to the in-year application coordination scheme

Admission appeals

• By 28 February each year, the school or trust must publish a timetable setting out how it will organise and hear admission appeals.

This timetable must:

• Include a deadline that allows a parent or carer at least 20 school days from the date of notification that their application was unsuccessful to prepare and lodge a written appeal

include reasonable deadlines for:

• A parent or carer to submit additional evidence
• Admission authorities to submit their evidence
• The clerk to send appeal papers to the panel and parties
• Ensure that a parent or carer lodging an appeal receives at least 10 school days’ notice of their appeal hearing
• Ensure that decision letters are sent within 5 school days of the hearing, wherever possible

Further guidance is available in the school admission appeals code.

What 16 to 19 academies and FE colleges should publish

16 to 19 academies and FE colleges should publish their admission arrangements.
The school admissions and appeals codes do not apply to these settings.

• By the September of the academic year before the one in which they will apply, 16 to 19 academies and FE colleges should publish their arrangements. Parents, carers and young people will use these to make an informed choice, so they should remain unchanged during that year.

The admission arrangements should include details of:

• The open days planned
• How to apply for a place
• Whether the 16 to 19 academy or FE college gives priority to applications from pupils enrolled at particular schools

What community and voluntary-controlled schools must publish

• Community and voluntary-controlled schools must publish a link to the local authority’s website for parents and carers who wish to find out about the school’s admission and appeal arrangements. It is the local authority that manages both processes.

What academy trusts must publish

• Academy trusts must publish their audited annual report and accounts on their website by 31 January each year. Guidance is available in the academy trust handbook.

What FE colleges must publish

• By 31 January each year, FE colleges must publish their annual report and audited financial statements in an easily accessible location on their website and retain them there for 2 years.

What schools must publish

• Schools must publish their behaviour policy. It must comply with section 89 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006.

What academies must publish

• Academies must publish their behaviour policy, including their anti-bullying strategy. Guidance on developing and publishing a behaviour policy is available.

What FE colleges should publish

• FE colleges should publish their behaviour policy, including their anti-bullying strategy.

What all secondary schools, secondary academies, 16 to 19 academies and FE colleges must publish

• All listed schools above must publish a policy statement to comply with section 42B of the Education Act 1997, known as the ‘provider access legislation’. This statement must set out the circumstances in which they will give providers of technical education and apprenticeships access to year 8 to 13 pupils, as applicable.

For the current academic year, this must include:

• The name and contact details of their careers lead
• A summary of the careers programme, including details of how young people, parents, carers, teachers and employers can access information about it
• How the academy or college measures and assesses the programme’s impact on young people
• The date by which it will review this information

Statutory guidance on providing careers guidance is available.

What schools and academies must publish

Schools and academies must publish their:

• Charging policy, giving details of activities for which they will charge parents and carers
• Remissions policy, giving details of the circumstances in which they will wholly or partly waive any charge they would otherwise expect parents and carers to pay

What maintained schools must publish

• Schools must publish their complaints policy to comply with section 29 of the Education Act 2002. The best practice guidance supports them to set up and review their complaints procedures.
• They must also publish the details of any arrangements for handling complaints from parents and carers about the support they provide for children with special educational needs and disability (SEND). They must do this as part of their SEN information report.

What academy schools and trusts must make available

• All academies and trusts (with the exception of 16-19 academies) must have a complaints procedure that meets the requirements in the standard at the Education (Independent School Standards (England) Regulations 2014 Schedule 1, Part 7. The complaints procedure must be available to parents and carers of children attending an academy.

What academy schools must publish

• Academy schools must publish the details of any arrangements for handling complaints from parents and carers about the support they provide for children with special educational needs and disability (SEND). They must do this as part of their SEN information report.

What academy trusts and FE colleges must publish

• Academy trusts must publish details of their whistleblowing procedure.
• FE colleges must publish their whistleblowing policy and regularly review it.

What all schools must publish

All schools must publish:

• Their postal address
• Their telephone number
• The name of the member of staff who deals with queries from parents and carers, and the public

What mainstream maintained and academy schools must publish

• Mainstream schools must also publish the name and contact details of their special educational needs co-ordinator.

What academy schools and FE colleges should publish

• The name of their headteacher or principal
• The name and contact details of the chair of their governing body, if applicable
• The contact details of their academy trust and a link to its website, if applicable

What all schools must publish

All schools must publish:

• The content of the curriculum in each academic year for every subject, including mandatory subjects such as religious education (RE) – this applies even if it is taught as part of another subject or known by another name
• Information to make parents and carers aware they have the right to withdraw their child from all or part of RE
• How parents, carers or other members of the public can find out more about the curriculum
• An accessibility plan that sets out how, over time, they will increase the extent to which disabled pupils participate in the curriculum

What schools with key stage 1 provision must publish

• Schools with key stage 1 provision must publish a list of any phonics or reading schemes they use.

What schools with key stage 4 provision must publish

• Schools with key stage 4 provision must publish a list of the key stage 4 courses they offer, including GCSEs.

Where relevant:

• 16 to 19 qualifications they offer

What all schools should publish

• Alongside the content of their music curriculum, all schools are expected to publish information about their music development plan. A template is available to support with this.

What all academies must publish

• Academies must publish their policy on relationships education or relationships and sex education. They should consult parents and carers when developing and reviewing it. It must meet pupils’, parents’ and carers’ needs, and reflect the community the academy serves.

What academies with 16 to 19 provision should publish

• Academies with 16 to 19 provision should also publish information on how their curriculum meets the 16 to 19 study programme requirements.

What schools, academies and FE colleges should publish

• Publish a statement of their ethos and values

What academy trusts must publish

• Academy trusts must publish the number of employees whose salary and related benefits exceeded £100,000 during the previous academic year ended 31 August. They must present this information in:
  • An easily accessible form
  • £10,000 bandings

The requirements to publish financial information are set out in the academy trust handbook.

What FE colleges must publish

• FE colleges must publish in their annual accounts the salaries of higher-paid staff, in line with the college accounts direction.

What schools must publish

Schools must publish:

• The number of their employees, if any, whose gross annual salary exceeds £100,000, presenting this information in £10,000 bandings – DfE recommends using a table to display this
• A link to the dedicated webpage for their school on the schools financial benchmarking service.

What maintained schools must publish

Maintained Schools publish information on the governing body in line with the constitution of governing bodies of maintained schools statutory guidance.

What maintained schools should publish

Schools should publish information about the structure and remit of the governing body and any committees, including the full names of their chairs.

• their full names
• the date they were appointed
• their term of office
• the date they stepped down, where this applies
• who appointed them, in accordance with the governing body’s instrument of governance
• their attendance record at governing body and committee meetings over the last academic year

Schools should publish governors’ relevant business, financial and pecuniary interests, including:

• governance roles in other educational institutions
• any material interests arising from relationships between governors or relationships between governors and school staff, including spouses, partners and close relatives

Schools should also publish this information for associate members, and whether they have voting rights on any committee they have been appointed to.

DfE also encourages schools to publish easily accessible data about the diversity of:

• their board
• any associated committees

There is no prescriptive way to collect this data, but schools may choose to follow a similar approach to that they use to collate the diversity data of pupils.

Board or committee members can opt out of sharing their information, such as protected characteristics, including after the data has been published.

Schools must ensure that individuals cannot be identified, which may be a particular issue when board or committee member levels are low. Guidance on the Equality Act 2010 and data protection in schools is available.

What academy trusts must publish

Academy trusts must publish the following in an easily accessible format on their website:

• A memorandum of association
• Their articles of association
• The names of trust members and academy trustees
• The relevant business and financial interests of members, trustees, local governors and accounting officers
• Their funding agreement
• Any supplemental funding agreement
• Up-to-date details of governance arrangements

Further guidance is available in the academy trust handbook.

What academy trusts should publish

DfE encourages academy trusts to publish easily accessible data about the diversity of:

• Their board
• Any associated committees

There is no prescriptive way to collect this data, but trusts may choose to follow a similar approach to that they use to publish the diversity data of pupils.

Board or committee members can opt out of sharing their information, such as protected characteristics, including after the data has been published.

Trusts must ensure that individuals cannot be identified, which may be a particular issue when board or committee member levels are low. Guidance on the Equality Act 2010 and data protection in schools is available.

What FE colleges must publish

FE colleges must publish the following:

• Their submitted annual accountability statement (part 2) within 3 months of the start of the academic year –that is, by 1 December
• regular reviews of how well the education or training provided by the college meets local needs, in particular, those related to employment
• A statement in their annual report on the development of governors and governance professionals
• They should publish a summary of the outcomes of their external governance review and the associated action plan (at least every 3 years, with updates following the annual governance self-assessment).

What FE colleges should publish

FE colleges should publish the following:

• Their governing body’s structure and responsibilities
• Details of any committees
• The names of the chair and governors
• Information on governor recruitment, such as selection procedures and the work of any search committee

They may wish simply to publish their governors’ handbook, which should include all of this information.

They should also publish their instrument and articles of government.

DfE encourages FE colleges to make an energy and carbon reporting disclosure equivalent to that set out in the Companies (Directors’ Report) and Limited Liability Partnerships (Energy and Carbon Report) Regulations 2018. Guidance is available in the college accounts direction.

What schools and academies should publish

All schools and academies should publish either a:

• Copy of their most recent Ofsted report, or
• Link to the report on the Ofsted website

What schools, academy trusts, academies and FE colleges with 250 or more employees must publish

Schools with 250 or more employees must, in line with the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017:

• Report their gender pay gap information to the government via the gender pay gap service
• Publish this information in a prominent place on their website within one year of their ‘snapshot date’, which, for most public authority employers, will be 31 March

Statutory guidance on the gender pay gap information employers must report is available.

What schools, academy trusts, academies and FE colleges with 250 or more employees may wish to publish

Most public authority employers, including schools, do not need to publish a written statement on their public-facing website.

However, schools with 250 or more employees may wish to publish:

• A supporting narrative to explain their gender pay gap
• An action plan that sets out how they plan to address it

What schools, academy trusts, academies and FE colleges with fewer than 250 employees should publish

Schools with fewer than 250 employees:
are not required to comply with the regulations, but should give serious consideration to the business benefits of doing so

Guidance on who counts as an employee is available.

For schools interested in looking at their ethnicity pay gap, guidance for employers on voluntary ethnicity pay reporting is also available.

What all schools with primary-aged pupils must publish

Schools that receive PE and sport premium funding must publish, by 31 July each year:

• The amount of premium received
• A full breakdown of how it has been or will be spent
• The impact seen by the school on pupils’ participation and attainment in PE and sport
• How this improvement will be sustained

By 31 July each year, all schools are required to publish the percentage of pupils in their year 6 cohort who have met the national curriculum requirement to::

• Swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres
• Use a range of strokes effectively – for example, front crawl, backstroke and breaststroke
• Perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations

Further guidance is available in the conditions of grant document.

If a school downloads a copy of its digital form return and uses this as its published report, it must ensure the form is converted to HTML format. This is to meet accessibility requirements.

What schools, academies and FE colleges must publish

Schools must publish:

• Details of how they comply with the public sector equality duty, updating this every year
• Their equality objectives, updating these at least every 4 years

The Equality Act 2010: advice for schools provides guidance on how schools can show they have complied, as required by the Equality Act 2010 and the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017.

What FE colleges should publish

FE colleges should publish:

• An annual equality, diversity and inclusion review, including data on protected characteristics at these levels:
  • Board
  • Executive leadership
  • Staff
  • Student
• The actions taken to address disparities

What schools must publish

Schools that receive pupil premium funding must publish a strategy statement on their school website by 31 December each year.

It must explain:

• How the school’s pupil premium funding is being spent
• The education outcomes being achieved for disadvantaged pupils

Schools must publish the statement in the DfE template provided on the pupil premium guidance page.

DfE recommends that schools plan their pupil premium spending over 3 years. If they do so, they must still update their statement annually to reflect:

• Their spending activity for the current academic year
• The impact of pupil premium in the previous academic year

What academies must publish

Academies that receive pupil premium funding must publish a strategy statement on their school website by 31 December each year.

It must explain:

• How the academy is spending its pupil premium funding
• The education outcomes which disadvantaged pupils are achieving

Academies must publish their statement in the DfE template provided on the pupil premium guidance page.

DfE recommends that academies plan their pupil premium spending over 3 years. If they do so, they must still update their statement annually to reflect:

• Their spending activity for the current academic year
• The impact of pupil premium in the previous academic year

What schools and academies must publish

• Schools should publish information about their remote education provision.

What all schools and academies should publish

• Official start time of the compulsory school day
• Official end time of the compulsory school day
• Total time this amounts to in a typical week, including breaks but not after-school activities

What all schools and academies should publish

• Schools whose pupils are required to wear a uniform should publish an easily understandable policy on their website, in line with statutory guidance on the cost of school uniforms.

It should include information about:

• Optional or required items
• Items that will be worn only at certain times of year (for example, winter or summer uniform)
• Items that must be branded or can be generic
• Whether items can be bought only from a specific retailer or more widely
• Where second-hand uniform can be purchased

What all schools and academies must publish

• Schools must publish an SEN information report. It should be updated annually and any changes to the information occurring during the year should be updated as soon as possible.

To comply with section 69 of the Children and Families Act 2014, the report must contain:

• The SEN information specified in Schedule 1 to the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014 – statutory guidance is available in paragraphs 6.79 to 6.82 of the SEND code of practice: 0 to 25 years

additional information about the:

• Arrangements for the admission of disabled pupils
• Steps the school has taken to prevent disabled pupils from being treated less favourably than other pupils
• Facilities it provides to help disabled pupils access the school

accessibility plan it has prepared under paragraph 3 of Schedule 10 to the Equality Act 2010 to:

• Increase the extent to which disabled pupils can participate in the curriculum
• Improve the physical environment to increase the extent to which disabled pupils can take advantage of the educational benefits, facilities or services provided or offered
• Improve the way disabled pupils can access information that is easily accessible to pupils who are not disabled

What all schools, academies and college must publish

• All maintained schools must, while academies should, publish a link to the compare school and college performance service and to their own performance measures page on it.

Key stage 2

• All maintained primary schools with key stage 2 pupils must, while all academies should publish their most recent key stage 2 performance measures, as published by the Secretary of State, comprising:

• The percentage of their pupils who achieved the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (combined)
• The percentage of their pupils who achieved a higher standard in reading, writing and maths (combined)

their pupils’ average scaled score in:

• Reading
• Maths

It will not be possible to calculate key stage 1 to key stage 2 progress measures for the 2023 to 2024 or 2024 to 2025 academic years. There is no key stage 1 baseline available to calculate primary progress measures for these years because of Covid-19 disruption.

For the 2023 to 2024 academic year, academies do not have to publish progress scores in reading, writing or maths, as the Secretary of State is not publishing these.

Key stage 4

• All maintained schools with key stage 4 pupils must publish their most recent key stage 4 performance measures, as published by the Secretary of State, comprising:
• Their Progress 8 score
• The percentage of their pupils achieving a grade 5 or above in GCSE English and GCSE maths (combined)
• Their Attainment 8 score
• They should also publish:
• The percentage of their pupils staying in education or going into employment after key stage 4
• The percentage of their pupils who were entered for the English Baccalaureate (EBacc)
• Their EBacc average point score (APS)

• Academies with key stage 4 pupils should publish their most recent key stage 4 performance measures, as published by the Secretary of State, comprising:
• Their Progress 8 score
• The percentage of their pupils achieving a grade 5 or above in GCSE English and GCSE maths (combined)
• Their Attainment 8 score
• The percentage of their pupils staying in education or going into employment after key stage 4
• The percentage of their pupils who were entered for the English Baccalaureate (EBacc)
• Their EBacc average point score (APS)

Key stage 5 (16 to 18)

• Secondary Schools with Sixth Forms must, while academies and FE colleges with students aged 16 to 18 and secondary schools with sixth forms should publish their most recent 16 to 18 performance measures, as published by the Secretary of State, comprising their students’ headline:
  • Progress (Value Added) Measures
  • Attainment measures
  • Retention measures
  • Destination measures

They do not have to publish value added measures for the 2022 to 2023 academic year, as the Secretary of State is not publishing these.

They do not have to publish English and maths progress measures for the 2022 to 2023 or 2023 to 2024 academic years, as the Secretary of State is not publishing these.

Pre-inspection planning will be informed by analysis of information on the school’s website including the presence and suitability of the safeguarding guidance

• Include suitable safeguarding guidance on your school website. The child protection policy should describe procedures which are in accordance with government guidance and refer to locally agreed multi-agency safeguarding arrangements put in place by the three safeguarding partners.
• Individual schools and colleges should ensure they have an effective child protection policy. This should be updated annually (as a minimum), and be available publicly either via the school or college website or by other means.

We would love to train you and  provide you with the tools you need to keep your website compliant all year round. We have audited  1000s of UK school websites and are the leading experts in keeping your website compliant. Use the link below to find out more about our services.