Explanatory note

These Regulations revoke and replace, with amendments, the Education (School Information) (England) Regulations 1996.

They relate to information to be published by maintained schools and local education authorities. For the purposes of these Regulations, “maintained school” means a county or voluntary school, a special school maintained by a local education authority which is not established in a hospital, and a grant-maintained school or a grant-maintained special school not established in a hospital.

Statutory references in the Regulations have been updated to reflect the provisions of the Education Act 1996. There are also minor drafting changes.

The main substantive changes to the Regulations relate to information to be included in the school prospectus. The amount of the information to be included is reduced.

There are a few minor changes to the information to be included in the prospectus relating to key stages one, two and three. These include information about spelling at key stage one and attainment targets in English at key stage two (paragraphs 9, 10 and 11 of Schedule 2).

In the case of a school with registered pupils aged 15, the prospectus is now to include particulars in relation to a Part One GNVQ (“GNVQ” means a General National Vocational Qualification), an Intermediate GNVQ or a Foundation GNVQ and a GNVQ Language Unit, awarded by the EDEXCEL Foundation. As before, information as to any National Vocational Qualification, or units of such a qualification, the Diploma of Vocational Education of the City and Guilds of London Institute and the Initial Awards of the Royal Society of Arts Examination Board is still to be included (paragraph 12 of Schedule 2).

If it appears requisite to a governing body of a school or a local education authority that the documents they publish should be available in a braille or audio tape version, they must produce it in such a form. This is in addition to the existing provision with respect to the translation of documents into a language other than English (regulation 14(3)).

By way of transitional provision, where a governing body have already published the annual prospectus before the commencement of these Regulations, they are not required to publish a further annual prospectus by virtue of these Regulations in that school year (regulation 15).