About the Free School Kit

The Free School Kit is an online map browser that allows users to explore potential sites for their new Free School.

Once an area is selected, it plots the location of other schools within a five-mile radius and gathers data such as pupil attainment, the percentage of pupils eligible for Free School Meals, Ofsted ratings and information about surplus places.

The information comes from a number of public databases, including Edubase, Ofsted and Department for Education statistical releases. Click here for further details of where the data comes from.

How to use the Free School Kit
  1. Open the map browser.
  2. Enter a town or postcode in the 'Go to' box at the top of the screen and press return.
  3. The map will zoom in on your selected area. You may wish to use the magnifying glass icons on the left of the screen to move in closer. You can also click and drag the map to zero in on the area you’re interested in.
  4. Once you’ve found a spot for your prospective Free School, click once to specify the position. It will be marked by a red pin.
  5. Other pins representing existing nearby schools will now appear: blue pins denote primary schools and purple pins denote secondary schools.
  6. Click on each of the schools you’d like to compare. Each will be given a number, which you can use to find it in the statistics bars which appear on the right of the screen.
  7. A new filter bar will appear at the top of the screen where you can choose to look at either primary schools, secondary schools or both. You can also filter the type of establishment from a drop-down list.
  8. If you’d like to start again, click on the ‘reset’ button at the top of the screen to clear your selections.

What you can compare

Where the information comes from

School information

School information is drawn from the Department for Education (DfE) Edubase database.

Academies are not currently included in the data, but will be shortly.

Performance tables

Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 4 data is drawn from performance tables published on the DfE website.

Schools Capacity

Schools Capacity data is drawn from the 2009/10 statistical release published on the DfE website.

Free School Meals

Free School Meals data is drawn from the January 2010 data published on the DfE website.

Ofsted

This data is drawn from Ofsted’s published inspection outcomes.

Vacant Property Space - in development

The vacant property space is is taken from data included on Homes & Communities Agency (HCA) website. These should be used as indications of types of property available. This functionality will be developed further to include all vacant publicly owned property.

If you have any further questions about how we source the data used in the Free School Kit, please contact us using the email link at the foot of the page.

FAQ

A school in my area doesn't seem to be in its exact location. What’s going on?

The longitude and latitude of each school is calculated from their postcode using a series of complex equations. While the location of some schools may not be exact, it should be close enough to provide an accurate picture of local provision – i.e. in some cases a school may appear to be on the other side of the road, or further down the same street. If you spot a school which you think is a long way from its actual position, please let us know.

Why is some of the comparison data missing?

The statistical data for comparison is pulled through from a number of public databases. The data we present accurately mirrors that held on each database, and while the data is as complete as possible and regularly updated, in some cases there are omissions.

Some data, such as Key Stage 2 passes and GCSE passes, only apply to schools in a particular phase of education.

For full details of where each set of data comes from, and how often it is refreshed, see the Where the information comes from section.